Help music students learn more in less time, reach higher goals, and become active participants in their education.

This important book takes you through the steps needed to create an effective music education curriculum for you, your school, and your district. This Second Edition now aligns with the national standards for music released in 2014 (The National Arts Standards for Dance, Media Arts, Music, Theater, and Visual Arts).

A sequenced music curriculum is the ultimate win-win for your program: it gives direction to your teaching, builds cohesion among your colleagues, engages students and parents in goals you set, and builds awareness and support from your school’s administrators.

Music Curriculum Writing 101 (Second Edition) contains the blueprint and examples to help you build the right curriculum for your music program, demystifying the processes of developing a standards-based curriculum with related assessments of student learning.

This book provides help with three simple steps: S.O.S.

• Sequence curriculum throughout the year so music understanding unfolds for the student instead of teaching “from cover to cover.”
• Organize curriculum and documentation of student progress—essential if you are to build on prior learning.
• Standards are here to stay and help focus the breadth and depth of learning that is to take place, producing better musicians over time.

Contents include:

• Overview of the National and State Music Standards Documents
• Aligning District Standards to the National or State Standards
• Suggested Activities for Each National Standard
• Sequencing Method Books, Literature, Theory, and Teaching Aids
• Designing an Organized Curriculum
• Lesson Plan
• Assessments
• Organizing Assessment Documentation
• Student Involvement 
• Curriculum Sample
• Resources and Websites

Denese Odegaard taught fifth through ninth grade orchestra for twenty-five years in Fargo (ND) Public Schools and was the District Performing Arts Curriculum Specialist for eleven years. She is a past board member of the American String Teachers Association and is a past president of NAfME (National Association for Music Education). She was on the third through fifth grade writing team for the 2014 National Music Standards