Guest Feature Getting to the “Core” of the
National Core Arts Standards for General Music
by NAfME Member Erin Zaffini
As a member of the writing team for the National Core Arts Standards in general music, I am aware that because many general music teachers find them challenging, they choose not to use them. I understand this decision. It’s incredibly difficult for teachers to plan and teach music classes using standards they do not understand. Of course, this was never the intent when NAfME set out to re-work the 1994 standards. Nevertheless, we are now presented with the fact that regardless of the large effort put forth into crafting the new standards, our profession needs to do more to make them accessible. Here I will explain the rationale behind the new standards, how to read them and understand them, and offer suggestions for how to begin using them in your own classroom.
The National Core Arts Standards: Authentic and Specific
literate, the standards employ the authentic Artistic Processes in which professional musicians participate daily. The processes are Creating, Performing and Responding. Although other art forms include a definitive fourth process called Connecting, NAfME does not consider this process as separate from the others. Since we naturally connect what is taught in our classes and ensembles to other disciplines all the time, Connecting is interwoven in all we do. The standards are also specific, particularly the Pre-K to 8 general music
standards. Due to the overwhelming request for more specific standards from teachers and departments of education throughout the country, the writing team outlined specific content knowledge, skills, and standards for students by grade level.
The Three Artistic Processes Each of the three Artistic Processes includes embedded steps called process components. Process components are similar to smaller-scale steps that take place within each broader process. For example, within the Creating process of the general music standards, you will see the words imagine, plan and make, evaluate and refine and present. These are all steps (process components) that musicians take as they compose music. The following is a description of each Artistic Process and its process components.
The new standards were written with authenticity and specificity in mind. In our strides to help our students become musically
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The Creating process describes how musicians compose and improvise music. The process components for this are imagine, plan and make, evaluate and refine and present. Although they are written as if they are a step-by-step guide for composing or improvising, it is likely that students will have to go back to a previous process component before moving on to the next one. The Performing process asks students to take on tasks that we, as teachers, often do for them. In doing so, our students will select music, analyze it, interpret it, and share their interpretations with others, rehearse, evaluate, and refine the music so that they can perform it. The process components within this process are select, analyze, interpret, rehearse, evaluate and refine, and present. The Responding artistic process draws attention to the choices students make as music consumers. Its process components are
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