The music curriculum at the East School is designed to prepare children to become musical in three ways:
· Tuneful – to have tunes in their heads and learn to coordinate their voices to sing those tunes.
· Beatful – to feel the pulse of music and how that pulse is grouped in either twos or threes.
· Artful – to be moved by music in the many ways music can elicit an emotional response.
Adults who are tuneful, beatful, and artful can participate in the music that is interwoven into their lives.
They can sing “Happy Birthday” and lullabies to their children, they can dance at their wedding and clap their hands in time at a sporting event, they can be moved by music and seek out venues to share artful experiences with others in concert halls or community bands and choirs. They are better able to participate in a community and are able to enjoy opportunities to sing together with others, dance together with others, and share listening to beautiful music together with others.
Children who learn to be tuneful, beatful, and artful can therefore leave elementary school and grow up to be adults who experience these benefits. Those who go on to play musical instruments or sing in choir will do so in a more musical manner. Those who choose not to play an instrument or sing in choir will still be enriched by being able to share music in their daily lives.
In the East School Music Classroom I have two rules: Respect and Effort. This means students are being kind to themselves, others, and their school. This also includes not laughing at others who are trying new things like singing alone. Effort means every student trying their best to participate regardless of their level. I tell every student it does not matter what your classmates are able to do, but only what you can do. Creating an environment based on respect and effort allows the music class to develop with less children feeling afraid to do things on their own. The goal is to create a class full of supporters who will try new things and encourage others to do the same. When this environment is cultivated, I am able to accomplish my goals in the music curriculum.
This curriculum is based on folk and traditional songs and rhymes because of their ability to connect generations and because of their natural melodic expressiveness, natural flow of the language, and texts filled with wonder.
This curriculum works on the development of:
· Music intelligence;
· Singing skills;
· Sensitivity to the beat and beat groups;
· Expressive movement;
· Musical memory;
· Preferences; and
· Neurological connections.
It also addresses the nine National Standards of Music Education.
1. Singing, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
2. Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music.
3. Improvising melodies, variations, and accompaniments.
4. Composing and arranging music within specified guidelines.
5. Reading and notating music.
6. Listening to, analyzing, and describing music.
7. Evaluating music and music performances.
8. Understanding relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
9. Understanding music in relation to history and culture.
The curriculum develops sound before sight so that when students are taught how to read and write notation it is more meaningful because they can associate the sounds that go with it.