PYP Music Course Structure

Our PYP music curriculum is based on both IB standards for PYP music and New Brunswick music curriculum for grades kindergarten through grade 5. We balance the program 50/50 where we incorporate both standards and learning outcomes when planning our units. It actually makes for a really cool curriculum because we have this balance of conceptual abstract ideas from PYP where we're talking about what does it mean to be an artist; how do artists behave; how do you respect artwork and bigger picture understandings from IB.

Simultaneously it's balanced with these specific learning outcomes and goals from New Brunswick where we're talking about what kind of notes kids need to know at what age or talking about what kind of instruments and skills the students should be able to demonstrate by specific age. There's a nice balance of specific and more broad and general ideas.  

Teaching & Learning

Each grade looks a bit different, but fundamentally our goal is that we're taking these core concepts from music and then each year we're building on them. Music is more of an interactive subject where we introduce the same concepts from a very young age. And then as they get older, we just keep going deeper and deeper into the same subjects. 

For example, the foundation of all our music planning has to do with the elements of music. All the teachers have those posted on the wall like all the music can be broken down into these fundamental aspects of dynamics, which is how loud or soft the music is, tempo, rhythm, melody, tamber and form. There are a few others.

So from a very young age, you start with something very simple: simple rhythms, simple melodies, maybe just two to three notes. Then as you get older, you add more pictures; you add more complexity. So that by the time they get to grade 5 students are fluent in the language of music and really taking what was just like a core fundamental concept and then turning that into actual music and musicianship on their own.  

We try and balance a lot of different activities. A really big goal for us is that it's fun so that even though we have to meet both New Brunswick and PYP learning outcomes, we try really hard to make sure that we have a good variety of activities. So we're talking about games, songs that we sing, songs that we play. We've got drums, xylophones, unpitched-percussion, ukuleles and recorders for the older kids. We try and make it a diverse experience so that kids can get their hands on everything when they're young.

But in addition to that, it's not just limited to the instruments, we'll read stories; we will play games on iPads to reinforce concepts, we'll look at music technology. We just try and make sure that the kids are getting a good spread of all the different ways to engage. So that by the time they're in fifth grade, they're really thinking about the different ways that these individuals can really take music into their lives and make it their own thing.

Assessment

For each of the different grades, the process is a little bit different. But one thing that we've really focused on recently is making sure that students are aware of their own success criteria. A big part of IB and PYP is that students are able to really understand their own learning. One thing that is a big part of our music curriculum is reflection. Students will work hard to observe their own work through a critical lens and reflect on what went well; what could be improved and share feedback with others as well. So a really big part of student learning from Early Years all the way to grade 5 is that students are giving themselves critiques and reflection and then also giving that to each other as well.  

Typical unit

Our curriculum can be defined in two ways. We have integrated units which are with the homeroom and then we have standalone units which are independent just with the music team.  

For our integrated units, our job is to collaborate with the homeroom and reinforce these broader understandings like the transdisciplinary themes, the key concepts and related concepts and also the approaches to learning. Our plan usually with that is that we'll do partial integrations where we take an idea from a homeroom unit and then we kind of adapt it to the music classroom. For example, for grade 3, the students recently finished up a unit on media. For media, homeroom is studying how media can be used to persuade people.

And then in the music room, we adapt that to be how music can be used to persuade people and not just in commercials but in movies and games, things that you wouldn't normally think of like jingles as well. And students have a lot of inquiry because they get to look at how music is all around them all the time and how it's being used to further a message or convince them of something.

We'll look critically at certain commercials that the students are familiar with. And look how the music is being used in this and that kind of culminates right at the end of the unit, where the students build their own jingle. They pick their own message of a product or a concept that they're trying to sell and then they use music technology. We use Garageband and they compose their own jingle that is supposed to augment and further the message that they're trying to convey.  

And then for our standalone units, those are done by ourselves. For example, in grade 5, we're currently looking at how music is used to take action on social issues. And that's in preparation for the PYPx, But as a standalone unit we’re letting the kids be inquirers because they're looking at issues that they care about. Has there been any music that's been written about this topic already: whether it's like pollution in the ocean or an endangered species or bullying awareness they're looking at. Is there music that's already been written? what research is already out there about the topic? how can that be conveyed through song?

At the fifth-grade level, at the standalone unit, they're taking all of these bigger ideas from that we've been talking about through all of PYP that are IB related. But then also using these music skills and tying them all together into a process and then a product that reflects their learning. 

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