ariccinto@summersknoll.org
Summers Knoll School- The Musical Experience
Music class at Summers Knoll is an eclectic experience that goes far beyond tangible musical skills. Through a survey-style general music curriculum using a variety of units of study, students are exposed to a number of genres, musical modalities, and ideas that work to develop a life-long appreciation and enjoyment of the musical arts alongside of important life and social skills.
As students progress through the music program at Summers Knoll, the activities follow their developmental needs and gradually move from a very physical, two-dimensional and concrete approach to work that becomes more organic, intrinsically motivating, and expressive within a group dynamic that naturally complements the more individualized approach of the main classroom.
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Students rise to the standards we set for them and the standards in the music classroom are high. With attention to child development in place at all times, it is the expectation in the music classroom that all students:
- Contribute to the safety of the classroom, physically, socially and emotionally by respecting the bodies, personal space, ideas, and emotional sensitivities of themselves and others.
- Follow directions
- Give their personal best effort at all times. Students will have fun in class but will enjoy some activities more than others. Learning to fully engage anyway for the good of the group is an important life skill.
- Practice raising ideas, comments, questions, or frustrations at an appropriate time and manner so that all students can have the opportunity to participate within their own style and processing speed without the distraction or domination of others.
At all levels, students do developmentally matched work that addresses the following types of concepts and ideas in some way during the year. Some things are exposed generally and others in more detail at different grade levels. Some things are taught and learned through a unit. Others are learned and experienced “on the fly” as part of the environment. Others might simply be mentioned and still others may be addressed through extra performing ensembles or after school opportunities.
Life/Social skills and concepts
- Teamwork/community building - the power and compound throughput of a group
- Strategies for coping and working in a world that thinks very differently than you do.
- Personal development and success principles
- the value of self-education, speaking, and writing skills
- entrepreneurship, creative careers
- Managing an active mind, multiple interests and high sensitivity
- Being of service to others and our communities
- finding our passions, nurturing them, and creating a life around them in a meaningful way.
- Integrity is doing the right thing even when it’s uncomfortable or when nobody else is looking.
- Success in any area of life resides outside of our comfort zone.
- critical thinking, reasoning, and problem solving skills
- when and how to question authority
- Self-assessment and regulation
- risk-taking and trying new things
Musical ideas, concepts, and skills - (* These skills/ideas are studied in significantly more depth in choir classes)
- Genres such as jazz, classical and rock n’ roll and how they are all related.
- identifying characteristics
- related historical/social/cultural connections
- How to be an audience.
- Critical listening, engagement and evaluation
- Singing skills *
- group vs. individual
- tone production, posture, and singing in tune
- performance and communication skills
- diction
- Rhythmic skills - steady beat, playing rhythms, and developing a sense of internal pulse while connecting it to the body.
- Music reading basics *
- movement
- song-writing/composition
- improvisation
- playing instruments
- dynamics
- ensemble performance *
- American music and uniquely American art-forms such as
- folk dance
- musical theater
- jazz
- Studies of the orchestra
- Careers in music
- performing, teaching, record producers, management, etc.
- The business of music
- Music technology
- Literature and music
- Non-verbal communication and leadership development through performance in and out of the classroom. *
- Discerning good quality music in any genre
- Appreciation for and exposure to the music of other cultures.
- music as a form of expression as a listener, performer, and member of a society
- music and its use in film, theater, and a storytelling medium
Sincerely,
Mr. Riccinto
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