Fifth Grade Music (Exploring Music)

PEIMS Course Title/Number:
Music 5/02520008

Prerequisite Requirements:
None.

Course of Instruction/Lesson Description:
Exploring Music is for fifth-grade elementary students who are new to the K12 Music program. This course presents the basics of traditional music appreciation through singing and through the study of music in history and culture.

Major course expectations include the following:
Students will:

• Learn about composers from the Baroque and Classical periods—Bach, Handel, Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven.
• Study the traditional music of the major cultural regions of the world—Europe, Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Asia.
• Learn about composers from the Romantic and early Modern composers. They learn about the expansion of emotional expression in the music of composers like Schubert, Schumann, Brahms, and Tchaikovsky.
• See how a renewed interest in national culture helped inspire Dvořák, Mussorgsky, and Bartók.
• Examine the revolution in music at the beginning of the twentieth century.
• Study the music and cultures of the regions of the United States.
• Study five of the most important forms of music, and learn how to recognize and map the structure of different pieces of music.
  

Lesson Numbers/Duration:
34 total.

Online Importance:
K12's Exploring Music program provides step-by-step guidance in each lesson.

Most lessons begin with an online activity in which the student sings with the melodic pattern presented online. Let's Learn Rhythm uses a CD to provide students a similar experience, in which students clap and identify rhythm patterns. Once a student has finished this part of the lesson, most of the teaching and learning takes place away from the computer.

Students sometimes return to the computer to view animations that illustrate an abstract concept in the lesson, listen to a sound clip to identify a melodic pattern, or read about a composer. Students also use online tools to explore instruments in the orchestra.

Each lesson provides detailed instructions for each online activity. Activity Instructions provide an outline of the lesson as well as information about assessment and supplemental material. Activity Instructions are available to print from the Online Lesson.

Monitoring Student Progress:
Each Music lesson ends with an assessment. The assessment generally includes two or more questions or problems based on the lesson objectives.

Students and parents can access student-specific screens to determine (1) progress in the number of lessons completed, (2) the lesson assessment (percentage mastered), (3) the semester assessment (percentage mastered), and (4) the number of times the student has taken the assessment instruments. Families who enroll their children in the eCP program have the benefit of help and guidance from an experienced teacher. The teacher will contact students daily through email and phone conferences. Consistent progress monitoring by the teacher will be utilized throughout the project period.

Schedule for Monitoring Student Progress:
Each teacher will establish a daily contact schedule for their assigned students at a time of day that is reasonably convenient for both parties. Contacts may be asynchronous/synchronous or one-on-one/groups. The avenues of teacher-initiated contact will be adjusted as determined by the progress a student makes through their learning plan. Parent- and student-initiated contact with teachers can happen at any time. The Acting Director, or their designee, will monitor the communication logs to ensure that parents are being routinely supported and informed regarding the student's ongoing progress and participation.

In addition, teachers will monitor progress in mastery of objectives and lesson completion on a weekly basis. Continuous progress monitoring by the assigned teacher ensures that parents are informed on a regular basis regarding progress and participation.

Required Instructional Materials:
Materials K12 provides:

• Let's Listen and Learn, discs A and B, audio CD
• Let's Sing for Fun audio CD
• Let's Sing for Fun Songbook

Grading/Credit Award Criteria:
The Texas Virtual Academy at Southwest Schools issues formal report cards every nine weeks. Students who complete a significant amount of coursework after the conclusion of the final term will receive a supplemental report card in July. The final grade in each content subject, English/Language Arts, mathematics, Social Studies, and Science, is determined by a combination of the grades from each reporting period and the proctored course completion (CCE) exam. The average of the grades for each reporting period is comprised of 90% of the final grade. The scores of the CCE comprise 10% of the final grade.

The final grade for electives is based on cumulative progress recorded in the Online School (OLS). A grade of Completed, or C, is reported for 80% or more of the lessons marked as completed. A grade of Incomplete/Unacceptable, or I, is reported when less than 80% of the lessons are marked as completed. No Grade, or NG, is assigned if the student has administrative approval to waive the course requirements in a particular elective course.

To be promoted to the next grade, the student must meet the Student Success Initiative requirements for that grade. Additionally, the student must have a final score of 70 or above on at least three content courses and the average of the four content courses must be at least 70. For each reporting period, the grade in a content area subject is the average of at least six distinct grades. Those grades include, but are not limited to, the progress in the OLS converted to a numerical grade, response to the daily questions, online quizzes following the weekly grade-level study halls, work samples, and benchmark assessments.

Contact Information:
Students will be assigned a teacher upon acceptance into TXVA@SW. The teacher will provide the student and family telephone and email contact information. The student and/or family may contact a help desk at 1-886-YOUR K12 for additional technical, material, or logistical support. Students will be provided with online assistance 24/7 through the TXVA website.