3 What Should Children Know?
Martina Vasil; Chris McDowell; and Kellie Moses
When determining the content of your curriculum for elementary music, there are several things to consider:
- The National Core Arts Standards.
- Local standards established by your school or district, which may have been based on the old National standards that were established by the National Association for Music Education.
- Your students; they may have had inconsistent instruction and may not be where national or local standards say they should be. You should make adjustments as necessary.
National Core Arts Standards
The United States does not have a national music curriculum like some countries (i.e., England), but in 2011, The National Coalition for Arts Standards (NCAS), an alliance of national arts and and arts education organizations, formed to create national core arts standards for the US. At the time of development, teachers and other stake-holders were contacted to provide input. I had just started my doctoral program in 2011, but I remember getting those emails and providing my input. It was pretty cool to contribute to something like that.
The main webpage for the National Core Arts Standards is here: https://nationalartsstandards.org/
They organized the standards into four threads to reflect the way musicians think and work. That is, you will not see a standard like this “Students will identify a quarter note.” The standards are not focused on the WHAT, but the HOW (process over product). The National Core Arts Standards are organized into four processes, with 11 Anchor Standards.On the NCAS website, you can customize your own handbook, according to what you are teaching. For example, I customized it to be only for Prek–5 music, which is the focus for this class. Click here to view.
Local Standards
Whenever you observe schools for practicum, you may notice that either they use the NCAS or have standards based on them, such as the Kentucky Academic Standards for Visual and Performing Arts. If not, they may follow other standards: the old national music standards, teacher-chosen standards, or standards established by the school district or school.
Your Students
You will be observing students at different schools in practicum, and you will discover that the standards being met will not be the same. A part of this is because teachers work to meet students where they are, which does not always mean they are where the standards say they “should” be. Is that okay? YES. The most important thing is you meet students where they are, see their potential, and help them love music and enjoy making music in community.
Students over Standards
Meeting your students where they ARE, not where the standards say they “SHOULD BE” is your top priority.
Further, especially since the pandemic, many elementary music teachers have commented that students seems to be performing at one or two grade levels below the actual grade they are in. For example, fifth graders are able to meet 3rd grade standards, but not 5th grade standards.
You may also find that if students have had a lack of consistency in music teachers or a teacher who did not promote an active approach to learning music, that students will be lacking in certain skills. For example, in my second year of teaching, I started a K–8 general music and band job at a Catholic school. The teacher before me was not educated in active approaches to making music, so the students did a lot of musicals and written assignments. When I came to the school, I noticed that eighth-graders were struggling to keep a steady beat (!) This is a concept usually covered grades in K–2. Nevertheless, my students needed this foundational skill, so I found age-appropriate ways to teach it to them.
Here is Mr. McDowell’s curriculum map. He works in Fayette County. His curriculum is split into three sections: rhythm, pitch, and miscellaneous. Rhythm and pitch serve as the two foundational elements in this curriculum and miscellaneous contains elements that help move the study of rhythm and pitch forward.
Everything in the grid below revolves around experience, identification, understanding of function, and creation (i.e., performing, responding, connecting, and creating). All grade levels purposely experience things that they will not identify or learn of its function until later in their educational career. If elements are only experienced, they are not listed in the grid. The grid displays items that the students will learn to identify or that they will learn to understand their function.
Please note, that this is a spiraling curriculum. Elements learned in lower grade levels will reoccur or serve as a foundation for something new in higher grade levels. Mr. McDowell blends teaching strategies from Orff, Dalcroze, and Modern Band (to be discussed later) when teaching music elements.
Ms. Holmes’s curriculum looks a little different. She organizes by the National Standards and has created “I can” statements for each strand (i.e., performing, responding, creating, connecting) per grade level: Holmes Curriculum Map
Scott County created their own curriculum for music teachers. Here is what Ms. Moses uses: Scott County Music Curriculum
Some counties also have a curriculum map that helps you know what to teach when. Scott County 1st nine weeks Music Curriculum Map
Since we do not know what county you will be working in, you will design lessons using the National Core Arts Standards. Feel free to use the curriculum and curricular maps from Mr. McDowell, Ms. Holmes, and Ms. Moses as guides, however, you should plan your lessons in direct consultation with your practicum teacher.
Mr. McDowell’s Learning Objectives (K–5)
*The lines moving up, down, sideways, etc. are connected to strategies the students use to improvise or compose.