The purpose of this document is to highlight standard nine of the 2020 Music Standards of Learning for choral music. This standard in all grade levels relates connecting music content, skills, and processes to career options, college opportunities, and the 21st Century workplace. Teachers and curriculum specialists can use this document to plan a sequence of instruction for grades 6-12 that prepares students for career, college, and workplace connections in music education.

This plan will introduce choral students to the basics of aural dictation using solfege. Students will apply knowledge of solfege and counting to dictation skills. Students will find success through the application of solfege by discovering why and how it impacts them as independent musicians.

In this lesson, students will learn to watch and listen critically to choral music performances.

Students will explore copyright and intellectual property standards as they relate to music, music technology, and digital citizenship. Students will identify and apply their knowledge of copyright law and licensure to select appropriate licenses for an original work. Students will then analyze copyrighted material and understand how to obtain appropriate permission to use the material.

Students will investigate ways that choral music can influence the community. Using project-based learning, students will research organizations in their community to be the beneficiary of a benefit-type concert. Students will select level-appropriate repertoire and create advertising. This project is imagined to be used for collaborative small groups, but could be adapted to work as an individual project.

This plan will introduce students to a clear and consistent method for practicing and performing sight reading. Students will evaluate and assess sight reading of their peers and gain experience in listening and error detection.

Students will explore copyright and intellectual property standards as they relate to music, music technology, and digital citizenship. Students will apply their understanding of copyright law to complete the copyright process for an original work. Students will further apply their understanding by participating in a class debate about real-world copyright issues raised by a song that sets original lyrics to an older song.

Students will use creativity, critical thinking skills, and collaboration to develop and produce podcasts that inform and educate listeners on various musical topics.

This plan guides students through an investigation of cross-disciplinary connections between music, dance, visual art, and creative writing within the context of choral repertoire.

Students will demonstrate understanding of rhythmic symbols and their values (whole, half, quarter, eighth, and sixteenth notes/rests). Students will create note trees to make connections between musical rhythms and mathematics. Students will apply their knowledge of rhythm to express their musical ideas and engage more deeply with music.

This lesson introduces students to composition through the application of rhythms being used in daily sight-reading and/or repertoire. Students will notate and perform short rhythmic/melodic examples individually and in pairs and groups.

This plan will introduce beginning choral students to the basics of sight reading using solfege. Students will find success through the application of solfege by understanding why and how it impacts them as independent musicians. 

This instructional plan teaches young students how to demonstrate leadership in a chamber music setting. This outline can be used to develop efficient rehearsal strategies with the proper resources for younger students to have consistent, meaningful rehearsals in the classroom with minimal teacher assistance.

The teacher will lead students through a sequence of vocal exercises, highlighting major categories in order to deepen intent on specific skill development. Using your own favorite vocal warm-up exercises, encourage students to consider the benefits and intentions behind each warm-up exercise. Students will engage their creative process in generating new warm-up exercises to share with their peers.

This plan identifies six key elements of musicality for singers. Students will apply each principle to their current choral repertoire to improve and develop musicality.

Students will explore copyright and intellectual property standards as they relate to music, music technology, and digital citizenship. Students will explore copyright law, investigate the trends of copyright throughout history, and collaborate to propose their own “Copyright Act” for the future.

In this webinar, we will explore ways that teachers and students can use digital tools in the secondary music classroom for creation and investigation. Topics addressed will include project ideas, integration of audio creation tools into the class structure and environment, and practical issues to consider when choosing hardware and software for these projects.

This resource demonstrates the 2020 Music Standards of Learning for high school choral music in a chart format that shows the progression of the standards levels: beginning, intermediate, advanced, and artist.