Guest Feature Continued from page 44
select, analyze, interpret and evaluate. As individuals who choose music to listen to every day, they also analyze and interpret the music. Ultimately, they evaluate the music and make a choice as to whether or not they will listen to that type of music again.
Essential Questions and Enduring Understandings All of the Artistic Processes are connected to Essential Questions and Enduring Understandings. The questions and understandings help students think broader so that they can build a deeper understanding of music. Every Essential Question written within the standards is accompanied by a possible answer, the Enduring Understanding. For example, the question, “How do musicians generate creative ideas?” can be answered: “The creative ideas, concepts, and feelings that influence musicians’ work emerge from a variety of sources.”
With Essential Questions and Enduring Understandings in mind, we can help our students see how the music activities they do in our general music classes connect to the “bigger picture.” For example, rather than simply teaching our general music students about major and minor keys, the new standards require we take our thinking one step further so that our students learn that when composing or improvising music, musicians generate creative ideas from many sources (an enduring understanding), including their knowledge of major and minor keys.
Additional Concerns about the National Standards One concern about the national standards in general music is
the high number of standards for our students. When looking at the standards, I can see why most people think there are too many standards for general music. When compared to the old standards from 1994, the language embedded within the standards is intimidating. However, if you look at the process component below for Performing, you might see that there are really only one or two standards within the process component. For example, for Kindergarten students, the only standards for the Presenting process component within the overarching Artistic Process of Performing are to perform music appropriately and with expression with guidance from their music teacher. In other words, NAfME has defined what each standard looks for like for each grade level within all the process components.
Another concern for many teachers is that regardless if they understand the Artistic Processes, they still do not understand what is written within each grade level standard. For example, there are a number of words written in red and italic text. The red text are terms found within a glossary written by the standards writing team to define terms that could be interpreted in a variety of ways. Therefore, the glossary can be used to better understand how NAfME defines them. Words written in italics indicate any new content that hasn’t been presented within that specific grade level yet.
Taking Steps into using the Standards Even though we have specific standards for each grade level, what happens if your students’ knowledge and skills do not align with
Figure 1. The Presenting Process Component within the Performing Artistic Process from the National Core Arts Standards in General Music, by the National Association for Music Education, 2014.
Fall 2018 |
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