Grade 2 Music

Artistic development at ACS is guided by the National Core Arts Standards. In the Elementary division, these standards are taught in Drama and Dance, Music, and Visual Arts (Art) classes. The standards are divided into 4 key areas: Creating, Performing/Presenting/Producing, Responding, and Connecting.

Curriculum Overview

Introduction

The focus for Elementary Music at ACS is to continue to develop units of instruction and assessments for our four Artistic Processes: (1) making meaningful expression such as performing on an instrument or singing (​PERFORMING),​ (2) expressing personal ideas by composing or improvising music (​CREATING​), (3) responding to music such as critiquing the work we hear (​RESPONDING​), (4) interpreting symbolic expression by different disciplines, cultures, and history (​CONNECTING​). The integration of technology with music-specific digital tools is ongoing to enhance the learning opportunities for all students, “Communicate effectively for a given purpose” and “Recognize and respect other cultural context and points of view”.

All students will develop knowledge of the varied career pathways that can be accomplished while participating in core music.

All students will prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.

As a means of having a uniform teaching approach and methodology for core music, grades KG1 - 5, the music curriculum program created by Dr. John Feierabend will be utilized. A national leader in music education, Dr. Feierabend is ProfessorEmeritus of Music Education at The Hartt School of the University of Hartford and is a past President of the Organization of American KodályEducators.

Beginning in second grade and continuing through fifth grade, students begin ​Conversational Solfege Level One1, Feierabend’s curriculum for teaching music literacy. This method uses a twelve-step process developing students’ aural skills, like the way language is taught, before musical symbols are introduced. The curriculum incorporates rhymes, songs, games, and movement activities. This provides teachers with opportunities for differentiation (process as well as product), meeting the needs of individual students and their various learning styles, specifically visual, auditory, and kinesthetic learners.

Steps one and two are rote learning, or “readiness” activities that have students echo the teacher. Steps three and four involve “ConversationalSolfege” techniques in which the teacher speaks/sings familiar and unfamiliar patterns and the students are then required to aurally decode. These steps serve as an assessment of the skills gained and also require students to use higher-order thinking. In step five students are asked to create their own rhythm and tonal patterns then followed by musical notation.

In the sixth step, students read patterns and music by rote and then decode familiar and unfamiliar patterns and songs (read/sing out loud) similarly as they do in language literacy classes. Following three reading steps, the students then begin to write notation. In step eleven, the teacher speaks, sings, or plays unfamiliar rhythm and tonal patterns for students to write down. The final step in the twelve-step process is composition. They are required to first create their own musical patterns, and then write them down. Students are informally assessed at each step with a summative assessment at the end of step twelve.

Based on this methodology, the Grade 2 through Grade 5 General Music Units of Instruction include all twelve steps of Units 1-10 and Unit 19 of Conversational Solfege, Levels One and Two with 3-4 units apportioned to each grade. In Grade 5, students are required to complete a vocal assessment. Additionally, there is a Grade 2-5 unit devoted to Music and Movement.

Click ​Music At-a-Glance for the National Core Arts Standards for MusicClick ​National Core Arts Standards to learn more about the Arts Standards. Click here to view the What We Learn - Grade 2 infograph. Click here for this year's ES Music Curriculum Overview Video


Enduring Understandings

Students will understand that...

  • The creative ideas, concepts and feelings that influence musicians' work emerge from a variety of sources.

  • Musicians' creative choices are influenced by their expertise, context and expressive intent.

  • Musicians evaluate and refine their work through openness to new ideas, persistence, and the application of appropriate criteria.

  • Musicians' presentation of creative work is the culmination of a process of creation and communication.

  • Performers' interest in and knowledge of musical works, understanding of their own technical skill, and the context for a performance influence the selection of repertoire.

  • Analyzing creators' context and how they manipulate elements of music provides insight into their intent and informs performance.

  • Performers make interpretive decisions based on their understanding of context and expressive intent.

  • To express their musical ideas, musicians analyze, evaluate and refine their performance over time through openness to new ideas, persistence and the application of appropriate criteria.

  • Musicians judge performance based on criteria that vary across time, place and cultures.

  • Individuals' selection of musical works is influenced by their interests, experiences, understandings and purposes.

  • Response to music is informed by analyzing context (social, cultural and historical) and hw creators and performers manipulate the elements of music.

  • Through their use of elements and structures of music, creators and performers provide clues to their expressive intent.

  • The personal evaluation of musical works and performances is informed by analysis, interpretation and established criteria.

  • Musicians connect their personal interests, experience, ideas and knowledge to creating, performing and responding.

  • Understanding connection to varied contexts and daily life enhances musicians' creating, performing and responding.

  • Singing and playing an instrument are means of communication, capable of expressing feelings and emotions that surpass the spoken language.

  • Humans are born with an instrument for making music-the voice.

  • Playing an instrument allows a musician to express musical ideas that exceed the range, timbre, and dynamics of the voice.

  • The depth of musical knowledge one possesses impacts how, and to what degree, one analyzes, describes, and evaluates music.

  • The music to which one has been exposed influences one’s musical preferences.

  • People listen to music for a variety of reasons (e.g. to be energized, to gain focus, to enhance or alter a current emotional state, to entertain).

  • Listening to music evokes emotions, whether or not one has chosen to listen to it.

  • Music connects us to the past, present, and future.

Skills

Students will be able to...

  • Chant rhythmic patterns and sing/play (on non pitched age-appropriate classroom instruments) songs/rhymes using “ta” and “ta-ti” (quarter note, paired eighth notes)

  • Conversationally decode familiar and unfamiliar rhythmic patterns and songs, phrase by phrase, using “ta” and “ta-ti”

  • Conversationally create (improvise) rhythmic patterns using “ta” and “ta-ti”

  • Read, create and write (compose) rhythmic patterns using “ta” and “ta-ti”

  • Write stems, note heads, and beams properly

  • Perform/respond to music by using age appropriate movements and movement themes (based on suggested movement repertoire)

  • Perform a variety of age-appropriate folk dance movements and folk dances while singing

  • Recognize patterns in movements and their connection to musical form

  • Make connections between movements and dances to other disciplines (math, language arts, social studies, geography, P.E., art), cultures and their daily lives

I Can Statements

Creating

Imagine

    1. I can create different words to a song.

    2. I can create rhythm patterns

Plan and Make

    1. I can create different words to a song.

    2. I can create rhythm patterns.

Evaluate and Refine

    1. I can revise my plan for a composition.

    2. I can revise my plan for an arrangement.

Present

    1. I can perform my composition.

    2. I can perform my arrangement.

Performing

Select

    1. I can select two pieces of music to perform.

    2. I can explain why I selected two pieces of music to perform.

Analyze

    1. I can tell same and different.

    2. I can describe the different between beat and rhythm.

Interpret

    1. I can choose how to interpret a piece of music.

Rehearse, Evaluate and Refine

    1. I can revise my plan for a composition.

    2. I can revise my plan for an arrangement.

    3. I can keep a steady beat.

    4. I can track the beat.

    5. I can sing a solo.

    6. I can match my teacher's voice.

    7. I can sing a solo.

    8. I can match my teacher's voice.

    9. I can create different words to a song.

    10. I can create rhythm patterns.

    11. I can do a circle dance.

    12. I can move in many different ways.

Present

    1. I can perform for others.

Responding

Select

    1. I can explain what I like about a piece of music.

    2. I can explain why I like a piece of music.

    3. I can discuss what I hear in a piece of music.

    4. I can analyze how musical elements affect the performances of musical pieces.

Analyze

    1. I can tell between fast and slow.

    2. I can tell between loud and quiet.

Interpret

    1. I can discuss what I think a piece of music is about.

Evaluate

    1. I can justify my evaluation of a performance.

    2. I can write rhythm patterns

    3. I can write melodic patterns

    4. I can read rhythm patterns

    5. I can read melodic patterns

    6. I can show good audience behavior.

Connecting

    1. I can make connections to creating, performing and listening.

    2. I can connect music and art.

    3. I can connect music and language arts.

    4. I can connect music and math.

    5. I can connect music and science.

    6. I can describe how sound and music is used every day.

    7. I can connect music and art.

    8. I can connect music and language arts.

    9. I can sing songs from around the world.

    10. I can discuss how musicians can use technology.

    11. I can discuss how composers use technology.