All six elementary schools offer string education in fourth and fifth grade. Our program includes one 30 minute instrumental lesson and one 40 minute ensemble rehearsal per 6 day cycle during the school day. Students have two concerts per year to demonstrate their learning and achievements. Additionally, students have an opportunity to audition for the All-Elementary District Music Festival that happens annually outside of the school day. Ridgefield Public Schools strives to have a unified and continuous learning process from Grades 4-12 in our string orchestra programs.

Music at Ridgefield Public Schools is based on the National Core Art Standards/Connecticut Arts Standards. These standards are based on the artistic processes of Creating, Performing, Responding and Connecting. The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards defines these processes as:

Creating : Conceiving and developing new artistic ideas and work. Improvising and composing.

Performing: Realizing and presenting artistic ideas and work.

Responding: Understanding and evaluating how the arts convey meaning. Critical listening with intent.

Connecting: Relating artistic ideas and work with personal meaning and external context.

Based on the interests and need of the students in a particular class, specific projects and pieces are selected by the teacher.

PROCESS COMPONENTS

• Imagine, Plan, Make, Evaluate, Refine, Explore, Express, Present

OBJECTIVES

Evaluation

The student will be able to . . .

• explain why he or she likes or dislikes given instrumental pieces or given styles of music, by referring to the specific music elements of form, pitch, tempo, dynamics, rhythm, and/or timbre.

OBJECTIVES

Performing on instruments, alone and with others, a varied repertoire of music

The student will be able to . . .

• perform independent instrumental parts while others perform contrasting parts.
• demonstrate correct fingerings for all notes within the appropriate range of his/her instrument at this level.

Reading and notating music

The student will be able to . . .

• read whole, half, dotted half, quarter, eighth notes and sixteenth notes and corresponding rests in 4/4, 3/4, 2/4 time signatures.
• identify symbols and traditional terms referring to dynamics (piano-forte), and articulation (ties, slurs, accents, hooked bows and down/up bows) and interpret them correctly when performing.

PROCESS COMPONENTS

• Listen, Select, Analyze, Identify, Explain, Describe, Compare/Contrast, Interpret, Evaluate

OBJECTIVES

The student will be able to . . .

• identify how musical repetition, similarities, contrast and one or two elements are used to create musical interest and effectiveness using grade level musical terminology.

PROCESS COMPONENTS

• Synthesize, Comparing, Analyzing, Interpreting, Choosing, Researching, Imagining

OBJECTIVES

The student will be able to . . .

• identify ways that the principles and subject matter of other disciplines taught in school are interrelated with those of music (e.g. new verses to songs, mathematics, language arts, foreign language, science, etc.)
• identify various uses of music in their daily experiences
• identify and describe the roles of musicians in various settings and cultures (performers, composers, conductors)