Submitted by Margaret Ann Adams, Bethany, Oklahoma

Idea posted April 5, 2002

I tried a new way last year, and it worked very well. I had to put the idea of a controlled and quiet classroom out of the way, however. I made up folders of the music we were working on for each color belt. I let the class divide up in pairs (I made sure they were pairs that could work well together). They would then work together on the piece they were working on and evaluate each other. I am going to include the evaluation sheet below. I told them they had to evaluate very fairly - and if I found anyone grading too easy or too hard, I would take away their latest earned belt. (Worked like a charm!) Every pair could go at their own pace. They were so "gung-ho" that I had to watch that one partner didn't try to earn all the belts before their partner got a chance.

Here is the form below:

RECORDER SCORE SHEET
(To be filled out by the student who is evaluating)
1. MY NAME IS: __________________________________
2. MY CLASSROOM TEACHER IS: ________________________
3. MY PARTNER'S NAME IS: _____________________________
4. HE/SHE PLAYED THE SONG: ____________________________
5. HE/SHE SCORED THE FOLLOWING: (3 IS THE HIGHEST SCORE, 1 IS THE LOWEST SCORE)

FINGERING/NOTES/TONE:    1    2    3

QUALITY:    1    2    3

RHYTHM:    1    2    3

ADD ALL THREE NUMBERS YOU CIRCLED HERE:

_______

+ _______
+ _______
TOTAL = _______
  • A SCORE OF 7 - 9 MEANS THEY EARNED A BELT! HAVE THEM TAKE THIS SHEET TO MRS. ADAMS FOR A KARATE BELT!
  • A SCORE OF 5 - 6 MEANS KEEP WORKING ON THIS PIECE.
  • A SCORE BELOW 5 MEANS PRACTICE THIS AT HOME AND TRY AGAIN NEXT TIME!
  • WHEN YOU HAVE FINISHED, MAKE SURE BOTH YOU AND YOUR PARTNER SIGN BELOW.
I WAS FAIR TO MY PARTNER WHEN I FILLED OUT THIS SHEET.
LISTENER'S NAME: _____________________
I AGREE WITH THE RATINGS I RECEIVED FROM MY LISTENER.
PLAYER'S NAME: _______________________

_____________________EARNED A ________________BELT