Curricular Connections

One guiding question. Two ways to explore it.

RVC's elementary inquiry units are built around a big, open-ended question — about identity, culture, change, power, or belonging. Music and Visual Art classes aren't a break from that question; they're another way in. A unit on culture becomes a study of samba and pentatonic scales. A unit on power becomes a study of tone and mood. Below are some examples of these curricular connections.

✎ The question stays central

Music and art teachers work from the same inquiry question as the classroom, not a separate unit of their own.

♪ Music builds skill and meaning

Rhythm, form, and tonal concepts are taught and then implemented to express what a unit is actually about.

◆ Art becomes the evidence

From a Haudenosaunee longhouse model to a Triorama to a self-portrait, the art piece is often how students show what they understand.