MONITOR YOUR STUDENTS WITH NIFTY NOTES – THE DAWSON METHOD

During the initiation phase of Nifty Notes – the Dawson Method of Reading Music, both students and teachers are taken through a step by step guide.  The students’ guide is provided by engaging animation that continues throughout the program.  The teachers’ guide is provided by pop-up information at key stages.  Previews of all games within Module 1 are accessible from the Home page, as are comprehensive teacher Tutorials.

Lesson summaries are provided to all students at the beginning of each lesson, outlining the learning goals, aims, objectives and criteria to be reached within that lesson.

Assessment is embedded in learning activities.  Nifty Notes – The Dawson Method of Reading Music enables the teacher to easily set learning goals for students, both individually or as a group by providing clear formative, summative and ipsative assessment reports.  The program emphasizes the interaction between learning and manageable assessment strategies.  Teachers can set “Class Tests” for individual students, or an entire classroom environment.  Full statistical and historical reporting per class and per student is generated. 

Pre-tests are generated at the beginning of each lesson plan to determine the level of knowledge a student has, providing a diagnostic and objective test with statistical results that are easily viewed by the teacher.  The Post-tests that are generated at the end of each lesson plan provide ipsative and summative assessment of what the student has now learned as a direct result of progressing through the lesson plan.

Nifty Notes is a managed learning environment.  Assessments can be formulated as a group (collaborative learning), an individual (independent learning) or a whole class.  Default “Class Tests” within each module are pre-loaded to the system providing formative assessment using a comprehensive multiple choice examination on all areas of theory studied.  However, if a teacher requires a shorter class test, these can be easily written by including or excluding the system generated questions.

Instructional Design:  As a result of the assessments, students and teachers can be directed to a particular area of theory that may require revision, providing an opportunity for improvement.

Coming soon... Live viewing of all students provides synchronous communication to teachers in real-time to enable them to provide assistance to those students who are having difficulty achieving their learning outcomes.  Progress can be monitored both live, and from statistical reporting methods.

A Certificate of Completion is provided to each student at the end of each completed lesson plan providing them with an overall result.

Students can be monitored at individual competency levels and promoted to higher modules using module defaults or more complex lesson plans set by the teacher.

Nifty Notes – The Dawson Method of Reading Music has been designed in conjunction with the NSW Board of Studies Syllabuses for K-12 2003-2009.