Elementary General Music Curriculum Team

The purpose of the team is to review and enrich the K-5 general music program. The team has met on two occasions investigating current practices and strategies to help enhance the K-5 general music activities. The notes below share the main pieces of data reviewed along with the discussion points generated from the team. Materials provided at sessions for team members are also available on the website. Two main changes were made to original materials for the website - the committee name and where appropriate "general music" is used in place of music in order to clarify the team purpose. The term, music, is used throughout the documents and refers to the team's focus on K-5 general music.

The Elementary General Music Curriculum Team received the following information in their sessions.

State Standards/Benchmarks: The team was provided with copies of the State Standards and the district benchmarks for music. They were also provided with the DPI program recommendations for music instruction.

Articles: The team has read several articles to review music education strategies. The articles presented the following ideas:

creating and implementing a vision
arts program challenges
incorporating movement within K-5 general music
utilizing a constructivist view for music education
building rhythmic and vocal creativity
providing meaningful and engaging experiences for students with special needs
integrating aural, visual, and kinesthetic music strategies
incorporating culturally authentic experiences into the general music curriculum
planning elementary general music with an "ends approach" (i.e. musical skills and knowledge students need to graduate).

Climate survey: This set of information showed MMSD students' perceptions of their experiences in the arts. The data because of the general nature of the questions provided answers that did not specifically focus on music. This information was valuable to the team in their pursuit of constructing a survey for staff which would request specific programming elements. Elementary music staff was provided this survey and results are pending.

Elementary optional music programs: The team requested information about additional musical experiences that were provided to students in K-5. A discussion of past activities including chorus, theater, and dance teams had occurred, however data analysis on these activities was not available. Therefore, the team asked for the strings data to gain an understanding of musical opportunities which start in elementary school. The team discussed who is currently enrolled in the only district-wide optional music experience in elementary music. There are some additional optional fine arts activities, however these are not offered throughout the district. In reviewing this musical opportunity beyond general music, the team discussed additional general music experiences which will provide a wide range of activities including instrumental, vocal, movement, and culturally authentic experiences to a more diverse group of students.

The team will be meeting to review the staff survey data results. Through this, the team will assist in putting together elementary general music curriculum practices. These recommendations will be shared with elementary general music staff for feedback. The team will then make revisions and then share the final program with both the BOE and MMSD administration.

Thank you all for your continued interest in the Elementary General Music Curriculum Team. I look forward to any feedback you may have about this project.

Julie A. Palkowski, Ph.D.
Coordinator of Fine Arts
Madison Metropolitan School District
(608) 663-5227; Fax (608) 442-3471
jpalkowski@madison.k12.wi.us