Choir singing tests-

Last week, I graded all choir students on an excerpt of a piece being performed in class. Students passed a microphone around the room, stated their name and then sang. Each section is recorded on one track, and the track ends up being around 8-10 minutes long. During the recordings, the full class is singing, which allows me to evaluate the student as he/she would perform on stage, with the whole choir. The microphone technique is also less intimidating than an individual singing evaluation, and keeps the class working together.

Today I listened to the tracks, and (using a rubric) evaluated the students, 1,2,3,4 on: Rhythm, Pitch accuracy, Intonation, Tone Quality, Dynamics, Posture, Style Markings, and Diction. It took me about 1. 5 hrs to get through two classes (approx. 55 students). The 30-50 seconds was enough time to fairly rank each student on each of the standards, and I felt confident that the recording would objectively back-up any evaluation given. This method seems to work well for evaluation. Hopefully students will see the areas they need work on, and will take the initiative to improve.