Tennessee Musician - Vol. 67 No. 1

a conductor might make for beautiful music, but it
doesn’t reach the higher levels of evaluating, analyzing
and creating.
The National Core Arts Standards (2014), or
NCAS, aim to help our students get there. What is the
basis for the new standards? The NCAS were based
upon the curricular model “Understanding by Design”
by Williams and McTighe (2005). This model advocates
for “backward design,” which means beginning
your lesson planning with expected outcomes, and
ending by choosing activities that will help the students
achieve those outcomes. The NCAS
also uses the language from Williams and McTighe
when categorizing the standards, which I will explain
later in this article.
The NCAS were written with 21st Century
Skills in mind. You probably have heard this term
thrown around before, but what exactly are 21st century
skills? These were coined by the Partnership for
21st Century Skills (2002), a conglomerate of U.S.
companies that seeks to create future employees that
will compete in the global marketplace. These skills
are: Critical thinking and problem solving,
Creativity and innovation, Communication and collaboration,
and Cross-disciplinary thinking. One of
the goals of the NCAS is to develop these skills in our
students so they can be successful, not only in music,
but in life.
The NCAS writing team recognized the variety
of ways that music instruction is being delivered in
schools across the country, and organized the standards
around several areas of study: Music (general),
Harmonizing Instruments, Composition and Theory,
Traditional and Emerging Ensembles, and Technology.
This means that the general music teacher who sees
her students once a week for thirty- minutes will have
a unique set of standards for her students, as will the
high school band director who sees his students for an
hour and a half every day, as will the middle school
guitar ensemble teacher. There are, however, some
things that are common across the areas. The NCAS
are based on four Common Anchor Standards: Create,
Perform, Respond and Connect.
- Continued on Page 49
Compose Your Future
Bachelor of Music Degrees in Performance and Education Accredited
by the National Association of Schools of Music
Nationally recognized traditional, jazz, and contemporary ensembles
Competitive scholarships that can provide full tuition based on audition
PO Box 70661 • Johnson City, TN • 423-439-4270 • www.etsu.edu/music
29