Brainstorming+about+the+Big+Ideas


 * Big Ideas in the Arts (Body of Knowledge) **

//Enduring Understandings move beyond what is factual. They will drive learning throughout a child’s school years and beyond. Before we can create Enduring Understandings and Benchmarks, we must explore the depths of the Big Ideas.// //Each Big Idea contains important Arts content. “Brainstorm” about important phrases and concepts within each Big Idea that you believe to be “real, deep and enduring.” Edit them into the wiki under the appropriate Big Idea. In this way, we can view, think and continue building upon this evolving content.//

** 1. SKILLS, TECHNIQUES, AND PROCESSES: Through dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts, students learn that beginners, amateurs, and professionals benefit from working to improve skills and techniques over time. **  musicianship; cognitive comprehension of patterns (audiation); vocal and instrumental tone; practice; perseverance; delayed gratification; self-evaluation; evaluation of others; reflection; memory; synthesis/transfer through creativity - exploration, composition or improvisation; learning styles and differentiation; building and synthesizing the lexicon available to each individual artist needed to fully express original and complex ideas. Students need the time and the experiences to build on each skill. Those experiences need to be positive and designed to meet the needs of the student. The key word being "over time". Teaching skills and techniques within context and not in isolation We develop the power of "I can," positive thinking. We break down the the big picture into smaller, incremental, achievable steps. These steps should follow the natural development of the child – not the logic of the subject.  The basic fundamentals are needed throughout every level and they act as a springboard into more in-depth, more developed skills. The arts develop a good work ethic; the arts develop perseverance. ​Our curriculum maps were formatted so that across subject areas and grade levels there would be similarities. Music at the elementary level was considered to be spiral and one of the sections on our maps was the Unit/Organizing Principle. We came up with 4 of those and kept them the same for each grade level aligned with the 4 marking periods in our county. The first one was " Introduce the Fundamentals of Music" the second was "Apply and Explore Skills and Concepts" the third was "Develop Skills and Concepts" and the fourth was "Create and Critique Music". We defined fundamentals as the 5 elements of music (rhythm, melody, harmony, form, and timbre) For younger students (pre-K to 5) I would recommend this sequence, which is centered on the developmental stages of the child, rather than a unit or concept based approach: 1) Provide **many** musical experiences to __prepare__ the new note, rhythm, element, or concept;  2) __ Label __ the new note, rhythm, element, or concept;  3) Provide **many** musical experiences to __reinforce__ and __make transfers__ using the new note, rhythm, element, or concept;  4) __ Evaluate __ – generally by having the students demonstrate their mastery of the skill in authentic performance situations within the music class.  CORE skills would be thoroughly taught using this sequence, with SECONDARY skills and concepts inserted and attached at appropriate spots along the spiral curriculum. This distinction is of utmost importance. For example, if a fourth grader doesn’t master the identification of the instruments of the woodwind family, it is of no grave or enduring consequence because that information can be found quickly and at any time with a few clicks of the I-phone or computer, but if a child of that age hasn’t been taught to match pitch accurately, the probability of his / her ever mastering that skill is rapidly diminishing, and can’t be gained by reference to the internet or other research sources. (The spiral curriculum implies that the student would be simultaneously preparing one or more of the new notes, rhythms, elements, or concepts AND reinforcing one or more of the recently labeled ones.)

form ; textual/melodic/movement bonding; developing the skills and understanding to see both macro and micro structures of a work each moment; giving oneself permission to change the micro structure from moment to moment(in time-based art), and trusting one's own instinct and skills to generate sound art(i.e. improvisation): gaining understanding of how one's part "fits," develops awareness of others, cooperation, consideration (I don't have the melody, I need to play or sing softer). We listen and respond to vertical and horizontal lines and layers of sounds. the performer must take all the elements and make them speak, communicate an emotion and/or story/picture to an audience. We learn how combining elements and delivering them create emotion, inspire the performer's and listener's imagination to create a picture that represents the sound being performed. The creation stage is usually next, allowing us to experiment with these elements to create our own compositions.
 * 2. STRUCTURAL ORGANIZATION: Works in dance, music, theatre, and visual art are organized by underlying elements and principles that guide creators, re-creators, and responders. **

Power of "if"; conjuring of ideas; people engage the entire learning process; develop keener understanding and insights aesthetically; a part of the human experience; timeless - ensure that we keep giving that to our children; cooperative aspect - students are feeding off each other to create something to be performed, assessed; pushing the students to get better - not only what they create but what they are hearing and observing; not just their own creations but that of others; judgments; constructive criticism; dynamic process; transcendent; self-discovery and exploration; cognitive as well as kinesthetic; learning styles and differentiation; the role of analysis and synthesis in the transfer of knowledge through active listening and/or creating; Susan Langer’s idea that “our existence is primarily sensory," and that the human mind continuously makes-meaning by "seeing" one thing in relation to another - this act demands active engagement. Learning styles and differentiating iinstruction are vital.. Music allows opportunity to reach all learners through this active engagement. Singing, playing, listening, moving, creating. These experiences are key to the development of our students. Music is an academic subject that involves learning in the major domains: cognitive (knowledge), psychomotor (skills), affective (attitudes and feelings), and kinesthetic (the senses). Music comprises its own complex body of knowledge, requires the development of  motor coordination, shapes attitudes and feelings, and requires learning via the senses. Through music, people engage in the entire learning process and develop keener understandings and insights as to how knowledge, skills, attitudes, feelings and the senses interrelate.
 * 3. ACTIVE ENGAGEMENT: The arts are inherently experiential and actively engage learners in the processes of creating, re-creating, and responding to art. **

Speak without words, universal language, synthesis, human, empathy, __give meaning to students__, seeing the big picture as well as the small, __self-understanding__, narration, __emotionally engaging__; creative; improvisatory; higher level thinking; taking an idea and __expressing__ it another way; meta-learning as individuals and as groups. Individuals are required to plan ahead, prepare, know what to do with the notes on the page in order to communicate the intention of the art. It requires great understanding of the art to have that insight to deliver the element expressively. Multiple Intelligences (Gardner): Verbal, mathematical, linguistic, logical, music, spatial, kinesthetic. Songs are linguistic & verbal, rhythm and composition is logical & mathematical, dance and fingerings/technique on instruments are kinesthetic & spatial, music interpretation is intrapersonal, connections between musicians in an ensemble are interpersonal. By being involved in music, a child becomes adept with many aspects of the intellectual self. Interhemispheric brain funtion: brain communicates and responds to events simultaneously (e.g. playing and responding [emotionally] to music).
 * 4. COGNITION AND COMMUNICATION: Individual cognition, self-expression, documentation, and communication with others are central to the arts. **

collaboration; breaking through boundaries; "genealogy of music"' how different cultures/events throughout history have changed the course of music; how technology has influenced composing and production of music; connecting to people of other generations through arts that are an expression of their life and times; how technology has enabled us access to music we would have never been exposed to...."instantly"  Connecting to the music of the past, folk songs, the classics, and the music of others cultures to ensure that our students understand that the development of music has a real connection to the history and development of world history and culture. The arts are the universal language. They bridge the communication gap between cultures. They express who we are and what we think - a direct reflection of our society, they document history and our reactions to those events. The arts provide insight into the human mind and heart, and they allow us to our express beliefs/reactions/perspectives about life. Music is an important means of learning about and transmitting cultural heritages. Music and the other arts encapsulate what it is to be human and what it means to belong to any of the variety of cultures on earth. Music helps us to learn about ourselves, our traditions, and our ways of thinking and acting. It also helps us to learn about others, their traditions, and their behaviors. There are pockets of American arts that have changed or been lost; because our society is changing so rapidly, we want to be certain they have an opportunity to learn about them
 * 5. HISTORICAL, GLOBAL, AND FUTURE CONNECTIONS: The arts foster understanding, acceptance, and enrichment among individuals, groups, and cultures from around the world and across time; and this new perspective helps individuals appreciate existing works and create new ones. **

judgments; evaluations; quality of performance; various perspectives of listener, performer, conductor, assessments, self - evaluations, critical thinking skills; problem solving, connections: how technology has given a high degree of control over critical reflection of an artists own work, as well as others; how technology has given rise to an expanded aesthetic. Music gives us a means to develop aesthetic sensitivity. The study of music teaches people to appreciate quality – those products of human creativity that represent the highest order of thinking, feeling, and technical achievement. When one is able to understand and experience the great works of art, one is more able to experience that richness and beauty of life in its highest form. Music is a means of understanding and relating to the noblest desires and aspirations of people throughout the ages.
 * 6. AESTHETIC AND CRITICAL REFLECTION: The arts actively engage the creator, re-creator, and responder in the processes of assessment and analysis. **

critical thinking skills; problem solving; collaboration; understanding and valuing a role in a group; the impact Arts related jobs have on a community's economy; types of Arts-related jobs outside the performance arena; arts in the home environment - parents as their child's first teacher; how the discipline and adaptability required to make art transfers to the creation of a worker in other work they may end up doing as their primary job; music consumerism; Arts are the foundation of producing and advertising "product." The design of the product and the marketing design is what influences the consumer. <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Music provides a means for developing self-expression and creativity. It involves a learning process that moves from convergent to divergent thinking – new ways of manipulating, organizing, and structuring sound. Society values problem-solving, and creative activities help in the exploration of numerous possible outcomes to specific problems. Music provides many opportunities for developing the valuable way of thinking, which leads to new ways of doing things. (Dan Pink) We're teaching kids for jobs and technologies not yet here - we're always behind; students have to be creative, have initiative, be problem-solvers; we're still teaching the way we were taught - that has to stop - we have to be forward thinkers; we need to move toward 21st C. skills; need to pursue new perspective and how students collaborate and approach composition; training our students for the outside wold beyond the classroom - world is not what we grew up with - they're out-sourcing; our students will need to be the creatives; will need to be creative thinkers, be more aesthetic, more emotional; many students don't have the confidence to step out and create - must feel ideas are valued - their input matters; "champion mindset"; need to think outside the box - they will if we continually, gently push them - taught 1 + 1 = 2; when we ask them to do something that's not black and white, it's unusual for them - that's part of the attraction for our students; in some ages, they're willing to take risks - will need to be aware of child development; parents as their children's first teacher - orchestras are shutting down (economy); we need to educate our students to be good consumers and to teach their children to be good consumers (for .99, they can download just about anything); patrons of the arts, how do we gain the enthusiasm for going to concerts, museums, churches, volunteer organizations; our students are already consumers and patrons - we may need to broaden our perspective of "patron"; there's a difference between seeing a YouTube live concert and a live concert; students tend to listen to part of a concert, go away, and come back to finish later; historical view of performance - we rehearse and only perform when it's all ready; for current students, performance ( a few riffs) and listening is different; may attend a global concert through their computers/iPods; how children interact with the arts, but they can't choose what they don't know - we need to offer them the opportunity to discover; we've become such an "instant" society - they
 * 7. ARTS AND THE ECONOMY: Arts-related careers and 21st-century skills gained through learning in the arts are transferable and integral to local and global economies. **

inherent connections; interrelated thought/learning processes, vocabulary; multiple boundary crosser ; new forms of expression through interdisciplinary art creation; the way in which the "process of art making" can inform approaches to other academic content areas. This process should enable students to connect to academic areas in expressive ways. (Readers Theater for example). <span style="color: #000000; font-family: Tahoma,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 10pt;">Music is a comprehensive art – within its study, students come into contact with other basic areas of the curriculum: math, science, social studies, languages, and physical education. While music is a subject with its own body of knowledge and is inherently worth knowing, its comprehensive nature serves as a foundation for a unified and comprehensive educational setting.
 * 8. RELATIONSHIPS ACROSS ACADEMIC CONTENT AREAS: Dance, music, theatre, and visual art are often infused with each other and with other academic content areas. **