Fourth Grade

1.0:  PERCEIVING, AND RESPONDING: AESTHETIC EDUCATION – Students will develop the ability to perceive, perform, and respond to music.

1:  Develop awareness of the characteristic of musical sounds and the diversity of sounds in the environment

a.  Explain characteristics of band and orchestra instruments to support their belonging to the string, woodwind, brass, or percussion family

b. Identify theme and variation form in music, when presented aurally

c.  Listen to, perform, and describe music that illustrates fast/slow, loud/soft (quiet), long/short, high/ low

d. Describe environmental sounds heard, with attention to rhythm

e.  Listen to and identify voices as children’s, adult male and adult female

2:  Experience performance through singing and playing instruments in general, vocal and instrumental settings

a.  Perform accurately simple rhythms at sight from standard notation: tied notes (whole, half, and quarter combinations)

b.  Sing and play a variety of music with accurate intonation and characteristic timbre

c.  Sing partner songs and songs with descants accurately

d. Perform rhythmically and melodically correct ostinatos or chordal accompaniment patterns while other students sing or play contrasting parts

e.  Explain appropriate performance behavior

3:  Respond to music through movement

a.  Perform singing games and traditional dances from a variety of world cultures

b.  Conduct music in four meter

4:  Experiment with standard and individually created symbols to represent sounds

a.  Read standard chord symbols and play the represented chords on classroom instruments (I and V chords)

b.  Write simple rhythm patterns from dictation using quarter, two connected eighth notes, half and whole notes and corresponding rests in 2/4 and 3/4 time

c.  Notate short improvised melodies on the treble staff using standard notation (2 measures)

d.  Read and perform simple pitch notation on the treble staff in the key of C major, using solfeggio or a comparable system

2.0:  HISTORICAL, CULTURAL, AND SOCIAL CONTEXT: Students will demonstrate an understanding of music as an essential aspect of history and human experience.

1:  Develop the ability to recognize music as a form of individual and cultural expression through experiencing music as both personal and societal expression

 a.  Describe how music reflects daily experience in Maryland

b.  Listen to, perform, and discuss how music is used to celebrate holidays in various cultures

 c.  Listen to music examples from various world cultures and describe how rhythm is used

d.  Identify and describe roles of musicians in Maryland

e.  Use representational sign language to describe aural musical examples

f.  Compare ways in which creating and performing music bring personal satisfaction

 2:  Become acquainted with the roles of music in the lives of people

a.  Listen to and discuss how selected works from standard music literature correspond to specific historical event

b.  Perform songs and dances from a variety of historical periods and world cultures including some connected to general classroom studies

c.  Listen to and describe musical examples that represent styles and traditions from various historical periods and world cultures

3:  Explore the relationship of music to dance, theatre, the visual arts, and other disciplines

a.  Use techniques from dance, drama, and the visual arts to characterize music

b.  Identify ways in which the processes and content in music correlate with those of other subject areas taught in the school

 
4.  Develop knowledge of a wide variety of representative musical styles and genres through the study of music historya.  Listen to and identify songs from various periods in music history, world cultures, and works written by exemplary composers
 

b.  Identify specific musical instruments that are used in a variety of musical styles and genres

3.0:  CREATIVE EXPRESSION AND PRODUCTION: Students will develop the ability to organize musical ideas and sounds creatively      

1:  Develop the ability to improvise music through experimentation with sound

a.  Use selected instruments or voices to improvise simple rhythmic and melodic ostinato accompaniments

b.  Improvise vocal or instrumental music using at least three traditional sounds

2:  Develop readiness for composing and arranging by experimenting with sound

a.  Compose and notate graphically a sound composition using environmental sounds

b.  Create simple rhythms in forms which show contrast; whole notes and whole rests, half notes and half rests, quarter notes and quarter rests, two eighth notes connected, tied notes (2 measures)

c.  Compose and use traditional notation to preserve (write) descants which enhance given melodies

4.0:  AESTHETIC CRITICISM: Students will demonstrate the ability to make aesthetic judgments.

1:  Evaluate selected musical compositions using established criteria a.  Discuss how music changes in performances such as dynamics, tempo, and phrasing affect the listener’s reaction to musical words

2:  Develop personal aesthetic criteria for evaluating musical performances

a.  Discuss self-established criteria and apply them to one’s own improvisations, compositions, and performances