National Core Arts Standards - NMMEA

NATIONAL CORE ARTS STANDARDS A Group Sharing and Discussion A Common Attitude and Perception Standards!....... We dont need no stinkin standards! Or.. Do we? Why do we have and/or need standards? For better or worse, they are part of the national and state educational dialogue. 1994 National Standards, Goals 200

No Child Left Behind (NCLB) and the standards movement Rigorous and quality education for all students Testing and Measurement (NAEP, and other state and local assessments) It is a professional expectation. All content areas have them Define and identify what knowledge and skills are valued and important; what students should know, be able to do, and what they should understand after a given period of time and instruction Guides and influences an articulated curriculum that is multiyear and multi-level down to the state, district, and classroom How does this impact us, here in New Mexico? The current state standards are what are used to evaluate schools and districts in terms of the quality of instruction offered to students, through the Fine Arts Education Act (FAEA) funding application, and

the End of Course (EOC) exam used to determine student growth for teacher evaluation purposes. And as such, the state standards are a key document that drives what should be taught and assessed. If school districts have their own instructional standards, it is an expectation that they align with the New Mexico State Standards However. A big problem is that the current NM State Standards were developed in 1995-96, adopted in 1997 and are twenty years old....do not reflect current thinking in education, and are based on the 1994 National Standards. There is movement at the NM PED to adopt the National Core Arts Standards to replace the current state standards. If this happens, the NCAS become de rigueur for music teachers in New Mexico. Compare and Contrast Old National/State

Standards Knowledge and Skills Based Three Clustered Grade Bands: K-4 5-8 9-12 Paper Based Different formats at national level among arts discipline. Based on traditional instructional approaches and do not address alternative ensembles or current technologies. Nine National C&A Standards/Benchmarks

National Core Arts Standards Fosters Understanding, Independence, and Artistic Literacy Grades PreK-8, grade by grade 9-12 (High School) with three proficiency levels Web-based, dynamic and customizable Parallel formats among all arts disciplines, based on four artistic processes: Creating, Presenting/Performing, Responding, and Connecting Traditional and contemporary approaches fir artistic literacy in a digital/visual age.

Compare and Contrast Old National/State Standards Opportunity to Learn Standards Documents Instructional Resources: Sample Lesson Plans Sample Assessments National Core Arts Standards Instructional Resources: Enduring Understandings Essential Questions Model Cornerstone Assessments Glossary

Accessible free lesson plans and other resources Process is Key The Core Arts Standards are based around four artistic process strands, which are common to all arts areas: creating, performing/presenting/producing, reflecting, and connecting. Emphasis on guiding students to think critically and creatively about what it means to be an artist: to create and present artistic work, to reflect on the work of others, and to make connections to the world around them. The artistic processes relate to the processes that are being explicitly taught in many STEM/STEAM classrooms: the processes of inquiry-based learning as well as the engineering design process.

Artistic Process Components Creating: Performi Conceiving and ng: developing new artistic ideas and work Realizing artistic ideas and work through interpretation and presentation. Respondi Connecti ng:

ng: Understanding and evaluating how the arts convey meaning Relating artistic ideas and work with personal meaning and external context. IMAGINE PLAN MAKE EVALUATE

REFINE SELECT ANALYZE INTERPRET REHEARSE PRESENT SELECT ANALYZE INTERPRET EVALUATE SYNTHESIZE RELATE Enduring Understandings and Essential Questions Focusing on

the Big Ideas Enduring understandings are statements that summarize important ideas and core processeshaving lasting value beyond the classroom. They synthesize what students should come to understand as a result of studing a particular content area. Enduring understandings should enable students to make connections to other disciplines beyond the arts. A true grasp of an enduring understanding is demonstrated by a students abilty to explain, interpret, analyze, apply and evaluate it core elements. Essential questions are questions that are not answerable with finality in a brief sentence... and their aim is to stimulate thought, to provoke inquiry, and to spark more questions not just pat answers. Essential questions also guide students as they uncover enduring understandings. Model Cornerstone Assessments

We assess what is important. Included in the standards are model assessments, that share the following characteristics: Are curriculum embedded (as opposed to be externally imposed) Recur over the grades, (becoming increasingly sophisticated over time) Are done in an authentic context Assess understanding and transfer (via genuine performance) Integrate 21st Century Skills (e.g. critical thinking, teamwork) with music content Evaluate using well developed rubrics Engage students in authentic and meaningful learning Looking at the Standards and the Grade Level Benchmarks and Adapting them for Use at Your School Most likely, you already do a lot of what is expected and described in

the new standards, so dont feel like you have to create a whole new curriculum. (JD Ex.) Consider taking your existing curriculum documents and doing an honest alignment with the new standards, then going back an filling in the gaps and identifying any curricular deficiencies. Give some serious thought to incorporating the enduring understandings and essential questions, or creating EQs for your particular lessons. These questions are a guide for you and should be posed to your students to stimulate discussion and understanding. They are an excellent way to start a lesson and to bring closure to a lesson or activity. Start this process in small stepsdont take on too much at one time. Make it a transformative process. If there is something you cant address (i.e technology, time constraints, schedule, etc.) seek Final Questions and Issues

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