Category: Curriculum

After the Review

Tim6 Comments

Edit: The NCCAS review, once submitted, cannot be updated (and I’ve already done mine). If anyone wants to borrow my structure below and submit it, you are welcome to steal!

There is one week left to review the new National Core Arts Standards. If you haven’t yet taken the time, please do the review today!

Despite my participation, urging, and normal positive outlook, however, I must admit to being depressed by the state of these Standards. Here’s an analogy:

You are a fisherman (or woman). You spend your whole life on boats, and understand watercraft well. One day, a group of fishermen show you the new larger fishing vessel they are crafting together. They tell you that this new type of boat will replace all the older boats, and they want you to help them by commenting on the paint, the size of the cabin, and the number of cup holders.

Your first thought is, “Ok, cool!” But when you approach the ship, you notice right away that the keel and rudder are on top of the cabin, far from the water! You try to point this out, but that’s not what they want you to review. They say, “Well, the cars don’t have things dragging underneath, and we need to keep up with the cars. Please tell us if this is the right shade of purple.”

So, the analogy isn’t perfect, but it expresses my frustration with this process. The new standards are flawed before you get to the individual grade-level descriptions they are asking us to evaluate. And like the fishermen, I’m afraid there’s been too much invested to start over, even if they see the flaws.

It didn’t have to be this way. Here’s an example of what the standards could have looked like.

  1. Creating
    • Exploring
    • Improvising
    • Composing
    • Arranging
    • Notating
    • Reflecting and Refining
  2. Performing
    • Singing & Expressive Speech
    • Playing Instruments
    • Moving and Playing Body Percussion
    • Reading & Analyzing
    • Interpreting
    • Reflecting and Refining
    • Presenting
  3. Responding
    • Analyze
    • Evaluate
  4. Connecting
    • Connecting to History & Culture
    • Connecting to Other Disciplines

Notice that this version maintains all the skills from the 1994 Standards, but places them under the new umbrella to align with the other arts. Anything that you might think is “missing,” such as selecting and planning would more appropriately be used as sub-level descriptors underneath one of the listed analytical standards (reflect, analyze). The Connecting strand, as written in the draft, essentially just doubles what has already been said. By bringing back in the specific connections listed in 1994, we create something new.

If we started with something like my list above (and by no means do I think it’s perfect), we could list grade-appropriate expectations for musical skill and knowledge development, which is completely missing from the main document of the draft. I’m not quite sure why this isn’t the approach they took. It seems to me they put the rudder on the roof by taking musical skills and knowledge out of our core standards.

So what do we do now? Do we accept whatever comes out of this national process, or do we fight on at the state and local level to keep reasonable standards that make sense to us? I know personally that I cannot endorse the draft standards as they stand, and don’t think the state of Iowa that I call home should adopt them. I worked on the recent addition of Core Companion (so-called because they haven’t been legislatively adopted yet) standards in Iowa, and they are aligned to the 1994 standards. I see no benefit from going to these new standards. Iowans believe fiercely in independence and local control, which is why we are only now getting around to state standards at all.

What can you do? First, don’t give up on the draft quite yet. Do your part and follow the review, but make full use of the blank input boxes to go beyond the questions asked. Second, if it comes to it, support meaningful standards in your state. Talk to your Dept. of Ed, your legislators, your Arts associations. Work in your district to adopt a meaningful curriculum that has skills and content.

And cross your fingers and hope the rudder gets put back in the water.

Vision for Music Education Part II

Tim6 Comments

In my previous post Vision for Music Education I laid out my argument for what I see as the purpose of music education, and did so in the context of the new draft national music standards. After reading other blogs, comments here, and the ongoing facebook and twitter conversations surrounding the drafts, I feel the need to express my beliefs and argument even more strongly.

Then, I realized that I have already written it. So in the desire to further the public dialogue, below is the opening chapter to my book, Creative Sequence: Teaching Music with Flexibility and Organization.

The Importance of Creativity and Active Engagement in the Music Classroom

Children today are bombarded with “media” and “entertainment.” These passive and/or interactive technologies have, for over a century now, replaced many more traditional activities. Instead of playing ball, we watch a ballgame on TV, or use a controller to make a digital avatar “play” the sport in a video game. Instead of making music with our own voice or an acoustic instrument, we listen passively to a recording, or strum a plastic controller along with a prerecorded track.

While there are many ways in which the technological explosion of the past hundred years has enriched and expanded our lives, Creative Sequence is based on the premise that music, dance, drama, art, and physical activity are still essential human activities that every child should learn to DO, not just watch. Children inherently love to move, drum on things, make noise, and explore their environment. As teachers, it is our duty to engage this natural tendency, and to lead them to discover the joys of an active lifestyle.

The primary goal of quality music education is guiding children to create, love, and learn about music. Notice that, in this list, learning about music is the last item. The rationale is simple. Children who love and are engaged in a subject will want to learn more about that subject. Children who are not actively engaged will learn only when forced, and retain as little as possible when they leave your room.

All children can and should learn to make music.

To some, this statement may seem obvious. Yet, despite plenty of evidence to the contrary, some still hold to the antiquated notion that singing and music-making are  “talents” gifted to a few children at birth. This flies in the face of modern educational psychology, cultural evidence from around the world, and the day-to-day experience of parents and educators with young children.

Children learn at varying paces, according to their background, interest, and attention span. Of course, there are students who struggle with certain musical skills. Many students also struggle to learn mathematics or reading. No one questions the basic assumption that all students (excepting those with serious disabilities) will master these skills. When it comes to music and the arts, we should accept no less for our children.

In cultures around the world where technology has not yet completely changed the pace of everyday life, there are numerous examples of entire villages where music is a community activity in which everyone participates. Even in more advanced societies, there are pockets of close-knit communities where music and dance remain vital to social events. Unfortunately, mainstream Western culture supplants community gatherings altogether with digital communication, single-family homes, and private transportation. No wonder we seek to fill our desire for artistic expression by turning to the pre-recorded music of professionals.

If musical expression is going to remain an integral part of the human existence, it must start in the home, the preschool or elementary school. By the time most students are given the choice to play in an ensemble like band or orchestra, many have already made up their minds about whether they consider themselves musicians or not.

All other curricular objectives, including music literacy, are secondary to a positive, expressive experience making music.

Toddlers must speak before reading language. They must be able to count before identifying numerals. Yet as trained musicians, we educators have spent so much time learning and perfecting our reading skills that we often equate notation with music. In fact, the English language encourages this confusion by calling paper notation “sheet music” or even just “music.” You hear trained musicians use this all the time. (“I forgot my music! Can you see the music?”)

Let’s be very clear. Music does not exist on paper. Music is human expression in sounds organized through time. Notation is the written record of what a piece of music should sound like. Therefore, music literacy should only be taught at the appropriate time, and following the appropriate development of musical skills.

Appreciation of music arises naturally from making music, and exploration of cultures, styles, and history should be interactive whenever possible.

The advantages of modern society and technology include affordable means to record, play back, and share music around the world, as well as access masterpieces from throughout history. What once required musicologists to travel the globe and attend universities with large research libraries can now be found online and for free. Music teachers must take advantage of these technologies, showing their children the songs, games, and styles of music from different corners of the globe. They should compile at least a cursory introduction to music history, highlighting famous pieces (Bach’s Prelude & Fugue, Pachelbel’s Canon, Beethoven’s 5th Symphony, Copland’s Appalachian Spring, etc.)

The danger of teaching children music history and culture, however, is that it can be a passive experience. Children sit at desks silently for so much of the day, and have so little time in music class, that they should be actively involved whenever possible. Instead of simply listening and talking about musical examples, students can draw a picture while listening, or move expressively to the storyline. Choose musical excerpts from various styles that children can recreate and explore on barred percussion, recorder, or singing. When studying a time period or culture, look at not just the music, but the dances and games that accompany the music. By interacting and performing the arts of another culture, students can learn to embrace differences in all aspects of life.

Music should be a creative art, not simply a recreative art.

Our final guiding principle highlights the different ways of “making” music. When vocalists and instrumentalists in our Western culture traditionally perform a work, they are re-creating the music of a composer. All the basic musical elements – melody, rhythm, form, dynamics, tempo – are laid out in the score. Of course, great performers and ensembles make interpretations to go beyond the written notation. But the piece is essentially unchanged in any serious details.

This is not the only way to make music. Jazz musicians, folk musicians, and pop artists are much more accustomed to adapting, arranging, or even composing or improvising their own music. Composers create everything from lullabies to symphonies by writing new melodies, rhythms, and forms. By manipulating the very materials that make up a composition, these musicians gain a greater depth of understanding and sense of ownership in the resulting performance.

Children can and should be led to take this same ownership of their musical experiences. Rather than all of the decisions being made by the composer or the teacher/director, the master teacher guides his or her students to make creative choices. Students can compose accompaniments based on repeated ostinato patterns, improvise solos on given scales and phrase patterns, choreograph dances and games to accompany a song, and combine all of this to create longer performances out of simple songs.

Organizational Change in the 21st Century

TimLeave a comment

I am involved right now in two meaningful and somewhat parallel discussions online. The first is the discussion over the new draft National Standards for Music Education, sponsored by NAfME but organized through the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards. The second is a discussion about another organization of which I am an active member, and it’s desire to be relevant to 21st century needs. (Sounds just like standards reform, no?)

In both instances, well-meaning people with elected authority have sought to bring about change to improve the situation for music education and music teachers. In both cases, the effort for membership/public feedback was taken care of through an online survey. In both cases, there is a concern by some that the leadership is not listening or did not listen or will not listen to feedback.

First, I believe in the goals of both organizations. I truly do believe that the leadership seeks positive feedback and has positive intentions.

Second, I can see that in both instances, a survey may be the cleanest, but not necessarily the most informative, way to gain feedback. The advantage of a survey is that it is standardized, quick, and easy to understand the results. The disadvantage of the survey is that it is standardized, quick, and does not elicit ongoing conversation. In the vacuum left by the closed nature of the survey, those outside of the leadership looking to speak up in dialogue have turned to social media.

Welcome to the 20-teens. A decade ago, an emailed survey would have been the best solution for a situation like this. Today? Look at what a computer programmer does to perfect his or her app. An online forum, reviews open to the public, and constant adaptation and updates. Built in feedback tools that highlight problems immediately. Contrast this with education “Standards,” where we as a nation get one shot at the right answer, which could potentially dominate the educational institution for the next generation or longer.

We need to figure out how to apply crowd sourcing to our large music education organizations. But as one of my mentors has pointed out in these discussions, we need to do this in a way where we don’t just value the “quick fix,” but also constantly reflect on historical practice and involve those with the greatest knowledge and experience.

Vision for Music Education

Tim5 Comments

I have spent the past two days reading, discussing, and writing about the new draft music standards from the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards. What strikes me most as missing from these standards, unlike the specific list in my previous post, is understanding, experience, and vision.

The core writing team that developed this draft is mostly dedicated music educators. However, not a single member of the team is currently working in a PreK-8 setting, and some of them have never taught at this level, or been trained in one of the leading philosophies surrounding this discipline (Orff Schulwerk, Kodaly, Dalcroze-Eurhythmics, Music Learning Theory). The team includes high school teachers, collegiate professors, fine arts district supervisors, and fine arts state DOE coordinators. This is not a team with understanding, experience, and standing to speak to for our field of K-8 music educators.

What I do think this writing team has is a vision of what music education in the future would look like. I just don’t think that it looks like my vision. Sure, we have a lot in common, but I feel they are missing some big picture items in their vision:

Making Music is for Everyone

Sure, these new standards are written for teaching music to all children K-8. And they include creating and performing standards. But the vast majority of the standards, even categorized under creating and performing, are actually about analyzing, discussing, reflecting, justifying, and documenting. Those are their verbs, by the way. Yes, it’s a selective list, and there are better verbs in there (demonstrating) but they are in the minority, which proves my point. These standards are about understanding music, not making music. Making music is seen as a means to an end, rather than the actual point of the subject.

I’ve seen this before. Many people unfortunately still believe that making music is all or in a large part a “talent,” and that most students will therefore not be performers throughout their lives. Speaking as an experienced and trained music educator and as a father, I can assure you that, while talent exists, it is dwarfed by the regular skill-building process that all children use to learn to walk, speak, do math, etc. Music is a set of skills first and foremost. Some are talented at quickly learning those skills, but everyone (barring learning disabilities) can achieve them. The Zimbabwean proverb is familiar to most Orff teachers: “If you can walk, you can dance. If you can talk, you can sing.” Making music is part of the human experience.

Making Music is the Foundation for Understanding and Appreciation

With a strong foundation in music-making skills, and literacy skills to support the music-making, students will inherently have an appreciation for music and desire to learn more. In the new draft standards, rehearsing and presenting a performance come after selecting, analyzing, and interpreting the music. I get why this was done. First music must be selected, then as it is taught, skills and details should be highlighted through analysis and interpretation (although isn’t this part of rehearsal?), and finally it is polished and performed. The problem is that the selecting skill talks solely about the students making the selections, never the teacher. So to follow this “process,” you can’t get to the performance (even in-class performances) without first turning over selection of repertoire to the children. Wait, how do they know which music to select if they haven’t performed any of it yet?!

Allowing students to have input on the selection process is a wonderful learning tool and standard. It just doesn’t belong in it’s elevated spot, implying that this is the primary or only source for repertoire to be performed. It also misses the bigger picture of time and skills. Students must learn first by doing. They perform first, then they have the skills necessary to speak intelligently about their choices and preferences.

The third Artistic Process in the new draft standards is Responding, and here too, they begin with students making a selection, before any analysis or interpretation has taken place. Also, there are certainly active music-making skills that can be used to respond to and learn about music while listening, such as moving/dancing to the music, performing with a recording (body percussion), conducting, or listening and then recreating. These are downplayed with the single verb “demonstrate,” which is then only used through second grade. So 3rd-5th grade students are implicitly expected to do the selecting, interpreting, analyzing, and evaluating all in a passive manner.

Music Education is about Elements, Repertoire, and Media, not just Process

In my book Creative Sequence, I show teachers how to build their own curriculum around the Elements of music (rhythm, melody, harmony, form, etc.), varied relevant and culturally diverse Repertoire, and using multiple Media (singing, speaking, moving, playing). We then tie this all together in each lesson using a Process for teaching, which includes experience, analyze, and create strands.

Most of what I have discussed so far about these draft standards is the skewed perspective of their process. However, in the big picture, shouldn’t elements, repertoire, and media be addressed in national standards?! They were all there in the previous 1994 standards. Most people I have worked with on standards development would say the standard should show you what to teach, not how to teach it. This draft does the opposite. It doesn’t tell us at all what skills or knowledge to give students (except high-level thinking skills with no foundation), but it certainly prescribes a process, the “how.”

Vision for the Future

Where are we going? I envision a future where every adult in this country is moderately fluent in making music. Families and friends would think nothing of bursting into song during a conversation, gathering around a piano, or sitting on the porch with a guitar. Community get-togethers in the park would feature spontaneous or planned folk dancing, and most of the visitors would be participants, not observers. Many of our ancestors had these skills, do we want to be less alive and musical than they were? Our children love these activities, and it is slowly beat out of them by our culture’s cool attitude towards public performance by “amateurs.” Music is too important to be left up to the professionals (I think I stole that last quote, but don’t know who to attribute it to).

This to me is the reason for music education. How do we get there? Not by making higher-order thinkers who have limited experience in the craft. We get there by first sharing and training students to make and love making music. If we have time and can skillfully include analysis and reflection into our teaching, great! But this should be the icing, not the cake. If we don’t get to every advanced process by the end of fifth grade, have we done our students a disservice? Or have we equipped them with the age-appropriate experiences to allow later exploration and analysis of music?

What’s your vision?

New NCCAS National Core Music Standards

Tim27 Comments

UPDATE: Creative Sequence Alignment post is now available for more info on national draft standards.

The new National Core Arts Standards have been released today for a public review process that will last until July 15. The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards, comprised of representatives from various Arts Education organizations, including the National Association for Music Educators (NAfME), wrote the new standards as an update to the 1994 National Standards. So I spent most of the day today poring over the new draft music standards, and I have to admit, I’m not excited. There are many glaring structural problems with the new standards. But first, the good points.

Clear “Artistic Process” Umbrella

In order to align all the arts in a cohesive manner, the writers chose three to four very simple, clear Artistic Processes to categorize all the standards under.

  • Creating – same across all disciplines
  • Performing/Presenting/Producing – performing for music
  • Responding – same across all discipliness
  • Connecting – used by dance, media arts, and theater, but considered integrated into the other processes for music

By using this simple structure, you can see that what was nine national standards in the past, can now be quickly remember by a simple three: create, perform, respond. Creating covers old standards #3-4, improvising and composing/arranging. Performing covers old standards #1-2, singing and playing. Responding covers #6-9, which include listening, evaluating, analyzing, and connecting to history, culture, and other disciplines.

Heightened Placement for Creative Process

As an Orff Schulwerk-trained teacher, I was of course thrilled to see the very first process to be Creating! Far too many music teachers do not believe in the creative potential of their students (or even themselves), and see music as merely a re-creative art.

Connections to 21st Century Skills and Common Core Language

I have been involved in the process to get the fine arts added to the Iowa Core Curriculum. During this process, I have learned a lot about 21st Century Skills. The universal skills like collaboration, flexibility, and productivity are great ways of thinking about cross-curricular success for our students. So I was pleased to see this kind of newer language infusing its way into the new arts standards.

NOW THE BAD NEWS

So, I was really excited by all of this, and was looking forward to a day of nodding my head emphatically. Instead, I am left with a deep pit in my stomach.

No Listed Essential Music Skills

  • The new standards do not require students to sing. They do not have to match pitch.
  • The new standards do not require learning to play instruments, or even keep a beat. However, they do require students to perform music. They just don’t explain what this means.
  • The new standards do not require students to read music. However, they do briefy mention writing/notating music, to record and share compositions.

No Elements of Music

  • The new standards barely refer to the elements. Free improvisation in grades K-2 mention “tonal and rhythmic” patterns.
  • Performances and listening examples are to be “analyzed” for musical elements, but these musical elements are never listed or described beyond single examples (i.e., form).
  • Not surprisingly, since notation literacy is not mentioned, there is no expectation in the standards for students to read a specific rhythm, identify pitches, etc.

Too Much Emphasis on Student Production

  • Students in the new standards are expected to not only improvise and compose, but to first create their own improvisatory vocabulary through “free improvisation,” and then map out a “plan” of how they will improvise or compose. The teacher is not mentioned as having any input in this process, beyond words like “guidance” and “support”” (only used in Kdg and 1st Grade).
  • Students are expected to choose their own repertoire for performing and listening to. No mention of allowing the teacher to choose or influence repertoire choices.
  • Students are expected to analyze their compositions, their performances, and listening examples. While this is important work, given the skills and concepts missing from these standards, it points to an imbalanced, discussion/writing/listening based class, where active music-making suffers.

As you can see, I am deeply concerned about the direction these new standards are taking. I feel that the effort to align and make ourselves “relevant” is backfiring by eroding the core of what makes music education important. The bottom line is that these standards do not accurately represent what I believe a music education should look like.

Regardless of whether you agree with me or not, please take the time to visit https://nccass.wikispaces.com/ and share your thoughts with the writing team. This is an opportunity that the last generation did not have to such an extent, and we need to make our voices heard!

Fine Arts & the Iowa Core

TimLeave a comment

This month I have had the opportunity to travel the state and visit several Area Education Agencies (branches of the DOE). Rosanne Malek at the Dept. of Ed. has organized these meetings to share information about Fine Arts and the Iowa Core Curriculum. Members of the Fine Arts curriculum-writing teams, including myself, were invited to present to teachers at the breakout sessions, where the general (elementary/middle school) music teachers meet to discuss our documents.

The General Music Iowa Core “Companion” (more on that later) document is organized much like the National Standards for Music Education, on which it was based. To make the list manageable, we shrunk the list from nine national standards to seven. We also added in a few things not in the national standards, such as movement, speech, and body percussion. On number seven, we included the language “while preserving the integrity of an authentic musical learning experience” to protect teachers from having music education watered down in a misguided attempt for cross-curricular teaching.

The bullet points under each skill are NOT a list of all that is possible. These are the examples the writing team came up with for K-2 grades. They are not meant to be comprehensive.

General Music Skills & Concepts

  1. Uses song, speech, and movement to effectively communicate, collaborate with a group, and produce a musical product.
    • shows ability to employ a singing voice by singing responses to questions that are sung in the context of singing games
    • develops pitch matching skills, alone and in groups
    • creates expressive movement to accompany a song or recording
    • uses expressive speech and articulation to tell a story
    • practices creative movement alone and in groups
    • develops a movement vocabulary
  2. Uses instruments and body percussion to effectively communicate, collaborate with a group, and produce a musical product.
    • performs with the group by maintaining the beat shared by the group
    • explores various levels of body percussion (claps, snaps, pats, stamps)
    • performs steady beat and simple rhythmic patterns on untuned percussion
  3. Creates music and movement using critical thinking to improvise and compose through a collaborative and flexible process.
    • improvises musical answers by singing or playing instruments in response to musical questions
    • organizes familiar rhythmic and melodic elements into original patterns, using speech and graphic notation
    • transfers creations to an instrument and/or voice
  4. Demonstrates literacy by reading and notating music fluently using appropriate processes and systems.
    • uses an established notation system to read and notate simple rhythm patterns
    • uses a staff to read and notate simple melodies with a controlled number of pitches
    • uses iconic notation to help tell a story, providing sounds that are appropriate to the icons
  5. Listens, responds, describes, analyzes and evaluates music critically.
    • creates a dance based on the form of a simple ABA musical example
    • compares and contrasts two performances of the same song, and is able to articulate how they are the same or different
    • describes the mood or purpose of a song by drawing conclusions based on knowledge of musical style—for example, is able to articulate why a song is a good lullaby
    • expresses preference for songs using musical terms
  6. Recognizes and respects the commonality and diversity among the cultures and histories of the world through musical experiences.
    • performs music from a variety of world cultures in an authentic manner
    • performs music from different cultures, and is able to articulate how the songs are alike and different
    • listens to music from various cultures: Mexico, Japan, Africa, etc.
    • identifies the likely origin of the music, using musical terms
  7. Connects music with other disciplines while preserving the integrity of authentic musical learning experiences.
    • incorporates drama and visual arts into a performance
    • incorporates iconic symbols and other discipline connections

The Fine Arts writing teams were also charged with aligning the new skills and concepts with Universal Constructs that are now part of the Iowa Core Curriculum. Below are the Universal Constructs, and how the various music skills and concepts align (again, not a comprehensive list of all possible alignment).

Universal Constructs

  1. Critical Thinking
    • Creates music and movement using critical thinking to improvise and compose through a collaborative and flexible process.
    • Listens, responds, describes, analyzes and evaluates music critically.
    • Connects music with other disciplines while preserving the integrity of authentic musical learning experiences
  2. Complex Communication
    • Uses song, speech, and movement to effectively communicate, collaborate with a group, and produce a musical product.
    • Uses instruments and body percussion to effectively communicate, collaborate with a group, and produce a musical product.
    • Demonstrates literacy by reading and notating music fluently using appropriate processes and systems.
    • Recognizes and respects the commonality and diversity among the cultures and histories of the world through musical experiences.
  3. Creativity
    • Uses song, speech, and movement to effectively communicate, collaborate with a group, and produce a musical product.
    • Uses instruments and body percussion to effectively communicate, collaborate with a group, and produce a musical product.
    • Creates music and movement using critical thinking to improvise and compose through a collaborative and flexible process.
    • Listens, responds, describes, analyzes and evaluates music critically.
  4. Collaboration
    • Uses song, speech, and movement to effectively communicate, collaborate with a group, and produce a musical product.
    • Uses instruments and body percussion to effectively communicate, collaborate with a group, and produce a musical product.
    • Creates music and movement using critical thinking to improvise and compose through a collaborative and flexible process.
    • Demonstrates literacy by reading and notating music fluently using appropriate processes and systems.
    • Listens, responds, describes, analyzes and evaluates music critically.
  5. Flexibility & Adaptability
    • Creates music and movement using critical thinking to improvise and compose through a collaborative and flexible process.
    • Recognizes and respects the commonality and diversity among the cultures and histories of the world through musical experiences.
    • Connects music with other disciplines while preserving the integrity of authentic musical learning experiences
  6. Productivity & Accountability
    • Uses song, speech, and movement to effectively communicate, collaborate with a group, and produce a musical product.
    • Uses instruments and body percussion to effectively communicate, collaborate with a group, and produce a musical product.
    • Creates music and movement using critical thinking to improvise and compose through a collaborative and flexible process.
    • Demonstrates literacy by reading and notating music fluently using appropriate processes and systems.
    • Listens, responds, describes, analyzes and evaluates music critically.

Right now, these documents are being shared across the state. They can be used, implemented, and referenced by music teachers and their administrators. The DOE is promoting their use. However, the DOE cannot mandate their use, because they have not been (yet) included in the legislation that describes the Iowa Core Curriculum. This is why they are referred to as “Companion” documents. There will surely be much confusion about this until they are legislated, but this should not hold us back from using the above information to guide our teaching and promote our value in the schools. The Universal Constructs are part of the actual Core, so you can see how easy it is to defend what we do based on these constructs.

For more on state and national standards, skills, and 21st century learning, check out my Creative Sequence blog post, or join us at First Iowa Orff next January 11, where I will be presenting a whole workshop on curriculum writing!