Chorus Handbook

Dear Scullen Chorus Families and Students,

Welcome to Chorus at Scullen Middle School! I’m looking forward to the 2026-2027 school year and meeting all of you! The purpose of this handbook is to provide you all the information you need to be set up for a successful chorus experience –

including concert dates, classroom policies, grading practices, and more!

The District 204 Portrait of a Graduate identifies six core competencies that are needed to succeed in any field. These six traits are also vital to a musician’s success: Creativity and Innovation, Flexibility and Adaptability, Critical Thinking and Problem Solving, Resilience, Communication, and Citizenship.

Music is a vibrant part of the District 204 curriculum.  In addition to providing music education, our choral program is designed to help meet the emotional, social, and cultural needs of every student. Goals for students include:

1. To discover, appreciate, and value their talents, the talents of others, and the beauty of music.

2. To develop the desire to improve their performance as well as increase knowledge of music theory, composition, and improvisation.

3. To gain a sense of self-fulfillment by striving to reach their full potential.

4. To develop a lifelong enjoyment and appreciation of music.

We hope you will share in these goals and help us provide the best possible experience for everyone. Please feel free to reach out at any time with any questions that you may have.

I’m grateful to have the opportunity to work with such talented students and supportive families, and I can’t wait for an exciting year of music making!

Mr. Matthew Felbein
Vocal Music Educator
Scullen Middle School
matthew_felbein@ipsd.org
630-428-7000 x54026

Tips for Shark-tastic Success

1. We will show respect!

   • To ourselves – we will hold ourselves to the highest standards, advocate for ourselves, and treat ourselves with kindness.

   • To others – we will treat others the way we want to be treated, support our peers, make sure everyone feels included, respect everyone's learning environment, and listen to others.

   • To our materials – we will take care of our binders, sheet music, instruments, etc.

   • To our space – we will keep our classroom and school clean.

2. We will not have food, drinks, or gum during class.

To avoid choking hazards, allergens, and to keep our classroom clean, we will not bring food, drinks (other than water), or gum to class. Water is encouraged!

3. We will be on time and prepared for rehearsals and performances.

To make the most of our class time, we will be in our seats with our binders and pencils within one minute of the bell ringing! For concerts, we will be in our warm-up location and ready to sing at or before our call time.

4. We will communicate effectively.

Our class content will be posted in Google Classroom, please check the page frequently. Mr. Felbein will use the IPSD 204 Connect tool and Parent/StudentVUE for class communications. If you need to contact Mr. Felbein, you can email him, or students can find him before/after school. Communication is the key to success!

Required Materials

• 1" or 1/2" Three-Ring Binder

  • This will hold all of our music throughout the year and will be stored in the classroom so that students can easily access it every day. If you bring your binder home to practice (yay!), make sure it is brought back the next day.

• Pencil

  • Not a pen, must be in your binder and ready to use for every rehearsal!

• Charged Chromebook

  • While we may not use these every single day, it is important to have them when we do!

• A water bottle (with a secure lid) - recommended

Grading Procedures

Grades in chorus are divided into formative and summative percentage categories just like core classes.

Summative - 70%

Concerts and Performances (40%) - There are several required performances that will take place throughout the semester. If students arrive on time and participate fully, they receive full points for each concert!

Assignments and Assessments (30%) - The larger projects and assessments that take place throughout the semester. 

Formative - 30%

Daily Participation - These grades will reflect the student’s effort, participation, collaboration with peers, attention and attitude during rehearsals, and may include small quizzes or reflection assignments. Here is the rubric for weekly participation grades:

Attendance

In chorus, every voice is important to our collective sound and musicianship, so it is important to have every voice in our rehearsals and performances! We understand that life happens! However, as performances are summative grades, we will abide by the following guidelines regarding concert/performance absences.

Excused Absences:

• For an extreme situation and with notice from a parent or guardian at least two (2) full weeks prior to the concert, the student will receive a make-up assignment where they can earn up to full credit for the concert grade. The make-up assignment will be posted on Google Classroom and may involve a student singing their concert repertoire, writing an essay, or a concert-specific assignment.

• Sickness/family emergencies will be handled on an individual basis and follow similar guidelines to school attendance for such emergencies.

Unexcused Absences

• If a student simply doesn’t attend a concert/performance for any other reason, the student may ask for a makeup assignment and cannot earn full points for the concert grade. Unexcused absences might include: not having a ride, forgetting about the concert, having too much homework, forgetting about a sports practice, etc.

The Scullen music community is wonderfully supportive, and if transportation for concerts is an issue, please reach out so we can help you find accommodations!

Concert Attire

All Band, Chorus, and Orchestra students wear the music uniform for performances. Students must have the following: 

• Scullen Music Polo shirt (order through your PushCoin account)

  • 6th graders will receive this information at the beginning of the school year.

  • Any 7th/8th grade students who need a shirt can order at that time, too.

• Black, full-length dress pants

  • No jeans, sweatpants, yoga pants, shorts, skirts or capris.

• Black, closed-toe, dress shoes

  • Avoid tall heels so that you don’t trip while walking on the risers.

• Black, full-length socks

  • Not ankle socks or no-show socks.

Co-curricular Opportunities

We are proud to offer a variety of additional ensembles and vocal performance opportunities that extend beyond what we do in the classroom! More information will be provided as these opportunities get closer.

Honors Chorus
Rehearsing from September through May, this is an auditioned ensemble that meets on Tuesday and Friday mornings at 7am. Auditions will take place at the beginning of September, and are open to all grades. This group works on more challenging repertoire and has several extra performances throughout the year.

ILMEA
Students are invited to audition for the Illinois Music Education Association (ILMEA) Junior Chorus. Help sessions will be provided after school for those interested in preparing the audition music, and then students will submit a video of their audition. If selected for the chorus by the ILMEA organization, students will rehearse and perform on Saturday, November 7th at the ILMEA Junior Festival.

Solo and Ensemble Festival
Each year, students have the opportunity to perform as a soloist or small ensemble for the Illinois Grade School Music Association (IGSMA) Solo and Ensemble Festival. This year’s festival is hosted on Saturday, February 6th at Gregory Middle School. Participants are required to attend several short rehearsal sessions before the performance on the festival day.

Treble Singers and Bass Ensemble
These groups are for students who just can’t get enough singing in their life! We will meet once a week right after school for 30 minutes (Wednesdays for Treble Singers, Thursdays for Bass Ensemble). Participants will perform at the Waubonsie Bass/Treble Festival in November as well as concerts throughout the year.

Musical
The Scullen musical happens each year in the spring (this year’s date is still TBD) and gives students the chance to showcase their dancing and acting along with their singing skills. Musical auditions are open to students of all grades. There is also the opportunity for students to serve on tech crew or to help with other backstage elements of the production. Stay tuned to find out what this year’s show is!

Artificial Intelligence

The mission of Indian Prairie School District 204 is to inspire all students to achieve their greatest potential. As Artificial Intelligence (AI) continues to grow in popularity and functionality, it is important that we educate students on how to use these services in their many forms. It is equally important to understand the ethics behind its usage, especially in the fine arts area.

The use of AI to complete assignments, create music or write lyrics for a class project, or to replace "core work" of creation and consumption is strictly prohibited unless explicitly stated otherwise. This falls under the category of academic integrity, as such usage would be considered plagiarism. AI models are trained using human creations, meaning any output generated by AI is automatically someone elses work that you are using without credit. Even more concerning is the fact that the majority of AI models in the arts (such as Suno) were trained on human art without properly crediting or compensating the original authors/artists/creators. Other factors to keep in mind are the environmental impact of AI and the data centers that power it, the implicit discrimination in the location of such data centers, and more.

For more information and resources, check out:

• AI Music: What Musicians Need to Know

• The Rise of AI in Music Production

• In tune with ethics: Responsible artificial intelligence and the music industry