Curriculum Design

There are several types of curriculum that teachers may use to reach students, ranging from "ideal" (valuing comprehensive and sequential approaches) to "experiential" (curriculum that students receive and perceive). Any of the types of curriculum should include national, state, and local (if applicable) standards.

Thinking through what I need to accomplish each year in the curriculum will help me structure information for the students. I feel that it will be essential for me to do this to ensure the systematic growth of student's skills. Otherwise, instructional time turns into a string of activities that will seem disorganized and haphazard to the students. This might be discouraging for the students if they don't have a focus in music class, especially if I see students only once or twice a week.

An essential element in planning curriculum is the consideration of four different kinds of outcomes: skills, concepts, attitudes, and repertoire. Skills must be developed in a sequential way. Being aware of where my students actually are in their acquisition of skills (instead of where I hope they are), will help me develop meaningful curriculum for the acquisition of skills. Skills must be practiced in order to be retained. Concepts need to be applicable (using examples from their lives) in order for students to understand them. Attitudes will naturally occur as a result of either positive or negative musical experiences. The types of experiences (haphazard or sequential and ordered) will affect the attitudes that students have about music in general. Repertoire is developed through a variety of experiences through many different pieces of quality music. The internalization of these songs and pieces will help distill and synthesize the individual qualities of the songs which will turn into long-term attitudes and internalizations of musical experiences. This synthesization has the potential to affect a child's attitudes about music for the rest of their lives. It is in this way that I hope to affect children's attitudes about music the most.

Having many different approaches to curriculum design will allow me to constructively design musical experiences for my students. It will also help me take my curriculum designs to administrators to advocate for quality music in schools.