Tracking progress of musical learning (including APP)
A spreadsheet (available as a blank template here) can provide teachers with good evidence about the progress of their pupils’ musical learning. It has three essential aspects:
· General information
· Day to day information
· End of unit information
The record of evidence provided by the grid can also be used to indicate standards of work against national curriculum levels
The principles and processes for using the spreadsheet are explained below, with a Word document showing how to fill in the information on the spreadsheet provided here. Please note that this a lengthy document, but it includes essential information: you are strongly advised to read it all!
General information
The left-hand columns identify:
· the pupils’ names
· information about the pupils’ musical interests, participation in additional lessons or ensembles and standards reached: their ‘out of the classroom’ engagement in music that will affect your understanding of their learning.
· the areas of musical learning about which evidence will be gathered (you may need to scroll down the screen to find this information). These are based around the essential aspects of learning as recommended by the model of learning for the new curriculum (see here for more details on planned learning):
Ø musical understanding (the conventions of styles, genres and traditions);
Ø practical skills (the development of performing, composing and reviewing and evaluating);
Ø knowledge of elements (the understanding features of pitch, duration, dynamics, etc.).
The summary letters provide a short-hand way of noting each of these aspects.
Day to day information
The middle section of the grid provides space for the teacher to note ‘learning in progress’.
· Each column can represent a week’s lesson, with dates and learning objectives.
· As lessons progress, any work which is particularly good or particularly weak can be noted against the pupil’s name.
It is important to note that:
· there is no need to write something for every pupil, in every lesson – only record those aspects of learning which are strong or weak. If nothing is noted against a pupil for that lesson one can assume that, by and large, the pupil was meeting the intended learning expectations for that lesson.
· what is recorded may be linked to the learning focus for the lesson (i.e. one pupil in a lesson with a singing focus may have difficulty holding a part), or it may be an unexpected musical surprise (i.e. in a lesson focusing on the textures of film music, a pupil might improvise superbly across a series of chord clusters).
· the recording needs to follow a simple, consistent system showing the aspect of learning (using the short-hand letters from the bottom left-hand section of the grid), and the quality of the work (ideally using numbers from 1 – 5). In the exemplar grid, 5E suggests understanding of a feature of a musical element which is well above expectation, while 1P suggests individual performing which is working towards expectation.
· as part of the consistency there needs to be agreement about whether the notes for each pupil refer to absolute standards (i.e. the expectations of learning set for the lesson) or whether they refer to the pupils’ usual abilities (i.e. showing work stronger or weaker than is normally produced by that pupil).
End of unit information
On the right hand side of the grid there is space to note end-of-unit ‘marks’. These are awarded to each pupil and summarise the evidence of their learning for each planned focus across the whole unit of work. The exact focus and its expectation will be found in the planning. Here they can be summarised at the top of each column by the summary letters used throughout the rest of the grid, and by a short ‘memory-jogging statement’ at the bottom of each column.
Given that the unit of work planning template suggests there should be three learning objectives for each unit, there should also be three marks here, with one mark each for the learning focus on musical understanding, musical skills and musical elements. For instance, the example of completed planning template describes three objectives for a unit on the conventions of British folk music as follows:
‘musical understanding’ (part of ‘cultural understanding’: Key Concept 1.2)
Exploring traditional folk music from the British Isles, its social function, its links with ancient Celtic culture and its development as an aural tradition
‘features of musical elements’ (part of ‘critical understanding’: Key Concept 1.3)
Rhythm: Understand compound and simple time groupings of beats and be able to aurally discriminate between pieces in simple and compound time
‘developing practical skills’(part of ‘integration of practice’: Key Concept 1.1)
Arranging a folk song or dance for the instrumental and/or vocal resources of a particular performing group
For each learning objective the planning will have identified appropriate and differentiated assessment criteria. The exemplar planning suggests these might be:
Understanding of traditional folk music from the British Isles:
Pupils understand how British folk songs and dances fit together, and can identify how the music is constructed to enable it to work as music for dance, work, entertainment or ritual/celebration. They produce effective, patterned songs and dances using appropriate rhythms, melodies and creating arrangements in a way that reflects the folk idiom. The outcomes match their basic intentions and purpose, but do not readily reflect the full breadth of the wider musical contexts of the British folk tradition. (assessed as developing, secure or strong)
Rhythm
All pupils with the support of others in a group are able to tap a pulse and recognise the first beat of a bar.
Some pupils will demonstrate an understanding of stress and the rhythmic groupings of beats in compound and simple time and discriminate between compound and simple meters
A few pupils will, in addition identify specific compound and simple meters accurately
Arranging
All pupils can reproduce a simple British folk song or dance melody for the instrumental and vocal resources of the group and back it up with a simple accompaniment
Some pupils can arrange a simple British folk song or dance including some simple structural contrasts and variety and some sensitivity to the vocal and instrumental resources of the group that holds the listener’s attention and is fit for purpose
Few pupils can make a nicely crafted and stylish arrangement of a British folk song or dance that is structurally and texturally varied with effective musical contrasts and effective use of vocal and instrumental resources
The evidence of learning generated by the pupils is therefore marked against each of these statements, showing the extent to which pupils meet the expectations set out in the teaching objectives and associated assessment criteria. Note that this process does not need to be restricted to the end of unit: while end of unit performances may well provide some evidence of learning, we should be identifying here the learning achieved across the whole unit. This is not, therefore, about marking individual pieces of work: it is about identifying the extent to which pupils have developed their musical learning.
The ‘marks’ used will need to reflect the school’s assessment policy. Some schools will use numbers, some letters, some a mixture of both. For the most effective system (particularly when later translating the combined marks into indications of levels), the ideal is to use five ‘categories’. These will represent working towards expectation, working at the expectation with support, working at the expectation with confidence, working above the expectation and working well above the expectation.
Therefore it is important to recognise that the marks do not at this stage represent National Curriculum Levels. Instead, they show the extent to which the pupils’ work has matched the expectations of learning set out in the planning for the unit of work. For instance the spreadsheet example uses 2 to represent pupil’s work which is ‘at the expectation with support’, 3 to represent work which is ‘at the expectation with confidence’ and 4 to represent work which is ‘beyond the expectation’.
Using the grid to identify trends in attainment: general principles
Over time the mix of lesson notes and end-of-unit marks will give a good indication of the progress an individual pupil is making. The end-of-unit marks will show a range of ‘scores’, but can be expected to fall around a certain benchmark – mainly 2 perhaps, with some at 3 and some at 1. Together with the details provided by the lesson notes they should provide evidence of the overall state of a pupil’s learning (broadly working at expectation with support, for instance) and indications of their specific strengths and weaknesses (perhaps good understanding of conventions, but weaker development of compositional skills).
Of course for some pupils it will be important to draw upon a range of other evidence. They may take part in a variety of extended curriculum activities, both formal and informal, and be able to demonstrate particular skills and understanding through them. Some may also have instrumental or vocal lessons and for these pupils it will be important to include assessments and comments from all their teachers, both for the overall assessment of their attainment and progress and when reporting to parents.
The grid can also be passed on at the end of the year to the next teacher. This will ensure that planning for the next year’s work can be informed by accurate information about the attainment of the class as a whole, and about the progress and needs of individual pupils.
Using the grid to identify trends in attainment: tracking strengths / weaknesses in different aspects of musical learning
As soon as the numbers are entered for the end of unit marks, the spreadsheet starts to generate average marks:
· for their overall musical learning – a combination of understanding, skills and knowledge of features of elements.
Please note: in order to properly reflect the importance of understanding, the marks for understanding are weighted to be more significant in the ‘averages’ calculations. This means that a pupil with above average understanding but weaker practical skills can be appropriately assessed as showing stronger overall learning than a pupil with average understanding and good practical skills.
It also means that marks entered by the teacher should not be highlighted and deleted all at once – this process will delete the additional weighting for understanding. Instead, delete numbers in individual cells if changes are necessary.
· for each of the separate aspects of learning: understanding, skills and knowledge of features of elements.
In this way, it is possible to see whether individual pupils have specific areas of learning that need to be addressed.
· For all of these aspects of learning, class averages are also generated, so that adaptations to the curriculum for different classes can be made in the light of developing progress.
For all three sets of marks above, the spreadsheet generates figures based on the number of units completed. To make it easier to view the most relevant figures, all the columns are colour-coded, showing the marks from 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 units. It is easier, therefore, to ‘hide’ the columns that are not relevant: so if you ware looking at a class after 3 units, just have the red columns showing, etc.
Remember, too that the ‘5 unit’ or ‘6 unit’ averages will start to generate figures as soon as 1 or 2 sets of marks have been entered – but since marks from the last units of the year will not yet have been entered, the average will be very low: so ignore these last columns completely until the end of the year!
Using the grid to identify trends in attainment: level indicators
To re-confirm: all the ‘marking’ has so far been against expectations of learning: they are not designed to suggest levels.
However, the final columns of the spreadsheet do provide indicators of likely level outcomes, if the work that has been demonstrated so far continues to be sustained across the year. The spreadsheet takes the average from the overall learning for the number of units completed, and provides an ‘indicative level’. This is a useful starting point for providing level data to school SLTs, but please note:
· The planned expectations of learning for each unit have to be broadly in line with national expectations of learning. In other words, if the planned learning in Year 9 is set according to National Curriculum standards then pupils whose marks show that they met the expectations with confidence over the full range of the year’s work will be producing work characteristic of Level 6. By contrast, in schools with higher standards of planned learning, pupils who show that they broadly met the expectations with confidence across the end-of-unit marks may well be producing work characteristic of Level 7.
· A pupil who consistently meets the expectations of learning will find that their averages will remain constant across the years. Pupils therefore need to be reassured that if they are ‘meeting expectations’ in Year 7, and are still ‘meeting expectations’ in Year 9, then the quality of their work will actually have improved. Although their ‘grading’ (2) may have stayed the same throughout the Key Stage, the fact that the expectation has increased will mean that their musical achievement will have improved. Pupils are normally sophisticated enough to understand this, and their experience of computer games is helpful in this regard – they know that ‘good’ at Level 3 is better than ‘good’ at Level 1!