Making Assessment Easy
by Drue Bullington
TEACHER GUIDE · K–6
Purpose
Build authentic assessment into joyful music-making so you can see what individual students can actually do without stopping the learning to give a test.
AT A GLANCE
Best for — Teachers who need practical ways to gather individual assessment data during normal music instruction.
Students are — Singing · Moving/Dancing · Playing Instruments
You’ll need — Materials vary by activity; examples include classroom percussion, barred instruments, recorder, and a simple way to record observations.
Focus — Authentic assessment · Individual performance · Singing · Steady beat · Instrument skills · Musical literacy
The resource includes concrete opportunities to assess things like individual singing, rhythmic accuracy, steady beat, drone performance, recorder playing, and decoding—not merely general participation.
WHY CHOOSE THIS RESOURCE?
Assessment doesn't have to mean stopping the music to give a test. Making Assessment Easy shows how games and musical activities can create natural opportunities to hear and observe individual students while the rest of the class remains actively engaged.
Use the included examples as they are, or as models for designing assessments around the music your students are already learning.
NEED A PLACE TO START?
Choose one thing you genuinely need to know.
Instead of trying to assess everything at once, identify one observable musical skill: Can each student maintain a steady beat? Sing independently? Perform a rhythm accurately? Play a drone?
Then look at an activity your students already enjoy and ask: Where could I hear or see that skill individually?
Keep the music going, observe a few students at a time, and record what you notice.
I like that starting point because the resource itself demonstrates how one familiar game can become an “assessment cache”—with different roles revealing individual singing, rhythmic accuracy, steady beat, and instrumental skills.
Ready to use this resource?
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Music Class Rules
by Kate Bright
LESSON · K–6 ADAPTABLE
Purpose
Teach and reinforce music-room expectations through rhythm, speech, movement, and active music-making.
AT A GLANCE
Best for — Establishing or resetting classroom expectations while keeping students actively engaged in music.
Students are — Speaking · Moving/Dancing · Performing Rhythms
You’ll need — Space for movement and the included visuals/slides.
Focus — Classroom expectations · Rhythm · Independence · Ensemble habits
WHY CHOOSE THIS RESOURCE?
Classroom expectations don't have to interrupt the music-making. Music Class Rules turns the rules themselves into musical material, giving students repeated opportunities to hear, speak, move, and perform the expectations while developing rhythmic independence.
I particularly like this framing for the “Classroom management is getting in the way of the music” pathway because we're not promising that one lesson will solve classroom management. We're offering a resource that helps the teacher teach expectations through the work of music class.
NEED A PLACE TO START?
Choose one expectation and teach it musically.
Rather than explaining all of your classroom rules at once, begin with one of the rhythmic rules in the lesson. Model it, invite students to join you, and gradually remove your own voice as they become able to perform it independently.
The goal isn't just for students to know the rule. It's for the expectation to become familiar, memorable, and part of the shared language of your music room.
Ready to use this resource?
Access the complete lesson through the ACEMM Resource Library.
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