The Part-Writing Diagnostic
You teach a high school Music Theory I class of 22 students. On a recent quiz, 18 students correctly labeled authentic and half cadences, 9 correctly identified parallel fifths in a four-part example, and only 4 correctly resolved tendency tones. Several students who did well on cadences made the same error: they treated the leading tone as a chord tone in an inner voice. The next unit is a chorale phrase composition project. You have five 50-minute classes before the project is due. The department expects a written unit assessment that includes part-writing. One student is an advanced pianist who finishes early; three students are English learners; the textbook error exercises are mostly identification, not revision.
1. Interpret the quiz data and decide what to reteach, what to skip, and how to group students for the next five classes. Justify your choices with assessment reasoning.
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The data show that cadence recognition is not the problem; transfer of tendency-tone resolution is. Do not reteach cadences to the whole class. Spend class 1 on error analysis: project three anonymous student examples, including the leading-tone-as-chord-tone error, and have pairs explain what the tendency tone wants to do. Class 2: guided revision of a short four-part excerpt in a new key. Group students flexibly: the three English learners get a visual tendency-tone chart and sentence frames; the advanced pianist serves as a peer coach for one group after finishing a challenge extension; the students who missed parallel fifths work at a station identifying and correcting parallels. Classes 3 and 4: compose the chorale phrase in stages. Class 5: peer review. Justify this by targeting the actual misconception rather than the whole unit, and by giving the advanced student an extension rather than more of the same.
2. Design a formative assessment for the end of class 2 that will tell you whether students can transfer tendency-tone resolution to a new key.
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End class 2 with a four-measure exit ticket. A soprano and bass line are given; students write alto and tenor, then circle and correct one tendency-tone error. Use a key different from the quiz key. Score with a three-point rubric: all tendency tones resolved, no parallel fifths, and voice ranges. Use the results to form class 3 groups; any student who misses tendency tones gets a ten-minute small-group lesson while others begin the project.
3. How will you structure the chorale project so that it assesses part-writing, not just labeling?
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Assess the project with a process portfolio: a first draft, a revision log naming two errors and their fixes, and a final phrase. The rubric weights tendency-tone resolution, spacing, and cadence, not just Roman numeral labels. Require a short written reflection: Where did you almost write a parallel fifth, and how did you hear it? This makes part-writing the target, not labeling.