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Curriculum Project

Alysa M. Hershman

Department of Music Education, Northern State University

MUS 777: Curriculum Writing

Dr. Wendy van Gent

July 1, 2022
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Table of Contents
SIOUX FALLS SCHOOL DISTRICT MISSION STATEMENT ....................................................................................... 3
SIOUX FALLS SCHOOL DISTRICT VISION STATEMENT .......................................................................................... 3
SIOUX FALLS SCHOOL DISTRICT PRIORITIES ....................................................................................................... 3
HAYWARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL MISSION STATEMENT ................................................................................... 4
HAYWARD ELEMENTARY SCHOOL VISION STATEMENT ...................................................................................... 4
PERSONAL MISSION STATEMENT ...................................................................................................................... 5
INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................... 6
RATIONALE .................................................................................................................................................... 11
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE MUSIC STANDARDS OVERVIEW ................................................................................... 12
SOUTH DAKOTA STATE MUSIC STANDARDS .................................................................................................... 13
CURRICULUM OUTLINE .................................................................................................................................. 17
KINDERGARTEN CONCEPT MAP ...................................................................................................................... 18
KINDERGARTEN PACING GUIDE ...................................................................................................................... 19
1ST GRADE CONCEPT MAP............................................................................................................................... 23
1ST GRADE PACING GUIDE............................................................................................................................... 24
2ND GRADE CONCEPT MAP .............................................................................................................................. 28
2ND GRADE PACING GUIDE .............................................................................................................................. 29
3RD GRADE CONCEPT MAP .............................................................................................................................. 33
3RD GRADE PACING GUIDE .............................................................................................................................. 34
4TH GRADE CONCEPT MAP .............................................................................................................................. 38
4TH GRADE PACING GUIDE .............................................................................................................................. 39
5TH GRADE CONCEPT MAP .............................................................................................................................. 43
5TH GRADE PACING GUIDE .............................................................................................................................. 44
REFERENCES .................................................................................................................................................. 48
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Sioux Falls School District Mission Statement

To educate and prepare each student to succeed in a changing world.

Sioux Falls School District Vision Statement

To provide opportunities and challenges for each student to succeed as a lifelong learner in a

changing world.

Sioux Falls School District Priorities

• Providing effective and engaging curriculum and instruction to help our students grow.

• Encouraging growth and innovation to support and enhance a high quality, diverse staff.

• Creating a nurturing, safe and inclusive learning experience for all.

• Engaging with staff, families, partners and community to foster shared responsibility for

student success.
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Hayward Elementary School Mission Statement

To educate and prepare each student to succeed in a changing world.

Hayward Elementary School Vision Statement

At Hayward, we are committed to celebrating our differences by providing a safe and nurturing

environment where ALL students, families, and community members feel loved, trusted, and

supported while we grow and learn to meet life’s opportunities and challenges together.
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Personal Mission Statement

Not only do I want my students to display musical growth, I also want to continue to grow

personally and professionally in my craft. My hope and goal for my mission statement is that it

will guide my everyday practices and what I do with and for my students.

I aspire to:

• Build positive relationships with students, colleagues, administrators, parents, and the

community.

• Provide a safe and positive environment in which my students can learn and grow.

• Assist my students in developing social and life skills such as kindness, respect,

determination, hard work, and responsibility.

• Inspire a lifelong love of learning music by creating lessons that are authentic, exciting,

and engaging to my students.

• Grow personally and professionally by not being afraid to change my ways of thinking.

• Be a strong communicator and advocate for music education.

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Introduction

My classes I have taken so far in the MME program have not only helped me grow as a

human being and music educator, but they have also helped to guide my curriculum. Each class

has provided me various skills and knowledge that has guided me in my assignments and

projects.

Music Theory Analysis gave me the skills I need as a music educator to analyze music.

The music fundamental quizzes each week helped me better understand music fundamentals and

helped prepare me for the final exam. The scavenger hunts allowed me to take music examples

form my classroom and analyze them effectively. I gained teaching strategies for introducing

music analysis to my K-5 students. For my final project, I created a personal project journal in

which I made a presentation of all the music fundamentals I learned throughout the course. I

included examples and games to help not only me, but my students as well. I will use what I

learned in my theory course to help my students make connections between what they are

hearing and seeing in their music and provide them with resources they need to be successful. In

my curriculum, I provide my students with opportunities to analyze and evaluate music and use

what I learned in this course to assist me.

I have never been someone that is technologically savvy. Technology for Music

Educators helped me identify where I can find information about technology and determine how

to learn technology more efficiently. I completed a substantial technology project in which I

created worksheets, assessments, and Orff compositions for my elementary students. It was

relevant for me and my students. I also created a final presentation on Google Slides. I use this

platform every day with my students so it gave me a good refresher on what all is possible. This

course gave me a wide variety of technology resources I can incorporate in my classroom with
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my students. I have included some of these resources into my curriculum to ensure it is up-to-

date. It will also give my students various platforms to learn the concepts in the curriculum.

Although conducting is not something I do daily with my students, this course gave me

the confidence I needed to stand on a podium in front of my peers and students. Advanced

Conducting and Performance Practice helped me learn proper conducting techniques and gave

me the skills to analyze musical scores and evaluate the conducting of myself and my peers. I

will use the skills I learned in this course to display confidence both in the classroom and when

directing performances. I completed a resources assignment in which I provided resources I use

with my students to find existing music, new music, and my favorite pieces to use with each

grade level. This assignment has helped with my curriculum project as it gave me music

resources and examples.

Advanced Rehearsal Techniques helped me realize how much score and music

preparation influences my effectiveness as a music educator and therefore, helps my students

understand the music we use and perform. It was also a good conducting refresher for me as I

haven’t really used my conducting skills since last summer during our conducting course. I

learned a great deal about different types of music such as pop and classical music, spiritual

music, and multicultural music. I learned the importance of warm-ups and created a presentation

on why warm-ups are important and specific warm-ups I use with my elementary students. In my

curriculum and instruction, I have provided opportunities for my students to warm-up before a

music lesson and incorporate different styles of music in instruction based on the resources I

researched in this course.

School Music Administration encompassed the administrative side of a music

department. I identified ways to get organized and develop effective systems of management for
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specific aspects of the music program. I created a professional mission statement, budget

presentation, compilation of professional tasks I need to complete throughout the year, and

professional research project. The mission statement is something I can use to reflect on my

teaching and goals I want to complete with my students. The budget presentation will assist me

in budgeting for the year. The compilation of professional tasks gave me organizational skills.

For the professional research project, I worked with a group and we researched and presented

burnout in education, which is currently a hot topic in education. I feel organization was the

greatest skill I learned during this course and therefore, it has been an aid in my curriculum

project.

As someone who has never developed a curriculum, this course gave me great insight

into different types of curriculums and what all they encompass. A curriculum encompasses so

much more than I initially thought. The discussions in the course helped me understand not only

my viewpoint, but also the perspectives of others in the class. I completed an article review on

developing a curriculum that is equitable for all students. This is a goal of mine and I kept this

goal in mind when I developed my curriculum for this project.

Foundations of Music Education, Psychology/Philosophy made me really think about

what is important to me as a music educator. I appreciated not only putting my thoughts together,

but reading my classmates’ thoughts as well. In this course, I wrote my philosophy of music

education paper and expressed my thoughts in an academic and professional way. I put together

a presentation on music benefits and advocating for the music program to share with my

classmates and presented it accordingly. I also read a lot of pages in our philosophy book that

helped shape my philosophy and gave me some great insight. I was able to read and write about

different perspectives and viewpoints and relate to some while disagreeing with others. My
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philosophy has assisted me in shaping my curriculum project and reminded me what is important

to me as an educator. Important points in my philosophy are that music education is a vital

component to the education of all students (Bowman & Frega, 2012); music provides us

opportunities to learn music from other cultures to give us meaningful experiences; music is a

shared common language (Bowman & Frega, 2012); music helps teach empathy and social

skills; my job is to build a positive rapport with my students, create a safe and welcoming

environment, know my students’ needs and accommodations, hold them to high expectations,

scaffold learning, nurture their social, emotional, and musical development, and so much more.

My philosophy says a lot about who I am as a teacher and reflects my personal beliefs

about music and music education. I continue to reflect, grow, learn, and change my teaching and

music education philosophy. If I don’t acknowledge what I am doing well and not so well, I

cannot be an effective teacher for my students. My job as a music educator entails a lot and my

philosophy helps shape who I am, what I do, and my curriculum project.

I learned about many different methods of teaching elementary music last semester in

General Music Pedagogy. Learning about MLT, Kodaly, Dalcroze, Orff, Teaching for Musical

Understanding, and Suzuki has impacted decisions I have made regarding my curriculum for

Curriculum Writing. I was not familiar with MLT before this course, which was shocking to me

as an elementary music teacher. Music Learning Theory (MLT) is an explanation of how we

learn music and is an all-inclusive method for teaching audiation, which is thinking music in the

mind with understanding (Gordon, 2012). MLT is not a method, but instead, a theory about how

we learn music. It greatly stresses the importance of audiation and introducing sound before

sight. Learning begins with the ear and learning music is no different. Gordon relates learning

music to that of learning a language. Students should not only learn to read and write music, but
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also understand what they are reading and writing. Students find joy in music when they are able

to understand and truly appreciate it. I have incorporated elements of MLT into my curriculum

because I believe it will greatly help my students learn and understand music. This course also

refreshed my knowledge and understanding of Kodaly, Orff, Dalcroze, Teaching for Musical

Understanding (TMU), and Suzuki. I incorporated some elements from the Kodaly and Orff

methods and Teaching for Musical Understanding (TMU). The Kodaly method was developed

by Zoltan Kodaly, his colleagues, and students and involves singing, the use of folk music,

solfege, hand signs, and rhythm duration syllables (Choksy, 2001). I incorporated the Kodaly

solfege syllables and hand signs into my curriculum. The Off method was developed by Carl

Orff and integrates music, movement, speech, and drama. The aim of the process is to get

children to sing, play, dance to music, and read and write music (Choksy, 2001). I have included

many opportunities in my curriculum for students to do just that. Teaching for Musical

Understanding (TMU) is a social constructivist learning process in which learners construct their

own understanding of musical experiences (Wiggins, 2015). This approach aligns with MLT in

the sense that students engage in thinking in sound, students learn through exploration, learning

is scaffolded, the teacher is the facilitator instead of a lecturer, and students experience and

understand concepts before providing labels to them. Knowing these various methods of

teaching has not only impacted my instruction, but also influenced the development of my

curriculum.
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Rationale

My K-5 curriculum is centered around the goal of educating and preparing each student

to succeed in a changing world. I have structured the curriculum so students can build on

concepts each year. The objectives are presented in a logical progression that is developmentally

appropriate. I have used the Understanding by Design (UbD) framework to structure my

curriculum. Understanding by Design (UbD) is a way of thinking about curriculum planning and

assessment and builds on a goal-oriented model for learning that emphasizes ideas, processes and

relationships, and promotes understanding through questions and exploration (Conway, 2015). It

uses a three-stage backward design to help students understand the purpose of the activity, the

goal of the task, and how the goals lead to understanding. My curriculum provides structure and

flexibility for the teacher to ensure all students have the ability to learn and grow. I have

incorporated methods and practices into my curriculum such as MLT, Kodaly, and Orff. All of

the grade levels are based upon the South Dakota State Standards of Creating, Performing,

Responding, and Connecting. This K-5 music curriculum is built to serve students in the best

way possible. The document is subject to change and can be updated based on the needs of

students.
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South Dakota State Music Standards Overview

South Dakota K-12 Music Education Standards Following NCCAS’s lead, music

stakeholders from across South Dakota reviewed and revised South Dakota’s Music Standards

using the newly released NCCAS standards as a model. The Music Standards include student

outcomes (what students should know and be able to do) in each grade from prekindergarten

through grades 8, and for two levels in high school. While the standards identify what knowledge

and skills students should know and be able to do, they leave precisely how this is to be

accomplished to teachers and other local specialists who formulate, deliver, and evaluate criteria.

The South Dakota Music Standards are designed to provide a framework for curriculum,

instruction, and assessment practices. The goal of music education is to develop musically

literate individuals who have the knowledge, skills, and confidence to enjoy a lifetime of music

participation/enjoyment. A musically literate individual also exhibits responsible personal and

social behaviors and respects themselves, others, and their environment.

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South Dakota State Music Standards

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Curriculum Outline
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Kindergarten Concept Map

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Kindergarten Pacing Guide

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1st Grade Concept Map

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1st Grade Pacing Guide

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2nd Grade Concept Map

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2nd Grade Pacing Guide

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3rd Grade Concept Map

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3rd Grade Pacing Guide

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4th Grade Concept Map

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4th Grade Pacing Guide

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5th Grade Concept Map

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5th Grade Pacing Guide

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References

Bowman, W. D. & Frega, A. L. (2012). What should the music education profession expect of

philosophy? In W. D. Bowman & A. L. Frega (Eds.), The oxford handbook of philosophy

in music education. (pp. 17-36). Oxford University Press, Inc.

Choksy, L. (2001). Teaching music in the twenty-first century (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle

River, N.J.: Prentice Hall.

Conway, C. M. (2015). Musicianship-focused curriculum and assessment. GIA Publications, Inc.

Gordon, E. (2012). Learning sequences in music: A contemporary music learning theory. Gia

Publications, Inc.

Wiggins, J. (2015). Teaching for musical understanding: Teaching music with a social

constructivist vision of learning. Oxford University Press.