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ASME NSW Newsletter September 2019
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In this issue

  • From the Chair
  • XXII ASME National Conference registration and details
  • Using comparative judgement to mark Music 1 aural examination responses
  • Today’s Future Sound: an alternative music education pedagogy in South-western Sydney
  • An Introduction to Graphic Notation
  • Using OneNote Class Notebook in Music Education
  • The NSW Music Syllabuses: Why they are worth a re-read

From the Chair

It has been a busy time for ASME NSW since our last newsletter, we have run two professional development events, and we have been involved in discussions with NESA regarding the ongoing Music Syllabus development. 

In May the committee ran a session at the Sydney Conservatorium for pre-service and early career teachers. A good time was had by all, and it was terrific to see the wealth of knowledge within the ASME committee. Kirsten Macaulay ran a session that actually managed to make teacher accreditation exciting, and Miranda McHatton gave us all a crash course on active music making in the secondary classroom. Rounding out the night was an engaging panel discussion addressing some of the key issues in secondary music education at the moment. I am grateful for Dr Grahame Sattler, Gerard Plummer and Jennifer Robinson for joining me in this session. 

In June, a day of Professional Development looking at composition was run at Barker College. We are so grateful to both Holly Harrison and Paul Stanhope who gave of their time on a Saturday in order to inspire us in our composition teaching. I found Holly’s session to be illuminating as she guided us through several terrific scaffolds designed to encourage students to break out of their comfort zone and take risks in their compositions. Paul gave a terrific presentation on film music, again useful and practical ideas for engaging students in the process. A highlight of the day was the last session where Paul and Holly critiqued some real world examples of student compositions, which was instructive for all of us. I have to say at this point that the day would not have been successful without the incredible efforts of Andrew Mifsud, Kate Hargraves, Miranda McHatton, Gerald Plummer, Tyler Barnes and Dr Anne Power, who quietly worked in the background to ensure that everything was running smoothly. 

The last few months have seen both myself and Jennifer Robinson meeting with NESA, as well as professional bodies from the other art forms with regard to the current syllabi and the K-6 creative arts syllabus (which remains in development). These meetings were encouraging, and we felt that our ideas were also heard and acknowledged. Kirsten Macauley also attended a NESA meeting looking at writing in the Music Syllabus - her article regarding this(see later in the newsletter) is incredibly helpful. 

ASME has partnered with The Armidale School to present a three day workshop with Deke Sharon (a'capella specialist and artistic director of the Pitch Perfect Movies) This workshop has 18 hours of NESA accredited PD, and just $150 for ASME members. It runs from September 13-15 and promises to be a fabulous weekend of music making.

Can I encourage you to consider attending the ASME National conference held in Perth this year. I have had a look at the program; it looks incredible, and if you can find a way of getting there it will be well worth your time. Bookings for the conference can be made through the following link: 

https://asmeconference.org.au/

Finally, in our last newsletter we omitted listing Jennifer Robinson as a current committee member. Jennifer is our immediate past NSW Chair, works tirelessly for the cause of music education and I personally would find my role as NSW Chair impossible without her ready words of wisdom and encouragement. I am so glad she is on the committee!

I wish you the best over the coming months as those of you who teach year 12 work through the business of the HSC examining period, and I hope to meet some of you at either National Conference or in Armidale at the Deke Sharon Workshops. 

All the best in music making

Deb Batley
ASME NSW Chair

XXII ASME National Conference

Register for the National Conference

Using comparative judgement to mark Music 1 aural examination responses


Tyler Barnes


There is no doubt that teachers face a diverse range of challenges at each stage of their professional careers. For me, one of the steepest learning curves as an early career classroom music teacher has been learning to efficiently and reliably mark students’ work for summative assessment. 
 
As a pre-service teacher, I was frequently impressed by the confidence and speed with which the experienced teachers I worked alongside could assign seemingly abstract number or letter values to such a diverse range of student performances, compositions or written tasks. However, when I came to mark the work of my own students as a beginning teacher, I discovered that this task is not as straightforward these experienced teachers had made it look. While I found it simple enough to compare performances or work samples from different students and even explain why one was better than another, I struggled to accurately assign an absolute mark or grade to any one student’s work even with the help of explicit marking criteria.
 
I have come to realise that I am not the only teacher who has experienced this phenomenon when marking open-ended summative assessments. In fact, psychological research suggests that human beings in general struggle to make absolute judgements—we are much more capable of making relative or comparative judgements between two items or tasks (Christodoulou, 2016, p. 184).
 
For example, if someone were to walk through the door into the room in which you are now in and I asked you to estimate how tall that person was, you may be able to get close but it is unlikely that you would correctly identify their exact height. However, if two people were to walk through the door at the same time and I instead asked you to identify which person was the taller of the two, you would be much more likely to succeed. (You can check out this phenomenon for yourself by taking the ‘colours test’ at No More Marking.)
 
There are, of course, many plausible strategies which individual teachers or whole faculties can employ when marking open-ended tasks to mitigate this inherent unreliability of making ‘absolute’ judgements and decrease the degree of subjectivity. These include developing explicit marking criteria and rubrics, pilot marking, establishing benchmarks and collaborative moderation.
 
However, one new strategy that I have been trialling this year when marking written responses in Music 1 aural examinations which shows some promise is comparative judgement. 
 

What is comparative judgement?

Traditional approaches to marking open-ended written tasks frequently rely on markers to apply prose descriptors from a rubric to one student response at a time to determine a fixed mark (see Figure 1).


 
Comparative judgement, on the other hand, asks markers to look at two pieces of student work side-by-side and decide which of the two is better (Figure 2).



After a series of judgements about various pairs of student responses, an algorithm can combine the results and determine the ranking and relative distance between each response (Christodoulou, 2016, p. 187).


Why use comparative judgement?

The first advantage to marking in this way is that it promises to improve the reliability of assessment results. Reliability refers to the degree to which markers agree with one another (and with themselves) about the quality of student work. Because the human mind is not very good at making absolute judgements, whether about height, colour or complex written responses, achieving a high level of reliability on open-ended tasks through traditional marking is quite difficult.However, by asking each marker to make a series of comparative judgements between pairs of student responses, which is a cognitively easier task, the overall reliability of the final results will increase.   

Another advantage that comparative judgement offers over traditional marking is increased efficiency. For example, last year I had 14 students in my Year 12 Music 1 class. With 4 questions in the Trial Aural Examination, this means there were 56 scripts (student responses) to mark. According to the No More Marking website, which allows you to use their comparative judgement system for free, 10 judgements are required per script to maximise reliability. Now, making 560 judgements sounds like a time-consuming exercise. However, given that the average judgement between two scripts is approximately 20 seconds, hypothetically I could have marked the entire exam in 3 hours. With a colleague to share the workload, it could have been done in just an hour and a half! 
 

Are there any drawbacks?

The main drawback I have discovered in using comparative judgement is that it requires an additional step to calculate the fixed or absolute mark for each student. After judging is complete, the No More Marking system generates a ‘scaled score’ from 0–100 for each student. This number allows markers to see both the rank of each student or script and a measurement of the distance between them. To convert these scores into fixed marks or grades, some previously marked scripts may be incorporated into the judging from the beginning to act as benchmarks. Markers will then need to refer to these scripts at the end of the judging process and determine which scaled scores will become the border between each mark or grade. 


Can comparative judgement be used to mark other kinds of tasks?

I look forward to experimenting more with comparative judgement to explore possibilities beyond marking written scripts. For example, I believe that it would also be of great use in marking student compositions, especially if a feature to add audio to each uploaded score were to be added. If recordings and scripts were carefully labelled, for now they could be shared amongst markers and listened to as pair of scores is viewed. 


How can I get started using comparative judgement?

I plan on writing a follow up article to walk through the steps that I take when using comparative judgement to mark summative assessments. However, it is easy to get started and try this out for yourself by heading over to No More Marking and signing up for a free account. You can then create your own custom task, upload student responses as separate PDF files and begin judging*. There is a series of support articles readily available on the website. The ‘Getting started: Creating your task’ article is particularly helpful. 
 
*Note: I sometimes need to open No More Marking in a Cognito Window in Google Chrome to get it to work properly. If you are struggling to navigate the website, try this before you give up!
 
Reference list: 
Christodoulou, D. (2016). Making good progress? The future of Assessment for Learning. UK: Oxford University Press.

Attention: ASME Researchers

Research is often an important and valued element of professional development and/or our career trajectories as educators. ASME NSW is keen to hear from researchers in our community. Please contact me so that we can learn about your research and projects! We would also like to invite researchers to write a little about themselves and their research for our newsletter.

I look forward to hearing from you,


Di Hughes

ASME NSW Research Officer

diane.hughes@mq.edu.au

 

Today’s Future Sound: an alternative music education pedagogy in South-western Sydney

Dr Graham Sattler
 
Most of us are comfortable with the why of music education in school, the developmental benefits of critical listening, the appreciation of other voices and cultures, cognitive development, self-esteem  and social negotiation skills to name just a few. The curriculum guides us largely in the what, but many schools find it challenging to settle on the element of how best to engage and enthuse in this most accessible and potentially inclusive of learning areas. There is little doubt that perceived relevance and relatability are key enablers in any educational transaction; music - the subject area that most accessibly explores, investigates and celebrates every child’s right to create, experience and express themselves in a safe environment, is no exception to that rule. Australia is a diverse society, if anything increasingly so, and this diversity needs to be both embraced and served by learning experiences that satisfy the relevance and relatability test, while reinforcing the broad-reaching sociocultural and educational benefits derived through such an education.
 
South-western Sydney is a richly diverse society, and within that region progressive and exciting initiatives are taking hold in the area of praxial music education. Auburn West Public School, with an ICSEA (Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage) rating under the national average, and a student population of 98% language background other than English[1], has over the past few years engaged in an annual series of week-long Hip-Hop beat making workshops involving the Hip-Hop musician, psychologist and music educator, Dr Elliot Gann from the US, and a team of high-level Hip-Hop professionals from both the US and Sydney. Dr Gann’s organisation, Today’s Future Sound (TFS)[2], also runs workshops, masterclasses and performance events in collaboration with various other organisations across Australia during his annual visits from his home-base in California. 
 

So what is so noteworthy about the TFS approach? 

Having met Elliot at international music conferences last year in Georgia and Azerbaijan, I was keen to see his pedagogical approach in action. This August I was finally able to spend the better part of a week during his Sydney visit to observe and evaluate for myself. Watching the pedagogical process across three days with three cohorts of primary school students (drawn from stages 2, 3, and 4), I was struck by the ease of access to the medium being used to communicate and engage the students in the musical concepts. Beat making, organising synthesised and sampled sounds using midi pads, was (is) immediately accessible, particularly when led and explained by experienced and insightful educators (Dr Gann is every bit the insightful educator). In addition to the hands-on beat making, in this case carried out in small groups of approximately 5 students per educator and control pad, each session involved a period of discussion around the history, the cultural dynamics and the social conditions that led to, surround and support Hip-Hop. It’s worth noting that hip-hop’s popularity has increased exponentially in recent years (with streaming service Spotify identifying it as the most listened to genre globally[3]), presenting as fresh and contemporary, even though it has just passed its 46th birthday!
 
Elliot and his highly skilled TFS team subscribe to and promote Carol Dweck’s principle of the growth mindset[4]. This approach is at the same time convincing, inclusive and empowering. The students, from a diversity of cultural backgrounds where music may or may not have a prominent social, cultural or spiritual function, are actively engaged in empowered creativity with constant feedback (listening real-time to the ‘compositional’ process; creating, curating and constructing an album as a tangible outcome of the annual workshop). In this instance, the series of workshops were open to 45 participants (in a school of just over 600 students), however the benefits to the broader school community are effected through a combination of an extraordinarily focused approach to skill development, professional learning and learning experience enhancement. Clear leadership comes from the principal, supported enthusiastically by the Assistant Principal, EAL/D, articulating with the school plan and guided by the school’s Creative and Performing Arts  mentor – a position whose very existence is a powerful indicator of the school’s commitment to Creative Arts and Music. The CAPA Mentor is responsible for (and very responsive in) passing on the learnings and teaching strategies to class teachers to make sure that the entire school community experiences the impact of this, and other, progressive teaching and learning interventions.

What I witnessed was a particularly effective and strongly supported series of workshops, culminating in tangible outcomes that include documented creativity in the form of a CD of student work (which is now added to that of previous years) and an enhanced and ongoing relationship with local and international industry experts. My next visit to the school will be for the school’s Multicultural Day in September, at which the fruits of the progressive and engaging approach to inclusive, collaborative learning experiences will be on display. Auburn West Public School has put innovation and community at the heart of what they offer as a learning community. Their current vision is ‘to foster successful, resilient citizens with a commitment to lifelong learning through next practice, innovative teaching and learning and challenging intellectual inquiry’, and the strategy of ‘collective efficacy driving continuous improvement’[5]is in clear evidence through the TFS beat making workshop program as an alternative, incisive music education pedagogy in action.

Dr Graham Sattler
Executive Director, Mitchell Conservatorium
 
[1]https://www.myschool.edu.au/school/41356
[2]Info@todaysfuturesound.org/ Facebook.com/todaysfuturesound
[4]Dweck, C. (2012). Mindset : How you can fulfil your potential. London: Constable & Robinson.
[5]Auburn West School Plan 2018-2020: (https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/doe-nsw-schools/plan-report/2018/1075/2018-2020_Auburn_West_Public_School_School_Plan.pdf)

An Introduction to Graphic Notation


Kirsten Macaulay

This lesson is designed to follow after lessons on the Instruments of the Orchestra. It introduces students to following graphic notation to correlate with sound(s), leading to identification of tone colours.
 
Outcome 4.8: demonstrates an understanding of musical concepts through aural identification and discussion of the features of a range of repertoire
 

Program Music

Program music is instrumental music which:
  • Tells a story or poem in music;
  • Portrays a vivid picture or scene;
  • Is based on an idea or theme.
Program Music can represent different emotions, create characters or create particular events in a story.
 
Listening Activity:
Click on the example that is the “Cuckoo
Look at the graphics below whilst listening to the music. Can you see the link between sound and symbols?
 
Answer the following questions about the GRAPHIC SCORE above. Write the questions and answers in your Music book 


The Cuckoo:

Draw the graphic score above into your music book.

Questions:
The Blue symbol represents which instrument?

The Red symbol represents which instrument?

Why are the 3 blue steps arranged in this way? What concept changes? In which direction?


Why is the 4thblue rectangle longer? What concept changes?

 
Why do you think a different shape has been used for the 2nd instrument? Why are there only 2 red shapes put together?


What direction does the sound go at this point? How does the graphic score show this?


How many times is this idea repeated?  What concept does this relate to?

 

Mystery piece

Listen to the example which is a piece of Program music.  

Mystery piece

Create a graphic score, using TWO different coloured pencils to represent the different instruments and to represent the musical sounds you are hearing. There are no wrong answers! Be creative! After you finish creating (composing) symbols to represent music, try to name the animal the music is representing.
 
Listen to this piece again. It is called “The Elephant”. (Did you guess?) In your music books, make three statements that refer to 3 different concepts of music, about why do you think that the music depicts the “Elephant”? For example:
  • The main pitch material is low and deep, to create the feel of a big, large animal.
  • The tempo (duration) is slow, to indicate the slow movements of the elephant.
  • (add three more statements.)

Kirsten Macaulay

Using OneNote Class Notebook in Music Education

Andy Mifsud

One of the things I love about teaching Music is what I call the messy bit. It’s the part where you and your students pull apart a piece, draw all over a score, write up graphical representations and conceptual links on a whiteboard, or wrestle over questions in a class discussion. The messy bit is where realisation happens, where connection happens, where understanding happens. In my opinion, it is the most valuable time with a class, but also it’s the bit that’s hardest to capture. Luckily, there is a tool that is very good at just this sort of thing...
 

Using OneNote

The best way to think about OneNote is that it is a supercharged student workbook, collaboration space and digital whiteboard. Here are some ways I use OneNote in my Music classes:


1. Annotating Scores

Annotating scores is one of the best ways to help students understand the way a composition is put together. OneNote makes is easy to use a digital pen, or interactive whiteboard to make these annotations. I tend to sit with Year 12 students and using an iPad projected on the screen behind me, start annotating the score as we discuss the work. We use a colour coding system to link similar concepts and ideas. And because of the way OneNote works, as soon as I do the annotation, students have it instantly in their OneNote - no need to upload, email, or ask students to take photos of the screen. Plus, we can come back to the score at any time and continue working.

 

2. Digital Worksheets

OneNote allows teachers to distribute worksheets for students to complete in their own workspace. Students that have an iPad or Surface device can easily write on the blank spaces using their stylus, while students on laptops type in the spaces provided. The beauty of using OneNote for digital worksheets is that there is no losing sheets, no need to hand in, no need to submit. Teachers can jump on to a student workspace at any time and see students work in progress. This gives teachers an amazing ability to give quick formative feedback while students are working - in a non-intrusive way. 

 

3. Digital Workbooks

We used to create class sets of booklets based on topics being studied. The great thing about these module books was that it collated all the questions and resources needed for the topic in one place. The problem was, for me to give students feedback, I would have to physically take the book away for marking. Moving these booklets into a section of OneNote means that I can quickly scan through each student booklet on a more regular basis. Doing this has allowed me to identify the students that are stuggling with content much earlier, and provide some one-on-one assistance while the rest of my class continues to work independently through the next section of the booklet.

 

4. Collaboration spaces

I’m sure most teachers have tried using Google Docs as a collaboration tool in the past. My issue with Google Docs is that collaborative documents sometimes get out of hand, it is time consuming to manage viewing rights, and the documents exist as isolated files. The collaboration space on OneNote provides a much more streamlined solution. Every notebook comes with a collaboration space that all members can contribute to, but also allows teachers to set up smaller group spaces that all students can see, but only selected students can edit. I use collaboration spaces in Year 8 when students start putting together their rock band piece. Here they can post videos of their song, share chord charts, tabs, lyrics, etc. 

 

5. Portfolios

As OneNote is like a digital workbook, it is the logical place to develop online portfolios of work. Composition portfolios are obvious places to start, but they can be easily used for performance and listening portfolios too. Having students regularly add screenshots, audio recordings, written reflections, etc. to their portfolio means that the work is always there at their fingertips, and allows the classroom teacher to easily flick through and check for progress. 

 

6. Goal setting and reflection

We spend a bit of time reflecting on our progress and setting goals to move forward. OneNote is a nice area to do this because students can easily jump back to their goal setting page, and provide updates on whether they have achieved their goals, or if they need to keep working. Similarly, because it is so easy to create some questions and send out a page to students, I often use OneNote for formative exit tickets (asking students to answer a question on the work we covered during the lesson) or start a lesson with a quick quiz based on the work covered in a previous lesson. 

 



OneNote is included in the Office 365 suite of application. If your school has an account, give it a go!

Andy Mifsud is an EdD candidate at the University of Sydney

The NSW Music Syllabuses: Why they are worth a re-read


Jennifer Carter

As the time approaches for the findings of the NSW Curriculum Review (begun in 2018) to be revealed, it would be timely to have a close look at what is currently on the NESA website regarding music syllabuses, and think about how much we value the syllabuses we have. 
 
Consultation for the Curriculum Review for the K – 6 syllabus is now closed - consultation was open from 3 September to 30 November 2018, and the NESA website says ‘feedback is currently being collated and analysed to identify themes which will inform the review’s interim report and recommendations’ (NESA
https://nswcurriculumreview.nesa.nsw.edu.au/home/homePageContent/view).
 
In NSW music classrooms we are fortunate to have a suite of syllabuses that are adaptable to suit the stages of learning and ability through Stages ES1 to S6 of a student’s learning. 
 
Links to the syllabuses: On these pages you will also find helpful support documents.

 
A summary of the NSW music syllabuses shows their suitability and adaptability to all ages and stages through a brief break down of components.

Continue reading

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