Liberty Pre-Contest Clinic

The Liberty Public School District has embraced a new assessment model for our Pre-Contest performances. In years past, the performances were strictly for the parents and community members. As we looked into our educational purpose for going to contest and how students could benefit even more from these experiences, we decided to have a pre-contest clinic for our students.

The pre-contest clinic is set up for students to perform for each other and also for adjudicators prior to the actual large group contest. Each discipline receives one day of clinics. The groups attending contest perform at a central location during the school day for three judges and for each of the other middle/high school groups. As individual ensembles are performing, audience members (students) will complete evaluation forms on the performances they are observing. These forms are the CFA (Common Formative Assessment) for each discipline. This CFA resembles the MSHSAA large group adjudication form.

Students have been learning about and rehearsing stage presence, tone quality, diction, intonation, and musical expression. These are the elements they will be assessing while watching and listening to other groups perform. This allows students to think critically about what they have learned in the music classroom, and apply that knowledge in a real-time performance-based setting. After the performances, the adjudicators will meet with each group for one hour on a separate day. This allows the comments from both adjudicators and students to be useful and productive prior to District Contest which takes place about two weeks after these initial in-district clinics.

After implementing this new assessment for students, Music Directors have found it beneficial not only in helping students learn to be respectful, active adjudicators, but has also added validity to the contest season preparation for their building Administrators. In the age of data-driven educational models, this pre-contest clinic assessment process is one more way music educators can provide clear evidence of the learning that occurs daily in each of those classrooms.