How are Choir grades determined?

Students build their choir grade by demonstrating mastery in a few key Standards, including Performance Assessments, Music Theory, Sight-reading, Composition, Listening, Vocal Technique, Rehearsal Technique, etc.
Different assignments throughout the year will feed into one or more of these Standards. 

MusicFirst

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  • The BHS Music Department is using the MusicFirst Classroom to organize all music assignments. 
  • Many of these assignments connect to additional software. MusicFirst allows a single sign-on, so students don't need to remember a dozen passwords. 
  • The MusicFirst platform allows us to use Musition, Auralia, SoundTrap, PracticeFirst, Focus on Sound, O-Generator, Noteflight, and SightReadingFactory. 
  • Even though percentage scores for each assignment will not be reported in Powerschool, students can always access their MusicFirst gradebook and see how they did on any assignment. 
  • Students will use their Chromebook log-in information to access their MusicFirst account. 

PowerSchool

  • In Powerschool, the STANDARDS are listed on the last day of the term.
  • These STANDARDS will be the only assignments that will show a score in PowerSchool. 
  • Each assignment will be listed in Powerschool, and will only be marked Collected, Missing, Exempt, or Incomplete. 
  • The names and dates of Powerschool assignments should match the names and dates of assignments listed in MusicFirst and Google Classroom.

Google Classroom

  • Since many students use Google Classroom to track assignments in all of their classes, I will be linking assignments from MusicFirst. That means due dates will show up on the student's To-Do list in Google Classroom.  
  • MOST MusicFirst assignments will automatically mark the Google Classroom as done, without the student needing to do anything. 
  • On occasion, an assignment doesn't link to Google Classroom correctly. When in doubt, students should always check their MusicFirst dashboard. 
Incompletes
If your Powerschool grade is an Incomplete, that means I am missing enough assignments where I don't feel like I have enough information to report a grade. Often, this is a result of a student missing one type of assignment. Here's an example:
    • This example student's overall semester grade is an 83% Incomplete. Normally, 83% would be a B, so let's look more carefully. 
    • Notice the types of categories on the left: There are Music Theory (blue), Sightreading (Purple), Listening (green), and Composition (Brown). 
    • While this hypothetical student has turned in some Music Theory and listening assignments, they haven't done any of the Sightreading assignments. Because I have nothing in that category, I don't want to certify the grade.
    • If I get a couple of those SRF assignments, I can remove the Incomplete from the overall score, even though there are still other missing assignments.  
    • Because I have some completed Listening assignments and Music Theory assignments from this student, I'm less worried about getting those completed. Of course, I'd be happy to have them completed, but it's not the reason for the overall Incomplete grade.
    • This student is getting an Incomplete because I don't have enough information in the Sight-reading Standard. 
    Still have questions? Please email Mr. Barsch. We'd like to build a FAQ in this space.