There's this little 3 letter word that strikes terror in many Missouri fine art teachers: MAP. No, it's nothing from Triple A,but rather, the Missouri Assessment Program, which now includes the fine arts as well as physical education. Missouri special area teachers are now caught up in the springtime "frenzy" of preparing for standardized testing. But, the Missouri tests are a little different than before.Missouri is now implementing a performance-based assessment system for use by all public schools in the state, as required by the Outstanding Schools Act of 1993. The assessment system is designed to measure student progress toward meeting the Show-Me Standards, 73 rigorous academic standards that were adopted by the State Board of Education in January 1996. This testing now not only includes multiple choice questions, but also critical thinking sections, also known as "short answer" or "essay". This is where a number of fine arts teachers get nervous. After all, the success or non-success of each student can pin on his or her ability to clearly express views on paper in an essay form.

It doesn't have to be scary,though! Preparing for this testing is possibly just a matter of doing things a little differently. One way to prepare is to incorporate writing into your music curriculum as much as possible (this has probably been suggested lots of times to you!). And it's true. The students must get used to doing writing in music, practice using full sentences, and incorporating the terminology expected for this test. (To view the curriculum framework from DESE, click here. It will require Adobe Reader once you get to the site). Ideas for writing:

• Have the students keep a music journal that you have them write in once a week or so.
• As you are playing listening examples, either for style or for composer, ask them to make comparisons, write descriptions of what they hear, mention the instruments used, etc.
• As was suggested in many workshops by Deborah Fisher, the fine arts consultant, get ahold of the music terminology that will be used in the test and use that frequently in class. Give the list to the classroom teacher to incorporate into her classroom sessions, such as for spelling lists. She even suggests posting the terms list in the room (enlarging it if possible) as a reminder for the students.
• At times when you show videos in class, have the students answer questions that you ask outloud on paper in paragraph form .

The main point is to get the kids beyond these phrases: "Because it sounds loud". "Because it's fast". Encourage them to get descriptive, and if you have to, review the rules of full sentences! This will be noticed and graded!

Another point of concentration on the videotaped test is comparing and contrasting. This is used quite a bit, especially between two or more disciplines of fine art (such as comparing an art work to a dance, or an art work to music). Students might be asked to describe what makes these similar:

Click to play

This, too, can be incorporated into your classroom sessions. Usually, your music series will include some examples of artwork that you can use for comparing and contrasting.

Don't neglect the multicultural end of the test! In particular, note the instruments and rhythm styles of certain cultural melodies that will help the students pinpoint the culture from which an example comes. ONE NOTE: Please remind them to listen to the ENTIRE segment before making a decision. During the field test, my students were confused when a song that started out with panpipes (sounding like an "Outback Steakhouse" commercial) ended up being something totally different!

Really, if you are following your school district's curriculum (and there has been a huge revamping across the state because of MAP!), you should be fine. The main concentration is encouraging the students to listen, think, and describe IN DETAIL. But, as this time for MAP approaches, the Music Education Madness Site is strongly encouraging Missouri teachers to contribute their thoughts and ideas on how THEY'RE preparing for the test. Please submit your ideas and suggestions, and this topic will be updated throughout the year.