This example uses a standard essay assessment strategy to assess the following prescribed learning outcomes:

Perceiving/Responding/Reflecting

• identify, describe, and analyse cultural or historical styles as represented in a variety of artworks
• critique a dramatic work relating its content to the context in which it was created
• describe or demonstrate how a specific dramatic work supports or challenges specific beliefs or traditions, or responds to historical or contemporary issues

Planning for Assessment

The teacher had students listen to representative examples of Canadian folk music. These examples were simple enough to demonstrate the elements and principles of music in isolation. After the elements and principles were easily identified by the entire class, students were directed to examine how these elements and principles were put together to form an idea, mood, or feeling in a music composition. Individual students researched a culture and wrote an essay on the evolution of its folk music. This project took place in the library and the music room over 12 class hours.

Defining Criteria

The teacher and students discussed the criteria for assessment. It was agreed that students would be assessed on the degree to which they demonstrated an understanding of:

• the elements and principles of music
• how these are used to create an idea, mood, or feeling (e.g., soft for peaceful)
• the chronology or periods of the culture's folk music
• the relationship of music to other art forms of the culture

The marks would be assessed as follows: 20 percent for presentation, 40 percent for identification of the elements and principles, 20 percent for a coherent understanding of the chronology of the culture, and 20 percent for the inclusion of other art disciplines in the essay.

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Maintained by: Fine Arts Coordinator

Revised: April 1995

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