You are hereHantsweb Homeks3 musicthe unitsunit 6good practice

KS3 Music

a professional development programme

Good practice

This part of the unit describes good practice in providing feedback to support musical learning. It explores in particular two key areas of feedback:

  • the features that make for effective feedback;
  • the strategies that enable effective feedback.

Select each tab below in turn to examine each of these key areas of feedback in music.

Features

While feedback is an essential component of assessment for learning (AfL), and therefore reflects the broad characteristics of AfL, research has identified particular features that make it effective. The summary of research in Activity Resource 5 identifies in particular how feedback is critically related to pupils’ understanding of learning objectives and outcomes. It indicates the central role of feedback in helping pupils to understand what they have done well and how to improve their work in order to make progress towards personal targets.

Building on this research, Unit 4 from the Assessment for learning: whole school training materials (DCFS 1240-2005 GCD) focuses upon providing informative feedback to pupils to help them take the next steps in their learning. It is divided into two modules: Oral feedback and Written feedback. The principles underpinning good oral and written feedback are the same:

  • Module 1: Oral feedback helps teachers make their ongoing feedback more informative to ensure that all pupils in every lesson have a clearer understanding of where they are and how they can make progress
  • Module 2: Written feedback promotes focused and thoughtful comment marking. To make this manageable, comment marking must be selective and used only to focus on the ‘learning milestones’ within the unit of study. The principle of this unit is that once teachers routinely provide good oral feedback they are able to provide more informative and selective written feedback.

Now use Activity Resource 2a to consider in more detail the features of effective feedback, and to use them in music lessons.

You could then:

 

Strategies

Sharing learning outcomes at the start of a lesson is the first step in helping pupils recognise the standards they are aiming for. However, pupils require a range of additional support mechanisms including: effective modelling; peer feedback against criteria; prompts and scaffolds to support understanding; identification of strong and weak examples; and teacher-led feedback against criteria that promote successful outcomes.

Opportunities for using these support mechanisms will spontaneously arise during the normal course of the lesson. However, with forethought, opportunities can be planned in advance in order to make the most effective use of the learning experience. Some ways in which this can be achieved are listed below.

  • Modelling is particularly useful for exploring conventions, processes and devices (such as rhythmic syncopation, melodic improvisation) and will be required in whole-class, small-group and individual situations. Read morex
  • Peer feedback against criteria can be used for a range of benefits, such as rethinking the challenge and receiving confirmation of understanding, talking through the process in a language that is readily accessible, the sharing of problems in a non-threatening way and the sharing of solutions. Read morey
  • Prompts and scaffolds can be prepared in advance and effectively used to direct pupils’ thoughts and learning, making sure that the next steps are those that will eventually lead to success (using, for example, a recapitulation of prior work or knowledge such as a chord sheet, or a selection of restricted note scales to support creativity).
  • Showing and discussing strong examples and weak examples is useful for helping understanding of a wide range of skills and concepts (such as acknowledging the criteria for developing the rhythmic feel of reggae). An anonymous portfolio of previous pupils’ work is very useful for this purpose.
  • Teacher-led feedback against criteria is useful for evaluating a piece of work and demonstrating how some aspects match the criteria and some do not. Read more z

Use Activity Resource 2b to see how one teacher planned for the use of a range of these strategies in one lesson in a unit on film music.

You could then:

 

Notes

x It is useful for articulating how some pupils may improve their work and also for identifying how some pupils can build upon initial success. This is because a key feature of modelling is the way that the teacher ‘thinks aloud’ the processes of learning, thereby making them explicit to the pupils.

Further reading and information on modelling can be found in Unit 4: Modelling in music and Pedagogy and practice: teaching and learning in secondary schools, Unit 6: Modelling (DCFS 0429-2004 GDVD)

y Within the teaching of music pupils could, for example, support each other as they create a simple harmonic support for a melody using a sequencer program and General MIDI (GM) keyboard. Pupils would, for example, be able to suggest and evaluate where arpeggiated chords might offer a more interesting accompaniment than block triads.

z This helps pupils begin to understand the quality that is expected in their work and includes a range of feedback techniques to support pupils. It may be that the teacher considers that the best method of moving pupils on is to provide aural feedback, where the teacher demonstrates a particular aspect of music by playing, singing, using a recorded extract or playing a sequencer file and discussing the key qualities of the music. There is also much potential here for pupils to derive visual clues from the techniques being demonstrated that can also help to cement understanding.