standards Archives - Minds On Music

New National Core Music Standards

The arts have always served as the distinctive vehicle for discovering who we are. Providing methods of thinking as disciplined as science or math, and as disparate as philosophy or literature, the arts are used by and have shaped every culture and individual on earth. The arts continue to infuse our lives on nearly all levels—generating a significant part of the creative and intellectual capital that drives our economy. The arts also impart our lives with meaning every time we experience: the joy of a well-remembered song, the flash of inspiration that comes with immersing ourselves in an artist’s sculpture, participating in a sublime dance, learning from an exciting animation, or being moved by a captivating play. (From: National Core Arts Standards, Custom Handbook).
As of June 2014, new music standards were created by the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS), and based on artistic processes; these include music standards prepared by the National Association for Music Education (NAfME).

Overview of Standards:

The new National Standards focus on improving each child’s music education experience, supporting educators with enhanced instructional strategies, and emphasizing the benefits of music education. You can visit their site to create your own Custom Handbook, based on discipline, process, and grade level.

Who the Standards are for:

Decision-makers from teachers, to superintendents, to parents, and policy makers, all will be able to utilize these standards as guidelines to improving music education and ultimately future success for our children.

Goals of the Standards are to enhance…

Music Literacy – meaning the ability to communicate through a medium and understand what is communicated. In our multimedia society, we need to prepare children to communicate visually, through sound, video, etc. and have literacy for each media.
Artistic Processes – there are 3-4 core areas these new music standards focus on:

Creating (new music)
Performing (also referred to as Presenting or Producing existing music)
Responding (interpreting the performance/music and developing own opinions)
Connecting (various art forms – this is embedded throughout the standards)

This 5 minute video from the NAfME Deputy Executive Director & COO provides an overview.
[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlSF56tkueA[/youtube]

Kindermusik Programs Align with the New Music Standards

How Kindermusik Supports Music Literacy

An important part of our curricula are the Family Engagement materials. Through real instruments, books, CDs, family activity guides – AND – video field trips, songs, math games, logic games, craft ideas and more within our online learning portal (Kindermusik@Home); we support hands-on learning and emerging technology. We provide families with a useful way to be involved in their children’s educations and expose them to various types of media and arts. This helps Kindermusik reach our mission of instilling a lifelong love of music and learning in children around the world.

How Kindermusik Supports Artistic Processes

Creating music is what we do in each class. We provide enough instruments for each child in the class to participate and make their own music. Through a variety of age-appropriate and kid-safe instruments, like egg shakers, jingle bells, chime balls, sand blocks, rhythm sticks, and many more, we allow children to be creative and come up with their own way of playing the instrument. We guide them with ideas, and allow kids to express themselves through music.
Performing, presenting or producing music is also integrated into our classes. Although Kindermusik curriculum is based on process not performance, we do encourage children to present their ideas to class. For example, a teacher may ask, “Johnny, how do you want play your rhythm sticks; fast, slow, loud, or soft?” This allows each child to determine their own preferences and encourages them to play music to a group of their peers, boosting self-esteem and confidence.
Responding to music is embedded into the Kindermusik curricula, and we encourage children to be effective audience members. For example, in the song “I Hear a Sound” from our Wiggle & Grow curriculum (for ages 2-3) children hear various instruments, and then have time to guess what instrument they just heard. This aligns with the new standards as we give children the opportunity to listen, analyze, and interpret what they hear. Follow-up questions from the teacher such as, “Kaylee, what instrument did you like best?” allows children to evaluate what they’ve heard and make decisions based on their preferences – expressing themselves through music.
Connecting various art forms is actually a great way to describe a Kindermusik class. We incorporate: music; movement; dance; visuals; literature including children’s books, poems, and rhymes from many cultures around the world; opportunities for ensemble experiences; and so much more.
We too recognize the importance of technology in education and so, we developed the Kindermusik@Home portal. Parents can login and enjoy with their children; fun educational games, activities, eBooks, videos, crafts and more, along with ideas for taking the learning offline. We include parenting resources to help them understand the importance behind these educational activities.
And we keep on top of the growing body of research on the benefits of music for children. The Kindermusik curriculum is more than a music class, it’s designed to promote school-readiness and stimulate development across all learning domains, supporting the future success of each child…and in turn…our world.
Other components, like the Opportunity-to-Learn Standards, are part of these new music standards and are still being developed. One call-out the Executive Director & COO of NAfME mentioned is the standards will likely include guidance that students should receive WEEKLY INSTRUCTION. Again, another way Kindermusik aligns. Our weekly lessons are flexible and provide concepts teachers can use throughout the day.
To learn more about the new music standards, please reference:
nafme.org/standards
NationalArtsStandards.org

To learn more about Kindermusik, please visit:
www.kindermusik.com

Preschool teachers notice the signs long before the children do. Boxes of sharpened and unused crayons. Full canisters of tempura paints. New bags of sand for the sensory table. The smell of the freshly laminated name tags. Yes, all signs point to a new school year starting soon!
At the beginning of each school year, preschool teachers gather more than new supplies for the classroom. They also gather key information about the children by identifying and describing each child’s development in various domains. This benchmarking helps educators support the growth of each child to his or her fullest potential throughout the year.
Our early childhood curriculum uses music and movement to support the development and learning across and within domains. We use music to reach children of all abilities and in a classroom of children exhibiting a range of skills and competences.
Whether used in a preschool, Head Start or Early Head Start program, public school, or other early learning setting, Kindermusik’s early childhood curriculum delivers proven results. In fact, children participating for just 30 minutes a week experience a 32 percent more literacy gain than other children. Here are just some of the ways we use music, movement, and stories to help children reach standard benchmarks.

5 ways our early childhood curriculum helps children reach benchmarks

Our Storytime gives preschool teachers ways to ask and answer questions about key details such as the plot or the characters. We know that children benefit from hearing the story multiple times, so it’s repeated weekly in each unit for preschoolers to become familiar with plot, characters, settings, and main events.
Our Hosted Teaching CDs provide brief introductions with key information about a story’s topic and setting. In the second half of each unit, lessons pose a range of recall, inferential, compare/contrast, and beyond-the-text questions. At the end of storytime, the lessons give preschoolers opportunities to ask or answer questions about the story that can help deepen their understanding of the story or subject.
Our songs and poems use rhyme to improve phonological awareness. Research shows that lyrics can help young children improve their comprehension and build their vocabulary and listening skills. Plus, the engaging nature of music helps motivate young children to learn. And, of course, building vocabulary, comprehension, and listening skills are all part of the preschool standards.
Our songs, poems, rhymes, and rituals inspire children to acquire vocabulary incidentally by reading and listening to stories. The texts’ illustrations and activities give children tools to learn new vocabulary through both seeing and doing. To ensure comprehension, teachers often pause the Hosted Teaching CD and ask questions to assess learning as well as answer student questions.
Each unit also includes explicit vocabulary instruction. Words essential to songs and poems appear on picture cards and are introduced through direct instruction or by modeling during group discussions. Research supports the use of direct vocabulary instruction, including the effectiveness of having young children learn robust, academic words.

Tag: standards

New Music Standards – Focus on Preparing Children for Success