I gave this post a long title, but the Primary Measures of Music Audiation (PMMA) is a pretty important aptitude test to give to kids grades K-3. I first heard about this test when I got my certifications in both First Steps in Music and Conversational Solfege with Chris Obida Powers at the University of Central Arkansas. Chris is a fantastic teacher trainer and many teachers use the PMMA to track student’s rhythmic and tonal aptitudes (potential), as well as growth over the first years of music. Edwin Gordon, the creator of the PMMA and Music Learning Theory, found that the most growth in a child’s musical aptitude happens in Kindergarten when given a quality music education. Likewise, if there is no quality music during Kindergarten, a child’s musical aptitude will sink significantly (Feierabend, et al., 2018, p. 359). This is a huge reason why early music education is vital (in utero-age 5)! For more information on musical aptitude: https://giml.org/mlt/aptitude/
Before I gave the PMMA for the first time, I talked to my friend, Eric Bottorff, who has given the test for a few years. Eric told me that I should be practicing same/different (not the same) with my students prior to giving the test. I practiced for a few weeks with my students by playing different tonal and rhythmic passages on my piano. If they thought the passage was the same, they showed me 2 closed fists. If they thought the passage was different, they showed me one closed first and one open hand. This directly tied into the test as students identify same and different passages by either circling the 2 smiling faces or the smiling/frowning faces.
If you watch the instagram video above and scroll through the pictures, you’ll hear an example of a question on the PMMA and you will see what the test looks like. The test also includes some practice questions at the beginning that we did together so that students knew how to correctly take the test. I had read in the Feierabend Fundamentals group on Facebook that it was best to have your students on the perimeters of the room facing the walls so that they were not looking at each other’s tests. Another tip I read was to give a few tiny brain breaks throughout, as students tend to blank out during the 15-minute test. Sometimes it was just me asking what the next question was, sometimes it was doing a few vocal call-backs, and sometimes it was getting up and doing some jogging/stretches.
I ended up giving the test to my first, second, and third grade students this go around. I will give the test to Kindergarten in March, after they’ve matured a bit in their test-taking skills. The first set of data I got back from my students was fascinating! The main uses of this data is to first, track growth. If my students are not showing any growth, it will mean that I need to change the way I’m teaching! Next, it will show me where I need to give my students extra attention/opportunities for beat keeping activities and solo singing to help raise their tonal and rhythmic aptitudes. Last, if some of my students are consistently scoring high, I can communicate to their parents that they would highly benefit from enrichment opportunities such as piano lessons, community theater, etc.
To make the experience better in May, I will be talking to the ESL teacher at my school and will create a Spanish version of the test. It will be the pictures on each question labeled with their Spanish name (I will speak it in Spanish), and I will also be labeling the words same and different in Spanish. My school has become the ESL center in our district and I noticed about 7 of our newer English speakers created patterns on their tests (same, different, same, different), which doesn’t truly show their real musical potentials. I can also have these students sit close to me so that I can help guide them.
Do you give the PMMA? If so, do you have any tips/tricks?
Feierabend, J. M., Strong, M., Boyle, K., Feierabend, L., Greene, B., Greenwood, C., … Schall-Brazee, S. (2018). Feierabend fundamentals: history, philosophy, and practice. Chicago: GIA Publications, Inc.
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For my Master’s class “Leading in the Digital Age”, we are asked to discuss digital ethics and online reputation. I made a list of my Top 10 Rules:
- Only post about your students in the best light possible.
- Communicate with parents in multiple ways (both digitally/sending papers home).
- Always install ad-blockers on your computer, especially one used to display information to the class. (I use Chrome and use the ad-block extension. I never have to deal with youtube ads or pop-ups!)
- Assume others are reading your emails and texts.
- Do not “friend” students and parents on your personal social media accounts. If you have a public teaching account/page, that would be an acceptable spot for parents to follow you!
- Always cite your sources! I try to link to helpful sources in my blog or credit where I have gotten ideas from.
- Keep high-stakes communication to face-to-face conversations.
- Document. Document. Document.
- Protect your students’ digital privacies.
- Preview all apps and websites before you have students use them.
What would your rules be to protect your reputation and behave ethically in the digital age?
Patton The Beat 