Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Music Education topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Cinnaminson music teachers outline K–12 curriculum shift toward performance and music technology
Summary
District music teachers presented a K–12 curriculum rooted in the 2020 New Jersey Student Learning Standards, highlighting expanded performance, musical theater, ukulele and guitar instruction, and new music-technology coursework that uses BandLab and GarageBand.
Cinnaminson Township School District music teachers told the board on Jan. 15 that the district has shaped its K–12 curriculum around the 2020 New Jersey Student Learning Standards and is expanding opportunities in performance and music technology.
The presentation, led by Natasha Sigmont and colleagues from the middle and high schools, described a shift in the standards “from appreciation to music making” and outlined classroom projects from singing and movement in sixth grade to audio engineering and pit orchestra work at the high school.
Natasha Sigmont, a district music teacher, said, “The big shift in 20 20 student learning standards is from appreciation to music making, to performing, creating, responding, connecting, presenting.” She described middle school units that begin with singing and movement, progress to group choreography and musical theater, and culminate in a ukulele project that teaches basic harmonic structure.
Luke Bekanes, band director, described the middle-school music-technology course for eighth graders, which combines composing, arranging and basic acoustics with digital audio workstations. “BandLab … is entirely web based, so students can accomplish this work in class as well as at home,” Bekanes said, noting the district can run BandLab on Chromebooks.
Dr. Nick DeSalvio, high school band director, said the high school applies those skills in a production-level audio lab using GarageBand and in expanded guitar and strings offerings. He highlighted the district’s indoor drum line and color guard programs and noted the drum line had gone “462 days undefeated,” a statistic the instructors reported with enthusiasm.
Presenters described curricular progression by grade: singing and movement in sixth grade; notation, composition and ukulele in seventh grade; music technology in grade eight; and expanded electives at the high school including audio engineering and a pit orchestra for the spring musical. The high school will perform The Little Mermaid with live pit orchestra arrangements rather than prerecorded tracks, the presenters said.
Board members and student representatives praised the program. Student representative Gwen Chikonski read awards and student achievements tied to athletics and music; middle-school representative Noah Bundy described upcoming events that pair student activities with community service.
The presentation included examples of student work, classroom projects and plans for district band and choir days in February. No formal board action was required or taken on the presentation itself.
The district’s music staff asked the board and the public to watch for concert dates and the high school’s spring musical later this semester.
