I teach the state and national standards in music which boil down to:
Foundations, Create, Perform, Respond.
In my classroom, this translates into:
Foundations –
We must have foundational musical knowledge and skills in order to accomplish the work that we do in music. Students are continually expanding their knowledge as the work becomes more complex and demanding.
Create –
Students compose rhythmic music that they perform for one another. When we have time, we move into melodic compositions as well, but this is a challenge with performance expectations and the limited number of music classes that we have each year.
Perform –
Students sing, dance (when we have time) and play instruments. The instruments we use are drums, xylophones, recorders and other classroom instruments. In order to perform on the pitched instruments, students learn to read music.
Respond –
Students listen to music that they have composed and/or performed and analyze/evaluate their work. They listen to music from around the world and from other time periods, comparing and contrasting pieces and cultures. Students learn to analyze form in the music that they hear. We use AniMusic quite a bit as they begin to understand the concept.