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Choir

6th-8th Grade Choir

Course Description

This choir provides sixth, seventh, and eighth grade students with opportunities to develop the singing voice, an introduction to and continuation of sight-reading, tone production, intonation, rhythm and ensemble singing. Students will perform a variety of choral compositions of contrasting styles, periods and cultures. This ensemble will perform public concerts in and outside of school throughout the school year.

Grade Level(s): 6th-8th grades

Related Priority Standards (State &/or National):  Missouri Grade Level Expectations for Music

Essential Questions

  • How can we include others in our performance?
  • How do we decide what performances are appropriate for an occasion?
  • How do musicians improve the quality of their creative work?
  • How do musicians decide when a performance is ready to share?
  • How can we predict how music will sound by reading music notation? 
  • How do we decide when our performance sounds the way that it should?

Enduring Understandings/Big Ideas

  • Singing together helps groups of people connect with each other and helps individuals feel included. 
  • Music performances express ideas that are appropriate for different occasions. 
  • Music helps groups of people set the tone for their celebrations. Different kinds of music are important at different celebrations.
  • Before we try to judge the quality of a performance we have to agree on our preferences and criteria. 
  • Musicians who sing together have to listen to each other
  • Musicians practice both together and individually to improve their performances.  
  • Musical notation records pitch, rhythm, and expression.
  • Musicians reading musical notation can sing through a piece and anticipate what they will need to work on in practice. 

Course-Level Scope & Sequence (Units &/or Skills)

Strand 1: Create- Creating an original musical work assists students in understanding the musical elements required to convey a mood or feeling. By learning and incorporating common practices in composition technique, students gain a greater depth of knowledge for the execution and performance of other musical works.

  • Students will be able to identify and imitate simple rhythmic patterns.
  • Students will be able to identify and imitate simple melodic patterns.
  • Students will be able to evaluate, refine, and present an original musical composition.

Strand 2: Performing/Presenting/Producing- Performance experiences are critical to the development of musicians. Vocal performance skills encompass the tools needed to master, interpret, and produce a musical work. Ensemble performance skills are acquired when students rehearse and study music in preparation for culminating performances.

  • Students will be able to sight read alone and with others in unison using steps and skips.
  • Students will be able to sing music using simple rhythmic and melodic notation.
  • Students will be able to interpret and perform music using expression such as dynamics, phrasing, and style.
  • Students will be able to interpret expressive intent and meaning of musical works.
  • Students will be able to demonstrate vocal production techniques relating to posture, breathing, tone, and diction.
  • Students will be able to perform a varied repertoire of choral music in public with others. 
  • Students will be able to sing literature in a variety of voicings. 
  • Students will be able to infer connections between the arts or non-arts related disciplines to the performance of choral literature.
  • Students will be able to identify characteristics and context of various historical periods, genres, and styles.

Strand 3:  Responding- Interpreting the elements of music and the composer’s intent contributes to the process of mastering a skill, and influences the emotional response from the performer and the listener.

  • Students will be able to identify reasons for selecting literature citing musical elements, purpose, and/or context.
  • Students will be able to identify the form of performed repertoire.
  • Students will be able to identify characteristics and context of various historical periods, genres, and styles.
  • Students will be able to understand what the composer is communicating, citing musical elements.
  • Students will be able to distinguish between quality and non-quality performances, citing musical elements.

Strand 4: Connecting- Students will relate knowledge and personal experiences to make music. Musical ideas and works are studied in societal, cultural, and historical context to deepen understanding critical to growth as a young musician. The principles and subject matter of various disciplines outside the arts are interrelated with those of music. Such as the processes of analysis, inquiry, and creativity.

  • Students will be able to distinguish between quality and non-quality performances, citing musical elements.
  • Students will be able to interpret expressive intent and meaning of musical works.
  • Students will be able to infer connections between the arts and non-arts related disciplines.
  • Students will be able to identify characteristics and contexts of various historical periods, genres, and styles.

Date Last Revised/Approved:  April 2023