Curriculum Overview Samples - Music

Initial Samples Released January 31, 2013

Hello music educators,

I am proud to present the k-12 music curriculum samples created by Colorado educators, practitioners and teachers. Working with our lead facilitator, Carla Aguilar PhD from Metropolitan State University of Denver, this past fall, over 40 educators came together to translate the Music Colorado Academic Standards (CAS) into curriculum. As resources for districts’ voluntary-use, these curriculum samples offer possible options for sequencing the concepts, skills, and content of the CAS across a course or year.

The template upon which all of the samples are based derived from research and was designed and refined by Colorado educators to highlight what students should understand, know and be able to do at the end of a given unit or plan of study (detailed description of the curriculum template components). There are some unique aspects to the music samples at particular grade levels, which are documented in the bullet points below.

Together, these samples are intended to support districts’ transition to the CAS and the development of standards-based instructional practices. Please click here to share your thoughts regarding the curriculum overview samples.

NEW RESOURCES! Instructional Unit Samples are now available for select overviews.

Karol Gates
Arts Content Specialist

Questions?: E-mail the Arts Content Specialist

To learn more about the Music curriculum samples watch this presentation:

Music Sample Curriculum Unique Attributes from eNetColorado on Vimeo.

High School Music Samples

Unique components in high school music:

The process graphic, on the course at a glance page, provides a visual depiction of the cyclical process-based nature of the music standards.

Due to the variance of music program offerings state wide, unit length and sequence have often been left up to individual practitioners to adjust for varied scheduling needs.

The overviews are highly versatile and can be customized to meet a wide variety of music program needs.

These samples are designed to meet a variety of programming options within the state.

The samples represent units based on the focus of generalist or performance standards. Instructors can use samples from any of the sets to “mix and match” units between the generalist and performance standards.

High School

High School Academic (Word or PDF)
High School Ensemble (Word or PDF)
High School Performance (Word or PDF)

Middle School Music Samples

Unique components in middle school music:

The process graphic, on the course at a glance page, provides a visual depiction of the cyclical process-based nature of the music standards.

Due to the variance of music program offerings state wide, unit length and sequence have often been left up to individual practitioners to adjust for varied scheduling needs.

The overviews are highly versatile and can be customized to meet a wide variety of music program needs.

The authors of these samples designed two sets for each middle school grade to accommodate the need for general music programming as well as more specialized ensemble programming.

Samples that are specifically written for ensemble performance include possible repertoire suggestions within the content area of the sample. Other repertoire choices, of course, can be utilized.

8th Grade General (Word or PDF)
8th Grade Performance (Word or PDF)
7th Grade General (Word or PDF)
7th Grade Performance (Word or PDF)
6th Grade General (Word or PDF)
6th Grade Performance (Word or PDF)

Elementary Music Samples

Unique components in elementary music:

The process graphic, on the course at a glance page, provides a visual depiction of the cyclical process-based nature of the music standards.

Due to the variance of music program offerings state wide, unit length and sequence have often been left up to individual practitioners to adjust for varied scheduling needs.

The overviews are highly versatile and can be customized to meet a wide variety of music program needs.

5th Grade (Word or PDF)
4th Grade (Word or PDF)
3rd Grade (Word or PDF)
2nd Grade (Word or PDF)
1st Grade (Word or PDF)
Kindergarten (Word or PDF)

The Colorado Sample Curriculum was written by and for Colorado educators as a way to understand and translate the state standards into curriculum. Users of the samples should feel free to copy, distribute and transmit the samples and to adapt them to fit their needs. Please honor the work of the Colorado educators that created these samples by providing them attribution. These samples were not intended for commercial purposes.