VOCAL MUSIC
Vocal Music Curriculum
Curriculum: Each class attends vocal music once every six-day cycle for forty minutes. During this time, students will be engaged in various aspects of musical learning, including:
-
singing, alone and with others **
-
playing singing games from around the world **
-
movement activities
-
learning concepts about music literacy including: rhythmic and melodic components, dynamics, expression, form, meter, tempo and more
-
playing rhythm instruments (as available for the 2024-2025 school year)
-
the basics of composition and improvisation
-
analyzing and evaluating music
-
understanding music's connection to art, culture, history, and other subject areas
-
Applying constructive feedback to enhance performance
The vocal music curriculum utilizes tenets and practices from multiple pedagogical approaches, including the Kodály philosophy, as well as John Fierabend’s Conversational Solfege. Ultimately, students will be prepared to enter middle school as tuneful, beatful, and artful young musicians. These terms are defined below:
-
Tuneful = Students can sing in tune with ease. Students can access a light and gentle head voice, demonstrating their knowledge pertaining to healthy vocal registration.
-
Beatful = Students can demonstrate consistent beat groupings with ease, successfully applying their knowledge pertaining to meter.
-
Artful = Students can demonstrate the expressive nature of music with ease, demonstrating their increased emotional awareness and intuition via music and musical ideas.
Standards
In 2014, the National Coalition for Core Arts Standards released the new National Core Arts Standards, a process that guides educators in providing a unified quality arts education in Pre-K through high school. The standards include:
- Creating
- Performing/Presenting/Producing
- Responding
- Connecting
Click below to learn more.
About the Teachers
Vocal Music Teachers
Ethan Shaktman
I am incredibly excited to be joining E.M. Baker Elementary School this year as a new Vocal Music Teacher. I am also very happy to be working alongside Emily Becker, who will be joining the Baker music program as a part-time vocal music teacher working with our kindergarten and third-grade students.
Coming to Baker is especially meaningful to me because Great Neck is my hometown and the district in which my own musical education began. I attended Saddle Rock Elementary School before earning my bachelor’s degree in Inclusive Childhood Education from SUNY Cortland and my master’s degree in Music Education from Long Island University Post. Over the past two years, I have had the opportunity to return to Saddle Rock as an educator and work closely with Mr. Chad Lasky (my own music teacher!) in the vocal music department, while also reconnecting with some of the teachers who inspired me as a student — this time as colleagues.
Emily Becker
I am excited to begin my teaching journey here at Baker! I received my bachelor’s degree in Choral Music Education at the University of Michigan and am currently completing my master’s degree in Special Education at Columbia University Teachers College. I’ve gotten the chance to work in many different educational settings before, whether that be in the Nassau Boces Extended School Year program supporting students with disabilities, or helping to prepare students for concerts, musical competitions, and school productions. I look forward to working with our kindergarten and third-grade students.