For most of my undergraduate students, trying to figure out how to plan instruction that includes a variety of standards is tricky. Especially when they are new to writing lesson plans. The feedback I feel like I give most often is related to issues with alignment among objectives, standards, lesson sequence, and assessments. The second most common issue I notice is that a select few performance standards tend to get recycled quite a bit among lesson plans submitted throughout the semester or year. This is because students will often plan their lessons first and then remember that they need to add standards, so they try to figure out what fits with what they’ve already written.

The issues my students have with using a variety of standards isn’t too far off from what most music teacher struggle with. Which means that, for the most part, music teachers are usually great at helping students to achieve performing standards. And sometimes connecting standards. But creating and responding standards…not so much.

The National Core Arts Standards were designed to make sure that students are getting a well-rounded musical education that allows students to explore music through: creating, performing, responding, and connecting.

Teaching music, particularly ensembles, with standards-based instruction can help all students to find their way of being musical. How else do we find the next James Newton Howard, Jennifer Jolley, John Batiste, Gaelynn Lea, and the list goes on and on.

Consider what we are intentionally or unintentionally saying we value based on what we cover with our students throughout their time in our classrooms. And, just like that, a conversation about standards-based instruction has entered the chat.

Investigating Standards-Based Instruction

There are some research topics that need to get answers through surveys. There are also some research topics that need to get answers through “fly on the wall” observations, interviews, or some other form of communication with real people.

Then, there are some research topics that require numbers AND observations or conversations with real people. In this type of research, known as mixed-methods research, you need the numbers and words to have equal importance to your study. Mixed-methods research isn’t easy to do well, but when it is, you get big questions answered and the perspectives of a selected number of individuals to provide context to the numbers.

This mixed-methods research study sought to discover circumstances that impacted teachers using (or not using) the National Core Arts Standards for music. The survey responses from the 306 participants were analyzed before one individual from each state was identified whose responses indicated that they had significant experience with standards-based instruction. From all contacted individuals, 5 participated in the interviews. The interviews were focused on experiences with, perceptions of, and a perceived ability to teach using standards-based instruction.

Note for individuals who like to geek out about methodology, go check out the article. There is SO much I didn’t include that you can read about.

What They Found

Teachers who took the survey rated comfort with performing standards highest and creating and connecting standards the lowest. I don’t think anyone is surprised by those results. Teachers also said that they felt they had a professional responsibility to teach all four standards areas, but time, resources, and training often prevented them from teaching creating, connecting, and responding standards effectively with their ensembles.

One thing that I really appreciated seeing in the quantitative data (aka the numbers) was that the researchers looked to see if levels of education, years of teaching experience, regions in which they taught, school settings, ensemble types, or numbers of students impacted a teacher’s ability to address the national music standards with their students. There were no significant relationships found. This means, that a teacher in their first year and a teacher in their 35th year had no significant differences in their comfort levels to include creating, performing, connecting, and responding standards into their ensemble rehearsals. Nothing in the survey responses led the researchers to think that any changes would make any significant difference. Basically, it doesn’t matter what you swap out for people who took the survey, the comfort levels essentially stay the same.

When looking at the qualitative data (aka the words), researchers found two overarching themes: relevance and influences.

Conversations about relevance, were focused on applicability of including standards-based instruction. One of the participants, said that they knew standards were there—and that they were good—but that they didn’t purposely look at them or use them every day.

Conversations about time limitations were primarily focused on the lack of time to incorporate standards-based instruction. However, one participant said that they didn’t use standards because they were supposed to, but rather because of their sense of personal responsibility to give their students a good musical education.

So What? Why Should You Care?

A few of the participants said in their interviews that the standards may actually help newer teachers to feel more comfortable in their roles as ensemble directors. Trying to include all 4 areas of the standards could them to do well in their teacher evaluations, plan concert cycles effectively, and show administrators what is happening in music classrooms on a daily basis.

So, rather than feeling overwhelmed by the 4 categories of the National Core Arts Standards, use them to help you be more effective with planning. Instead of the “fit standards into an existing lesson” approach, you can look at your year (or years) with students as a way to build competencies in each area. Rather than hoping your repertoire and activities allow you to cover a significant number of standards, map out your year with skills, knowledge, meaningful activities you want students to get. Then look at that curriculum map as a way to find opportunities to not just focus on performance-based skills in rehearsals.

The standards aren’t there to taunt you. They also weren’t created with the intent of you only using a handful of standards each year. The standards were created to help you give your students a well-rounded musical education. Some standards may take more intentional planning and work than others, but they’re all important.

Moving Forward

It isn’t enough to find and include a variety of standards into your lessons. You have to learn how to plan in a way that allows you to embed those standards in a way that makes sense for who you are as a teacher. Your students should know what you value based on how you structure your lessons, the activities you include, and the opportunities you give your students throughout their time in your program.

This is why you were forced to write a music teaching philosophy in MANY of your undergraduate courses. Your professors (myself included) want you to have a clear idea of what you value so when you plan, those values can be explicit to your students, administrators, and school community members.

If you want to spend 3 full weeks to creating a group composition to play at your spring concert, go for it. But also, if that doesn’t sound good to you…you don’t have to do it. But maybe your “speed” is more in creating educational sheets to accompany repertoire with scales, rhythmic exercises, and an opportunity to re-write a main melody using the notes, articulations, and dynamics from the piece. Find a creative outlet for yourself and your students that matches with what you believe your students should take away from your classroom.

Because at the end of the day, what you do in your classroom with your students has to fit within your music teaching philosophy.

Because, again, using all of the standards can give your students opportunities to learn that performing isn’t the only way to be a musician.

The cool thing about trying out creative activities with your students, especially if you yourself aren’t super comfortable with them, is that your students see you learning and growing. And then, ideally, our students see how [insert teen slang word for “awesome”] it is to learn and grow throughout a lifetime. Develop that growth mentality. Get them to consider what music participation looks like once they leave their senior year of high school.

The National Core Arts Standards help you to make sure your students are being introduced to a well-rounded musical education, but how you incorporate them into individual lessons on a daily basis can be a bit tricky. My suggestion for those of you who want to do more but are struggling is to re-imagine how you plan long- and short-term goals for your students. By starting with the end goal in mind, Understanding by Design or UbD can help you to make sure that you are focused on what you want your students to walk away from your classroom being able to do.

By the way, did you know that the National Core Arts Standards were created with UbD? Peep any anchor standard to see phrases like “enduring understanding” or “essential question.” Don’t believe me, check out this definitions page for the 4 areas of standards and then look any of the 2014 Music Standards. There’s a reason this way of designing curriculum works so well with standards-based instruction!

Universal Design for Learning or UDL may seem overwhelming, but it exists to help you make sure that what you teach and how you teach is effective for all of your students. Planning lessons to teach your “typical” or “average” student is fine, but UDL is planning what happens when you re-imagine instruction in an inclusive way that benefits all learners in your classroom. Think of UDL as a way to construct lesson plans like a really well-designed entrance to a building. Lots of ways to enter, support railings, ramps, bright lighting, anti-slip materials used throughout, etc. Basically, using UDL allows you plan while anticipating issues, build in supports along the way, and support everyone in your room, regardless of their ability.

Backward design and inclusive instruction can help with the planning, but if you’re confused with where to go from there, check out some of the resources below.

  • A great brand new Update article just came out talking about using UDL to investigate self-efficacy for students with disabilities at a summer camp. It defines UDL in an effective way if you want a music-focused resource rather than the official UDL website.
  • This Power Point presentation about using the National Core Arts Standards along-side UbD planning. It describes how to create quick and easy assessments in performing ensembles for Rochester, NY music teachers has lots of great information. However, the National Standards are used, so this resource can be applied for anyone teaching anywhere!
  • If you’re looking for a book, Creating Wicked Students: Designing Courses for a Complex World  by Paul Hanstedt is a great resource. Though the book focuses on designing college classes, it is a quick read with activities throughout to help you re-imagine your course for students after they leave your classroom. The ideas presented may not work for your students, but the ideas you’ll get while reading, I think, makes it worth it.

Long story short, the resources to help you are out there. The trouble is finding the time, space, and resources to help. So, if you’re trying to figure out where to start, consider making small changes and sticking with them for just a bit to see what happens. You don’t have to overhaul how you teach, just look for opportunities to infuse a bit more. Find what works in your classroom over time, make note of what does and doesn’t work…and why it didn’t work out. Sometimes finding the wrong way to do something, is even more beneficial than finding the right way!

Then, if over the summer you want to re-do your planning, take the time to investigate how UbD (backward design) and UDL (inclusive lesson planning) can work in your classroom with your students. Read through and imagine how you could plan for instruction driven by the standards rather than just focusing on songs, activities, method books, or repertoire.

And reach out for help. You never know where you’ll find your most helpful piece of advice!

Do you have research to contribute to this column? Submit with this link so that I can share what you’ve created in a future column.

If you are interested in reading more about how to read and understand music education research, check out my book!