Having fun with Music Medals...
Catherine Goss – Lancashire Music Service
Lancashire Music Service woodwind teacher Catherine Goss gives us the lowdown on her experience with ABRSM’s Music Medals. After a little initial apprehension she now loves the exams.
Published with kind permission of Over Kellet Wilson's Endowed CE Primary School and Lancashire Music Service.
I was really pleased to be offered training to become a Music Medals Teacher-Assessor at the January Inset day of 2011. For me it was one of the most useful things we have achieved through Inset training: I had been watching the development of ABRSM Music Medals, but not yet found the time to do the training, so I was looking forward to using the format with pupils. The children at Over Kellet Wilson’s Endowed CE Primary School were ideal candidates: keen to work towards assessments, but not yet ready to take Grade exams. The timetable was also full, with a lot of players to fit into limited lesson times (quite normal, of course) so that taking individuals through Grade exams would have been challenging.
Music Medals are designed to cope with this situation perfectly, allowing for individual assessment within the class/group teaching format and I’m pleased to say that the children, and the school, embraced Music Medals with enthusiasm and energy and we had a great time doing them. This is our story.
New inspiration
Music Medals are assessments and teaching resources. They aim to provide motivation from the very beginning of learning an instrument providing a goal to work towards; a tangible reward (i.e. the medal, which is a nice colourful enamelled lapel pin suitable for wearing with school uniform, the certificate, which can be framed and hung on the wall at home, and a commentary giving an encouraging description, albeit computer generated, of the pupil’s performance); a sense of achievement (visible to the school, the parents, other pupils and heads of service!); and NOT LEAST, a framework and a wealth of resources to work with.
I always find it inspiring to work with new material, especially when it proves to be really good quality, really useful and easily accessible for the children. For me, the Music Medals material is the best stuff I’ve worked with since Richard Duckett’s Team Woodwind/Brass/Strings series and maybe Heather Hammond’s Funky Flute books.
So starting in January, we (the pupils and I) had three tasks to accomplish: to learn a solo; to learn an ensemble piece and to choose an “option” from the musicianship tests.
Something for everyone
I was new to the school so the first few weeks were very much about getting to know the children, their abilities and aspirations, and about them getting used to me. During this process I got a really good idea of which medal would be appropriate for which child, and as usual, the abilities within groups were quite varied. This is where Music Medals shine! The ensemble material is so flexible that you can have different combinations of ability level in the same group. The teacher assessor can also chip in with a line if needed (or if someone is away on the crucial day!!). The choice is remarkable and even the easiest (Copper) medal material sounds effective. The children quickly decided which pieces, and which lines in the ensembles they liked and got on with practising with enthusiasm!
I was very lucky that the school had decided to purchase a quantity of the ensemble books that the children could borrow while they did their chosen medal. However there are ensemble options from all the common tutor books, so purchase of special material is not always necessary. As for the solos, these children had already been working from the Abracadabra series, but, in any case, you’d be hard pressed to find a tutor book that did not contain one of the choices of solo pieces for each medal. The choice is truly enormous! So off they set, practising their solos with enthusiasm!
A chance to involve parents
By the start of the next term I was convinced that we were getting close to performance standard. This meant entries had to be made. Another nice thing about Music Medals is that parents can buy tokens online from the website. They are cheap: Copper is currently £10. This gives you a token code that you quote when making the online entry and, as the teacher, you don’t have to handle any money, or pay through your own bank account as is unfortunately necessary with Grade exams. You also have complete assurance that the parent is fully aware of the terms and conditions of the Music Medal purchase, and what is involved for their child. This was also a good time to check that we had parental consent for the video to be made of their child.
After entering the candidates I could then choose when to download their personal “option” tests, unique for each candidate. From the point when these are downloaded you have 8 weeks within which to take the test. We spent a very happy and productive few weeks trying out lots of specimen tests from each option so that each pupil had a chance to choose which they preferred and I kept a note of which was chosen so that I was prepared when it came to ”the big day”!
There are four “options”, all of which cover useful and constructive aspects of musicianship. The children in my groups enjoyed doing all of them, sometimes finding it hard to choose their favourite, because they were all fun and easy. They can make up a tune to a given rhythm; copy back a rhythmic or melodic pattern; improvise an answering phrase or sight read a few bars of music. It was nice that they all chose different things to do depending on their style of playing and inventiveness. There was little consensus on which was “the best” or “the easiest”.
These musicianship tests form hugely beneficial learning tasks, whether or not a Medals is being taken. I would recommend the exercises for any pupil or teacher or to increase their musical/teaching skills.
The dress rehearsal
The week before “performance day” I got out the camera, tripod (essential) and made sure I had a quiet, undisturbed space for a trial run. The children found this great fun, enjoying watching back their performances and being critically aware of what they needed to do better (like not collapse in a fit of giggles, or play up to the camera, because it looked silly!) They also quickly realised which bits needed some extra polish and a bit of concentrated practice.
I also found out that I needed to be careful where I stood so I didn’t accidentally walk in front of the camera when handing out option tests, but could also reach the play/record button without joggling things. (We were in quite a confined space.) I found it very useful to have an extra music stand for all my bits of paper (mark sheets, option tests, running order of candidates, reminder of choices for each candidate in case they had a blank moment)!
One thing that needed careful planning and negotiation was how to keep things fair when not all the children I taught at the school were doing medals. On recording day I might not have time to do more than the recordings, meaning some children would miss out on a lesson. We agreed that those doing medals would have a double lesson that week, and all the others would have a double lesson the week after and everyone seemed happy.
My last job before “the big day” was to write out a large banner reminding each candidate to introduce themselves, their pieces and their option choice as required. Not that it mattered if I prompted them, but the children seemed to like doing this themselves and it made their performance completely their own from start to finish.
A good day for all
Everything went well and we only had one small hiccup when one slightly upset flautist realised that, third time through, her group’s ensemble piece had gone much better than for her own medal performance, for which she’d bravely and enthusiastically volunteered to go first! (The ensemble piece is played again for each candidate’s video).
I will be really pleased when it is possible to email the videos rather than having to make them into DVDs before posting them back to the ABRSM. Hopefully this will be possible very soon.
As a first time Teacher-Assessor it was a nervous wait to find out the moderated results. Although the marking system is quick and easy there is a lot to think about during the recordings, and although you have the videos to refer back to if necessary, it is suggested that you mark as you go along so as to have a fresh and immediate response to each performance. I’m sure this gets much easier with familiarity and confidence.
The one other thing I found hard was to avoid saying “well done” or some such emotive phrase after each child’s performance. One is supposed to keep to a bland “thank you”, so as not to give a false or unfair impression of success. I’m sure the odd “well done” slipped out before I could stop myself: It’s such a habit! But I hope I was forgiven that as a first-timer.
It seemed a long wait for the results, longer than for grade exams, but maybe that will improve as the systems are refined. I still can’t fathom how ABRSM manages to turn round results consistently within a fortnight for Grade exams, with thousands of candidates and hundreds of examiners each session and, apparently, very few computer glitches!
Success!
I’m sure I was as pleased as the children were to find that they had all passed, and I had passed the moderation process, too. When you get the moderated results you can look at where the moderator has changed your mark. This means that you can learn and refine your marking. As you become more confident, and ABRSM is confident in your marking, they will only moderate a sample of your entries. In my case they had added a mark, to improve the description of the playing.
Finally, I thought you might like to hear what the children themselves thought of Music Medals: It gives us an insight as to how important it is for children to have goals and rewards for their efforts!
“It was a bit tense as I volunteered to go first – it was good fun once I got into it. I’m very glad I’ve done it” - Grace Meaden, Y4
“It was good because it wasn’t just practising to play a piece but it was for something important and something to look forward to” - Jennifer Mawby, Y5