Developing a Curriculum for the Performance Ensemble!

Iowa Music Educator’s Association Conference!November 21, 2014!

8:30AM!!

Natalie Steele Royston, PhD!Iowa State University!

What is a curriculum?!!   Many definitions - Simply put....What we will teach our

students!

!   what a teacher chooses to teach over the course of nay given year!

!   a multi-year, district wide body of knowledge and skills!

!   Something that provides guidance about a set of subjects, a sequence of topics, a set of objectives, a course of study, and the range of experiences a student will experience during their study of music. !

!   a highly structured, logical sequence of concepts, skills, and attitudes to be achieved through the scope of an entire music program. !!

!   A formal curriculum helps to provide all the teachers in a school or district with a frame for their plans and helps to assure that some consistency exists within a program. Most importantly, a formal curriculum helps establish clear goals or outcomes and becomes a structure for directing teacher and student activity and for measuring musical learning. !

!   A quality formal curriculum established large goals, competencies, and outcomes, leaving teachers free to develop an instructional curriculum for their own classroom and a personal method for attaining the goals. Ensures a comprehensive and sequential approach to music that reflects child development. !!

!   Instructional curriculum - the specific plans, reflecting the formal curriculum, that teachers make for their lessons, including the use of materials. This also includes how individual student progress will be assessed. !!!

Curriculum is: !!

a body of knowledge to be transmitted!!

a product!&!

a process!

“If we use the common metaphor of curriculum as a journey, these documents resemble the

itinerary. They give us a general sense of the major destinations, the time frame in which the

journey will occur, and the order in which we will travel from one location to another” !

(Barrett, 2005)!

What should be in a curriculum?!!   Philosophy of the Music Program!

!   Goals and Beliefs for the overall program - list of beliefs about music and teaching!

!   Lists of developmental skills or benchmarks!

!   Required resources - teaching spaces, staffing needs, equipment, and budget!

!   Sample teaching strategies - lesson plans!

!   Sample assessment strategies - checklists, rating scales, and rubrics!

!   Suggested curricular resources - include method books and ensemble literature (Conway, 2002)!

Building a curriculum!!   Curricular specificity is needed in music, just

as it is in other subjects!

!   Teachers need to have a big picture and a specific picture in mind !

!   There is no 1 single correct method for creating a curriculum !

!   A curriculum should be driven by a sound educational philosophy and good pedagogical practice !

Spiral Curriculum "!!   Jerome Bruner -!

!   Concept learning and skill development are the primary goals at every level - each time around they are revisited at a higher, more complex level - student’s knowledge will grow cumulatively - while allowing for individual growth and assessment. !

!   Along the continuum between elementary and high school, concepts become more complex in degree. The “spiral” aspect refers to the process of circling back to topics previously taught.!

!   Duke - achieve excellence at whatever level is appropriate!

I believe curriculums should... !!   ...be balanced, appropriately sequenced, and comprehensive!

!   ...guide repertoire decisions rather than allowing repertoire to dictate learning goals - repertoire makes curriculum come alive!

!   ...insure that students transition to their next grade level with a certain set of skills and comprehension!

!   ...create useful continuity between grade levels in regard to issues of terminology, teaching strategies, counting systems, etc. (Keeps everyone on the same page)!

!   ...provide structure while allowing the teacher considerable freedom and creativity in regards to the vehicle (activities/repertoire) used to teach it!

Approaches to curriculum!

!   Objectives-based!

!   Literature-based!

!   Skills-based!

!   Knowledge-based!

!   Standards-based!

National Standards for Music Education!!!   originally developed by MENC in 1994!

revised & re-released by NAfME in 2014!

!   Standards are not curriculum - they are guidelines!

!   Should be used to enhance musical learning and performance!

!   Creating - Performing - Responding - Connecting!

! Core Music Standards - Ensemble Strand!!

1) Set End of the Year Goals!At the conclusion of the school year, students in choir will be able to do the following:!

1. Demonstrate good choral habits, such as being in their seat ready to sing, with their folder and a pencil!2. Demonstrate the use of correct posture and breathing technique when singing!3. Using correct music terminology, describe the musci they have studied and performed!4. Identify two facts about the composers, the cultural context, and the period of music history for the pieces they perform!5. Sing with consistent tone and intonation throughout their vocal range!6. Demonstrate the ability to correctly mark scores and indicated in rehearsal!7. Sight-sing music in major and minor keys, containing triadic leaps as well as leaps of a fourth and sixth; with rhythmic patterns comprising whole notes, half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes (and their!corresponding rests), as well as the dotted quarter followed by an eighth note and sixteenth notes; using meter signatures of 4/4, 3/4, 2/4, and 6/8!8. At least 3 times a year, perform expressively a well-prepared concert of a variety of choral repertoire!9. Sing with success, music written in four or five parts!10, Sing, with success, several selections written in a language other than English with the choir!11. Perform at one choral festival with adjudication (Brinson & Demorest)!

2) Determine Scope & Sequence!!   Tone Production!

!   Rhythm!

!   Pitch!

!   Notation!

!   Timbre!

!   Form!

!   Musicality!

!   Listening!

!   Sight Reading!

!   Cultural/Historical!!( Jagow)!!!!!

Define what is to be learned in your classroom...!

!   Skills!

!   Concepts!

!   Attitudes!

!   Repertoire!

Define Levels to be used!Elliot’s 5 Levels of Musicianship!

Level 1: Novice!Level 2: Advanced Beginner!

Level 3: Competency !Level 4: Proficiency!

Level 5: Expert!

District Curriculum Plan!

!Lesson !Plan!

Unit Plan!

Course Map !

Dividing time"!

!   Time has to be carefully divided between skill development and repertoire (based on level)!

!   Rehearsals must be structured efficiently!

!   Music program should be providing students with a substantive and comprehensive music education!

Determine literature to be used!

!   The literature you choose makes your curriculum come alive!!

!   Literature should be a vehicle in which to demonstrate and apply the skills and knowledge to make beautiful music!

Curriculum & Assessment Connection!

!   Evaluation should be used to assess student learning and teaching effectiveness.!!

!   A defined competency at each level would be required in order to facilitate advancement to the next level.!

The complete curricular process!

Diagnose Needs

Formulate Objectives

Select and Organize Content

Select & Organize Learning

Experiencess

Determine Strategies for

Evaluating Learning

Deliver and Implement

the Curriculum

Evaluate Student Learning

(Barrett, 2005)

!   If directors broaden their focus to include a systematic study of music reading, technique, style, aural skills, basic theory, music history, and the cultural context of music - students will gain skills and knowledge necessary for independent musicianship - They will be stronger musicians and the ensembles will perform better as a result. (Brinson & Demorest)!

After three years in Middle School Band, the student should be able to: Individual Goals • Hold the instrument, sticks, or mallets correctly with correct hand position. • Demonstrate the correct posture to be used when playing the instrument. • Form a correct embouchure or stick grip for the instrument. • Produce a characteristic, controlled sound on the instrument. • Perform clean articulations on the instrument to include; tongue and slur combinations, accents, staccato, legato and forte-piano. • Perform solo works with minimal assistance from the director. • Demonstrate the ability to care for, maintain, store, and transport the instrument. Ensemble (Group) Goals • Explain and demonstrate, with the band, the pyramid balance concept. • Demonstrate the ability to tune the instrument and play in tune with the band. • Explain and demonstrate, with the band, staggered breathing. • Explain and demonstrate, with the band, dove-tailing of phrases. • Perform the appropriate level of concert music with artistry and musical taste. • Successfully sight-read an appropriate level of concert music. • Perform and receive a rating at the NC Band Festival. • Perform music for the public with the band.

Additional Percussion Goals Percussion students will also demonstrate additional proficiency in the following areas: • Perform basic drum rudiments to include rolls, flams, paradiddles, drags, ruffs, and ratamacues. • Demonstrate knowledge of suspended and crash cymbal technique. • Demonstrate knowledge of chime technique. • Demonstrate a knowledge of auxiliary instrument technique (triangle, tambourine, sleigh bells. woodblock, etc.). • Demonstrate knowledge of concert bass drum technique. • Demonstrate the ability to tune and play basic timpani parts.

!

Music Theory Goals • Identify pitches in both treble and bass clef. • Count, play, and identify by ear, common rhythmic figures including eighth-note/eighth-rest combinations, sixteenth-note/sixteenth-rest combinations, syncopated rhythms, rhythms involving ties, dotted rhythms, triplet figures, and cut-time figures. • Define basic Italian, French, German and Latin terms and symbols found in music. • Name the keys on the piano. • Construct half-steps and whole-steps above or below any given pitch. • Write and play all major scales. · Write and identify all major key signatures. • Identify any given pitch in any given key using numerals, solfege, or proper degree names. • Identify (aurally and written) major, minor, and perfect intervals. Advanced Individual Goals • Play chromatic scales on the instrument. • Play basic swing rhythms on the instrument. • Play blues scales on the instrument. • Play pure, harmonic and melodic minor scales on the instrument. • Transpose and perform basic tunes up or down a whole step at sight. Music Appreciation Goals • Experience the performance of fine music by ensembles and soloists by attending live concerts and listening to recordings. Citizenship Goals • Exhibit personal pride, integrity, responsibility, commitment, dependability, a strong work ethic, and esprit de corps. • Respect the abilities and efforts of others.

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Sample Unit Plan - Melody - Young Band!Composition Title: Air for Band!Composer: Frank Erickson!Publisher: Bourne Co. 1956!Recording: Teaching Music Through Performance in Band, !

Volume 5 Disc 1 (GIA)!

Sub - Concepts - Phrase, shape, register, length, modulation, modality!

Learning Objectives:!1. Identify melody or countermelody in the individual parts!2. Identify occurrence of modulation from C minor to C Major!3. Define the musical terms air, melodic shape or contour, phrase, and modulation.!4. Demonstrate accurately and musically through performance the melodic motion, phrasing, and balance of melody and countermelody!5. Compose a new melody that fits the chord structure of the first eight measures !6. Evaluate the quality of the individual and ensemble performance!

National Standards!

2, 4, 5, 6, 7 as well as opportunities for reading and writing across the curriculum!

Instructional Procedures:!

Activities for full band rehearsal:!

Activites for outside of school:!

Evaluation Activities:!!

1. Record individual and ensemble performance. Play back the recordings and have the students self-assess their individual performance as well as evaluate the performance of their section and that of the entire ensemble. Director assess as well. !!2. Have students complete melody quiz. Collect and evaluate. Review results with the ensemble after checking the papers. !!3. Collect and evaluate take-home handouts. !

Sample Music Curriculums!

http://bvsd.org/curriculum/curriculum/K5%20Curriculum%20Documents/Middle%20Level%20Curriculum%20Adopted

%202009/CHOIR%20-%20HS.pdf!

http://www.clayton.k12.ga.us/departments/instruction/finearts/middleschoolchorus.asp!

Middle School Chorus!

All Music Courses!

http://www.lcps.org/cms/lib4/VA01000195/Centricity/Domain/2078/LCPS_MS_CHORAL_CURRICULUM_2009-10.pdf!

High School Choir!

http://www.benzieschools.net/uploads/curriculum_docs/10th/Music/HS%20Concert_Choir_Map%20_6-6-08_.pdf!

All High School Music Courses!(Band, Choir, Orchestra, Guitar, Technology, AP Theory)!

http://www.trinitypride.k12.pa.us/district.cfm?subpage=1045665!

http://www3.barringtonschools.org/casr/Music%20Mapping/MapMusicBarringtonConcertChoirandChoralEnsemble9-12.pdf!

http://www.hsd2.org/departments/curriculum-instruction/maps!

Music K -12!

http://www.haddonfield.k12.nj.us/district_info/Curriculum/Curric_Maps/HS_Curric_Maps/HS_Music_Curric_Maps/Curriculum%20Map%20for%20HS%20Band%20-%202008.pdf!

High School Band!

http://apsva.us/Page/15838!

Middle School Band and Choir!

http://www.edison.k12.nj.us/Page/5258!

Barrett, J. R. (2005). Planning for Understanding: A re-conceptualized view of the music curriculum. Music Educators Journal, 91(4), 21-25. doi:10.2307/3400154 Brinson, B. A., & Demorest, S. M. (2014). Choral Music: Methods and Materials. 2nd ed. Boston: Schirmer. Campbell, P. S., & Scott-Kassner, C. (2014). Music in Childhood: From Preschool through the Elementary Grades. 4th Ed. Boston: Schirmer. Conway, C. (2002). Curriculum Writing in Music. Music Educators Journal, 88(6), 44-59. doi:10.2307/3399806 Duke, R. A. (2005). Intelligent Music Teaching: Essays on the core principles of effective instruction. Austin, Tx: and Behavior Resources. Feldman, E. & Contzius, A. (2011). Instrumental Music Education: Teaching with the Musical and Practical in Harmony. New York. : Routledge. Jagow, S. (2007). Teaching Instrumental Music: Developing the Complete Band Program. Galesville, MD: Meredith Music. Lewis, D. (2012). A Musicianship Curriculum for Middle-level and Small High School Bands. San Bernadino, CA: Raiber, M. & Teachout, D. (2014). The Journey from Music Student to Teacher; A Professional Approach. New York: Routledge.