Welcome to Merriam School and Merriam Music!
This site is built for two reasons:
1. To provide a window into your child's music classroom experience;
2. To provide the district learning goals to answer why we learn what we learn in music class!
On the classroom pages you will find a quick description of activities you might witness if visiting your child's class during music. In addition you will find the detailed listing of the district music learning goals all the music teachers in Acton work to accomplish during the year. Actvities are targeted to meet our learning goals.
Over each year, the curriculum moves each child forward to music accomplishment. Pace of lessons are designed to challenge all students to move forward on a line of progress. During each day in music, as many as ten activities might be found in a lesson with a purpose to renew, re-establish, review, introduce, reinforce, and extend our learning in a group following the learning goals found for each grade.
So what else should you know about Music at Merriam?
M A T H
L A N G U A G E
H I S T O R Y
R E A D I N G
S C I E N C E
I
S
P L A Y
M O V E
S A Y
C U L T U R E
L I S T E N
S T O R I E S
D A N C E
S I N G
! ! !
“What do you do in Music?” -
We perform Musicianly Work practicing Musicianly Behaviors!
“What is Musicianly Work?” –
We apply the Orff approach, or “School-Work” (Schulwerk) where we learn music by doing. Press the GREEN button on the header page above to glimpse a small example of this approach to learning. In music class, we experience music initially by breaking it down into manageable and understandable patterns and parts then gradually reassemble these parts back to a whole finished product. This process follows four steps –
1. Imitation where the teacher presents or demonstrates patterns for the students to copy or repeat simultaneously, in echo or in canon.
2. Exploration where student’s experiment or change elements such as timbre, tempo, articulation, dynamics, melody, rhythm, meter or texture. This step prepares students for improvisation.
3. Labeling where students learn to read and notate a musical concept. This step is known as Literacy. Teachers purposely put “sound before sight” in this approach meaning students become familiar with sounds and concepts during Imitation and Exploration before learning that concept’s Symbols or Labels.
4. Creating where students improvise new musical ideas after following the first three steps that provide knowledge and experience with a particular concept. This is composition in “real time” and makes it possible to create final compositions to be notated and performed later.
“What are Musicianly Behaviors?” –
Behaviors in music are the actions we perform that allow us to know or make a musical product. These include Listening, Rhythmic Speech, Singing, Moving and Dancing, Body Percussion and Instrument Playing. The behaviors are known as the Media of the classroom musical art form. In our classroom communities, our work is to Listen, Sing, Say, Dance and Play. All of these require careful attention – and since Listening is one of the most important skills to practice in every classroom, Music allows practice of this skill at high levels.
“What are some benefits to learning music in the Orff approach?” –
With the Orff Schulwerk approach –
1. All students are constantly involved with music making while in class – Focus and Attention to Detail are practiced.
2. Instrument parts exist at several levels of difficulty. Everyone can have a part to play to be successful and at the level of difficulty that challenges the individual student – so everyone learns at their own level and rate teaching “Fairness is what is right for each individual and not necessarily what is right simultaneously for all.”
3. Students can express themselves in several ways, and find their manners of expression in music that meets their individual ability and desire. Expressing the self in appropriate ways is a human trait.
4. Students earn ownership by being constantly engaged in music making where they have decisions regarding the music they make and perform. Choice and ownership contribute to community building.
“How are students evaluated in music?” –
Activities are built to address this idea:
- We are all points on a line moving forward –
Class “work” is composed of building activities where students can produce musical results. These results are tracked as a class and when mastered, the next level of work is started. Individual student understanding and comprehension will be evaluated at need according to district guidelines that are in the process of being developed district-wide in grades k-12
“What are the rules of student behavior in music?”
There is a Rule of Participation – we are here to learn together, contribute to activity and grow in our understanding of music. As we are a communal or community art, proper behavior towards one another is high priority. These include Manners, Courtesy, and Respect - and the Merriam School Core Values is one guide here. To bring detail, the Merriam Staff developed the following to define the Rights and Responsibilities of teachers and learners at Merriam:
Right to be heard
Responsibility to listen
Right to be safe physically and emotionally
Responsibility to behave in a safe way
Right to kindness and respect
Responsibility to treat others with kindness and respect
Right to learn
Responsibility to help others learn
Right to work and participate in learning
Responsibility to consider learning needs of others
Right to have property respected
Responsibility to respect the property of others
Right to a pleasant, organized environment
Responsibility to contribute to a pleasant environment
Right to participate in activity
Responsibility to include self and others in activity
Merriam Music students are coached in these each day in music class.
This site is built for two reasons:
1. To provide a window into your child's music classroom experience;
2. To provide the district learning goals to answer why we learn what we learn in music class!
On the classroom pages you will find a quick description of activities you might witness if visiting your child's class during music. In addition you will find the detailed listing of the district music learning goals all the music teachers in Acton work to accomplish during the year. Actvities are targeted to meet our learning goals.
Over each year, the curriculum moves each child forward to music accomplishment. Pace of lessons are designed to challenge all students to move forward on a line of progress. During each day in music, as many as ten activities might be found in a lesson with a purpose to renew, re-establish, review, introduce, reinforce, and extend our learning in a group following the learning goals found for each grade.
So what else should you know about Music at Merriam?
M A T H
L A N G U A G E
H I S T O R Y
R E A D I N G
S C I E N C E
I
S
P L A Y
M O V E
S A Y
C U L T U R E
L I S T E N
S T O R I E S
D A N C E
S I N G
! ! !
“What do you do in Music?” -
We perform Musicianly Work practicing Musicianly Behaviors!
“What is Musicianly Work?” –
We apply the Orff approach, or “School-Work” (Schulwerk) where we learn music by doing. Press the GREEN button on the header page above to glimpse a small example of this approach to learning. In music class, we experience music initially by breaking it down into manageable and understandable patterns and parts then gradually reassemble these parts back to a whole finished product. This process follows four steps –
1. Imitation where the teacher presents or demonstrates patterns for the students to copy or repeat simultaneously, in echo or in canon.
2. Exploration where student’s experiment or change elements such as timbre, tempo, articulation, dynamics, melody, rhythm, meter or texture. This step prepares students for improvisation.
3. Labeling where students learn to read and notate a musical concept. This step is known as Literacy. Teachers purposely put “sound before sight” in this approach meaning students become familiar with sounds and concepts during Imitation and Exploration before learning that concept’s Symbols or Labels.
4. Creating where students improvise new musical ideas after following the first three steps that provide knowledge and experience with a particular concept. This is composition in “real time” and makes it possible to create final compositions to be notated and performed later.
“What are Musicianly Behaviors?” –
Behaviors in music are the actions we perform that allow us to know or make a musical product. These include Listening, Rhythmic Speech, Singing, Moving and Dancing, Body Percussion and Instrument Playing. The behaviors are known as the Media of the classroom musical art form. In our classroom communities, our work is to Listen, Sing, Say, Dance and Play. All of these require careful attention – and since Listening is one of the most important skills to practice in every classroom, Music allows practice of this skill at high levels.
“What are some benefits to learning music in the Orff approach?” –
With the Orff Schulwerk approach –
1. All students are constantly involved with music making while in class – Focus and Attention to Detail are practiced.
2. Instrument parts exist at several levels of difficulty. Everyone can have a part to play to be successful and at the level of difficulty that challenges the individual student – so everyone learns at their own level and rate teaching “Fairness is what is right for each individual and not necessarily what is right simultaneously for all.”
3. Students can express themselves in several ways, and find their manners of expression in music that meets their individual ability and desire. Expressing the self in appropriate ways is a human trait.
4. Students earn ownership by being constantly engaged in music making where they have decisions regarding the music they make and perform. Choice and ownership contribute to community building.
“How are students evaluated in music?” –
Activities are built to address this idea:
- We are all points on a line moving forward –
Class “work” is composed of building activities where students can produce musical results. These results are tracked as a class and when mastered, the next level of work is started. Individual student understanding and comprehension will be evaluated at need according to district guidelines that are in the process of being developed district-wide in grades k-12
“What are the rules of student behavior in music?”
There is a Rule of Participation – we are here to learn together, contribute to activity and grow in our understanding of music. As we are a communal or community art, proper behavior towards one another is high priority. These include Manners, Courtesy, and Respect - and the Merriam School Core Values is one guide here. To bring detail, the Merriam Staff developed the following to define the Rights and Responsibilities of teachers and learners at Merriam:
Right to be heard
Responsibility to listen
Right to be safe physically and emotionally
Responsibility to behave in a safe way
Right to kindness and respect
Responsibility to treat others with kindness and respect
Right to learn
Responsibility to help others learn
Right to work and participate in learning
Responsibility to consider learning needs of others
Right to have property respected
Responsibility to respect the property of others
Right to a pleasant, organized environment
Responsibility to contribute to a pleasant environment
Right to participate in activity
Responsibility to include self and others in activity
Merriam Music students are coached in these each day in music class.