MS Core Knowledge

[nafmeadmin]

Hi everyone!

A colleague of mine and I are teaching general music to grades 6-8. We are a ‘Core Knowledge’ school (not to be confused with Common Core!!) and are having difficulty finding a decent textbook to teach the curriculum topics in Core Knowledge over the course of an entire school year. We have some materials but there are so few topics in Core Knowledge for each grade level we have trouble filling up a whole school year! Any good middle school general music resources you can share would be helpful. We teach in a charter school, and I would say our students are high achievers academically, so more advanced readings wouldn’t be a deterrent. We also teach based on a Classical Education system, meaning we use original source material and move from rote memorization in the younger grades to more deep-thinking techniques in the higher grades. Thank you in advance for your help!

[nafmeadmin]

NAfME puts out a magazine for middle school thru high school students called “In Tune.” I believe that each member gets a monthly issue with membership; you can purchase a subscription for your classroom. This is generally on a higher level in terms of vocabulary and skills / topics than other magazines or textbooks I’ve found, such as Music Alive (for elementary and middle). I’m not sure if there are companies which produce a textbook for middle school. All textbooks I’ve found are for elementary. Middle School general music teachers which I’ve known just use materials they have collected from conferences and the internet or elem activities altered for older studnets. Even middle school students enjoy interactive learning so make sure that you use the textbook / reading and writing activities only part of the class.

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