As teaching artists we regularly receive
requests from principals and parents in our partner public schools
for what they variously call benchmarks, or outcomes, or a
syllabus... in effect, they want to know "What should we be
looking for? What should we expect the kids to be learning? How can we know?"
Here are two programs to provide some reference. Both were created under the auspices of highly respected institutions, by some very knowledgeable and experienced music educators.
---------------- The Achievement
Program -------------------------------
This program is a collaboration between Carnegie
Hall's Education Department and the ancient and venerable Royal
Conservatory of Music in Canada, launched by Carnegie Hall in March
2011. In its literature, The Achievement Program is described as "a
detailed outline of music study and assessment for students and
teachers."
This program closely parallels the NYSSMA
guidelines which some of you may already be familiar with.
NYSSMA
curriculum guides can be found here:
But back to the Achievement Program.
Here is the
Carnegie Hall/Royal
Conservatory Achievement Program page where you can view and download their complete
"syllabus" for your instrument:
http://www.theachievementprogram.org/program/syllabi
Having
read all of these, I want to say I would personally make
MANY adjustments.
To achieve all the items of even
the "preliminary" or "rudimentary" levels
outlined in the Achievement Program may be unrealistic for our public school
classes. Don't feel badly. Many of our beginner
students have only one (sometimes quite large) group class per week,
no instrument at home, no practicing between weekly classes at all,
no parental involvement a la Suzuki method, etc, etc. Ours is a
VASTLY different situation than what the Royal Conservatory folks
were imagining when they created these syllabi. They're very well
done and very thorough, but they emphasize classical music, and they
seem to me to assume all the students are taking private lessons and
practicing 7 days a week.
Additionally, as you see, only the
piano syllabus has a "pop" alternate-repertoire list, and
it mostly isn't "real" popular music, but music written in
what some editor thinks is a "popular style." However, I
know my students want their ACTUAL favorite songs.
Even the
guitar syllabus is ALL classical. (Which surprised me, being a
guitarist and a guitar teacher myself.)
The vocal syllabus is slanted toward a
student taking private voice lessons, singing a mostly "classical"
and Broadway repertoire.
The percussion syllabus is not very
relevant to what we're doing with public school World Drumming classes here in NYC, but
rather based on band/orchestral snare drumming and xylophone.
To
save you time and trouble, I've identified the 2 or 3 relevant pages
from each Carnegie Hall document. I thought you might want to see the
corresponding pages for a few other instruments, as well as your own.
Once again, here's the Carnegie Hall web page:
Piano - see pp 21-23
Violin - see pp 24-26
Voice - see pp 16-19
Guitar - see pp 13-15
Percussion - not very relevant but take a look
Theory - see pp 13-14 applies to
musical literacy for all our students
------------- National Standards and
The NYC Blueprint ----------------
To complicate things a bit, there are
documents relating to music instruction that fall under the
categories of either National Standards, State Standards or New York
City Standards for the Arts. The New York City Dept. of Ed.'s incarnation of this
concept is called "The Blueprint for Teaching and Learning in
the Arts." You've probably heard of it. ALL the blueprints
for the various arts, including music, can be found and downloaded
here:
Again, I think these are well done and
thorough. What we do, in our public school music classes, is primarily addressing
the categories called "Strand 1. Music Making" and "Strand
2. Music Literacy." (see page 10 of the Music pdf for a general
description of these strands. )
Here are their outlines for the two
strands we teaching artists primarily deal with in public school classes:
Music
Making:
A
complete music-making experience includes opportunities for:
hands-on
and interactive learning
self-expression
reflection
Music
Literacy:
A
complete education in music literacy develops the ability to
use
and understand the language of music through:
listening
and responding to live and recorded repertoire
notation,
recording, and digital media
description,
analysis, and evaluation
The reason I
bring up this document (The Blueprint) is that it states explicit benchmarks intended
to guide NYC teachers and principals in creating, implementing and
assessing arts programs in NYC public schools. Their benchmarks
provide some useful examples.
One way of explaining a benchmark is
to think of it as a description of what we want our students to be
able to do, by a particular date. (Usually the end of the unit or
semester.)
if you look at page 20 of the NYC
Blueprint document, you'll find examples of benchmarks for 2nd grade
music students.
if you look at page 30 of the NYC
Blueprint document, you'll find examples of benchmarks for 5th grade
music students.
if you look at page 42 of the NYC
Blueprint document, you'll find examples of benchmarks for 8th grade
music students.
So finally, at the end of this article, there's a blank template
to lay out three benchmarks for your class, and what the students
will be able to do at the beginning, middle and end of the term,
whether it's a full year or a semester. It seems to me that three aspects of what you're teaching, and three points in time, will give you, your students, and any other interested parties a good picture of how the class is progressing, without being overly detailed.
-----------------------
Definitions
-------------------------------
For
the most part, goals
are too broad or too abstract to measure directly. Once goals have
been formalized, the next step is to translate the abstract language
of goals into a set of concrete measurable
student outcomes.
What are the differences between
Goals and Objectives? Both
goals and objectives use the language of outcomes – the
characteristic which distinguishes goals from objectives is the level
of specificity. Goals express intended outcomes in general terms
and objectives express them in specific terms.
Goals
and Objectives are
similar in that they describe the intended purposes and expected
results of teaching activities and establish the foundation for
assessment. Goals
are statements about general aims or purposes of education that are
broad, long-range intended outcomes and concepts; for example, “clear
communication”, “problem-solving skills”, etc. Objectives
are brief, clear statements that describe the desired learning
outcomes of instruction; i.e., the specific skills and abilities
students should exhibit
What are the differences between
Objectives and Outcomes?
Objectives
are intended
results or consequences of instruction, curricula, programs, or
activities.
Outcomes
are achieved
results or consequences of what was learned - they are evidence that
learning took place.
Instructional Objectives
describe in detail the
behaviors that students will be able to perform at the conclusion of
a semester or school year, and the criteria which determine the
acceptable level of performance.
A
benchmark
is a point of reference against which something may be measured. In
our case, it is simply a point in time at which we will see whether
we've achieved a desired outcome.
For
example, "It's December. Can all my students read quarter notes,
eighth notes and quarter rests in 2/4 meter?"
-------------------------- Blank template ------------------------------------
So here's a blank template for laying out three benchmarks for a music class in the public schools:
Date_______________
School year __________
Teacher___________________ Class
_____________________ School__________________
Benchmarks 1 (note-reading)
_________________________
by ten weeks students will be able to:
READ THESE NOTES:
READ THESE RHYTHMS:
by twenty weeks
READ THESE NOTES:
READ THESE RHYTHMS:
by thirty weeks
READ THESE NOTES:
READ THESE RHYTHMS:
Benchmarks 2 (repertoire)
_________________________
by ten weeks students will be able to
play these pieces:
by twenty weeks
by thirty weeks
Benchmarks 3 (technique)
_________________________
by ten weeks students will show the
technical ability to:
by twenty weeks
by thirty weeks
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Once you've filled this out, this is something you can keep handy and give to folks who visit your music classroom, to give them some guidance in what to look for, what they're seeing, what your students are doing, what you're doing. Yet it's simple and short.
Here's and example I filled out with a violin teacher friend of mine.
------------------------------ Example (filled out) ----------------------------------
So, for example,
Here's a modest set of benchmarks for teaching violin
to 3rd grade beginners:
Benchmark 1 (note-reading)
3rd grade, follow music on their own, w.o. teacher pointing
by Dec. 20, 2012 students will be able
to:
READ NOTES -THESE SIX NOTES ON TREBLE
STAFF: ABC#D EF# (on A and E strings)
READ RHYTHMS - quarter note, quarter
rest, and a pair of eighth notes, in 2/4 meter
by March 1, 2013
READ THESE TEN NOTES ON TREBLE STAFF:
DE ABC#D EF#G#A (on D,A,E strings)
READ RHYTHM whole, half, quarter notes,
half and quarter rests, and a pair of eighth notes
by May 31, 2013
READ THESE 12 NOTES ON TREBLE STAFF:
DEF#G ABC#D EF#G#A (on D,A,E strings)
READ RHYTHM whole, half, dotted half,
quarter notes, half and quarter rests, and a pair of eighth notes
Benchmarks 2 (repertoire, group
violin)
by Dec. 20, 2012 students will be able
to play:
"Twinkle Variations A,C&D"
on pages 8 & 9 of Suzuki method book 1
"Lightly Row" page 10 of same
by Mar. 1, 2013
"Song of the Wind" p.10 of
Suzuki method book 1
"O Come Little Children" p.11
of same
by May 31, 2013
"Allegro" and
"Perpetual Motion" on p. 14
Benchmarks 3 (technique, posture,
bowing, etc)
by Dec. 20, 2012 students will be able to:
display good standing posture,
instrument and bow hold in rest and playing positions...
by Mar. 1, 2013
all the above, plus execute two-note slurs; play an A major scale,
one octave
by May 31, 2013
all the above, plus execute four-note slurs; play a D major scale,
one octave
