Reading Task 7

What is a curriculum, and why is it important to have one?
What considerations are important when establishing a curriculum? What factors might influence its successful implementation?
What are the benefits of using the National Standards as a basis for your curriculum, and what might be the limitations?

A curriculum is “the activities that occur in the classroom;” it is comprised of all activities, lessons, and experiences in a classroom. Curricula are crucial to running a coherent class because it is only through clear curricula that teachers (and administrators) can easily have access to the goals and intentions for a class. It is then from these curricula that lesson plans are derived.

National and State Standards are always a good place to start when planning a curriculum. Though idealistic, the National Standards are broad enough that essentially any state and local educational administrations can fit into them. It is then up to the local administrations and teachers to decide exactly what is best for their specific school and students. Curricula need to be put into cultural and historical context while still being appropriately balanced and comprehensive. Skills, concepts, attitudes, and repertoire are the main 4 categories that need to be taken into account when creating a curriculum. The successful implementation of a curriculum, then, can be effected by several factors. First, adequate and appropriate lesson plans must be made and followed. Second, school dynamics change, sometimes even dramatically so within a given school year; thus, a teacher must be ready to adjust their plans appropriately to still stay true to the curriculum but yet be more appropriate for their students and school.

The National Standards are a great foundation for more local guidelines. However, they are just that – a foundation. This is to say that they should not be the only standards in application, but simply just the underlying ones. They are very broad and thus are not enough to actually guide a curriculum or, least of all, a specific lesson plan. There are no inherent limitations to using the National Standards as a basis for more local standards. Benefits of using the National Standards, however, are that they are commonly accepted, they cover all the major areas of music, and they are broad enough to allow for adaptation. Overall, they are a terrific foundation for the formulation of curricula.

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