Xavier was a little nervous before hand but sang loud and proud and behaved well on stage. His Mom and Dad are so proud and we know that he learned a great deal today. He continued his development as he gained confidence, overcame a fear and had a blast the entire time. He gets an "A+" in our books!
What if we had graded Xavier and his classmates today based on a set of national standards that required near perfect pitch, ideal timing and mastery of tonal ranges to receive a grade even resembling an "A"? The beautiful thing about the performance today was that no assessment was ever part of the deal....but every child benefitted from learning new skills and overcoming obstacles. I realize that Modern European History, Physics and Trigonometry differ slightly from a group of 20 four year olds singing Christmas carols on stage but what if.....
What if we assessed students by using content as the foundation for a performance or presentation in all subject areas?
What if we got away from memorizing things in order to regurgitate them?
What if we committed songs and stories to memory as part of an engaging presentation that used math, science, English, history and a foreign language to argue a point related to global warming through a presentation style learned in fine arts class?
The opportunities for collaboration and cross-curricular teachable moments are endless as we look up and down our curriculum. I don't mean to say that teaching with these types of methods is easy or accepted on a wide enough basis to change everything we do but wouldn't it be cool to watch students develop and grow through performances? After all, in the classroom we grade everyone and on a scale that results in some failing - or feeling like a failure. When an orchestra performs do any of the members fail? After a team plays, even if they lose, does the coach walk into the locker room and announce that three players failed?
The singing was certainly rough around the edges at the recital today but I can assure you that none of those precious kids failed in my eyes!
