Alternative Approaches To KS3 Curriculum

As seen in 'Music Teacher Association Ensemble Magazine' November 2022.

Curriculum structures and ideologies have become a recent focus of Ofsted inspections, and far more emphasis is now given to the sequence of knowledge and the reasoning behind the selection of materials that are being taught. It is increasingly difficult for music curriculum leaders due to the concise nature of the current national curriculum. This article has a focus on ideas around building a cogent curriculum that is relevant to the students of your context. I have looked at some existing materials and models to help build a curriculum and then offered some of my key findings whilst researching student choice in lesson.

Musical Futures

When I was a student and when I first came into teaching the Musical Futures model seemed the hip and trendy new approach to music. MF was funded by the Paul Hamlyn foundation and had considerable mention in the Ofsted review for music in 2012. MF provides a brief framework on musical learning that is driven by Lucy Greens research on popular music and the popular musicians learn.

A huge focus of pedagogy is seen throughout the document explaining how the use of a mix of formal and informal approaches can benefit the classroom. Student-led activities are encouraged alongside regularly engaging with student voice to ‘co-construct’ the curriculum. Personal experience of this led to limited responses or unobtainable targets and I did seek further ways to engage student voice in the construction of curriculum.

The MF website has a number of useful resources including playalong videos and lesson workshops that focus on playing instruments. Assessment models are suggested that are likely to fall in line with current school requirements with a heirarchical level system used to differentiate students progress and needs. Although the framework may not be tangible for all schools, there are certainly useful resources to explore.

Incorporated Society For Musicians Curriculum Publication

Following Daubney and Fautleys research which highlighted the many inconsistencies of curriculum and music provision across the nation. A framework for curriculum development and structure was released in 2019. This is a hugely useful tool for practitioners that are developing, enhancing and revising their curriculum offer for students.

A number of ‘big questions’ are asked that allow the teacher to play to their musical strengths and values. These questions also allow the development of a bespoke curriculum based on the many interfering and limiting factors that teachers face on a daily basis. These can include; demographic, attitudes to music and the arts, student interests and school limitations. An assessment model for music is given throughout the document that could be ideal at KS3 but there is clear understanding that some school requirements may restrict how many aspects of this framework can be developed and used.

Key focus of curriculum and assessment are singing, playing, improvisation, composing, critical engagement and the spiritual, social, moral and cultural aspects of music. Exceeding the requirements of the subjective and concise national curriculum.

An Experience Of Student Choice In Listening Tasks

Willinghams ‘model of memory’ helps us understand the need to connect learning to everyday experience to help put knowledge into the ‘long-term’ rather than it be forgotten over time. My favourite moment over the past 12 months has been when I have been exploring the element of choice with students and within tasks that I have set in the classroom.

To clarify, I am not suggesting for one second that students will get free reign over the musical pieces they listen to and learn all of the time but I feel that the choice could accompany another task. Listening tasks are where I, as a practitioner, have struggled in the past to get meaningful answers from students. How do they become more relevant and educational to our students and not just another arduous task for them to complete?

My first port of call was to look back at responses from listening tasks that I had previously given to students and the responses (or lack of) that they gave. The responses varied from ‘I dunno’ to ‘N/A’; one student even said ‘why does it matter?’. An interesting set of data. I then asked the same questions (which were about dynamics and texture) to the students but gave them a choice of song or tune that they wanted to listen to. The responses turned out to be far more musical and meaningful and students seemed to remember the terminology the next week. Choice had allowed them to link musical learning to real life experiences, nothing new or innovative I know and something that the musical futures model set out to do in its early days. The following few lessons my starter activity was to answer a set of questions on their choice of song, share a few answers in a discussion and then we would do a listening task as a class with songs that I had chosen. These songs gave a diverse repertoire of listening to our students. We then revisited the students' songs and applied the knowledge learnt from the group task.

This approach was not without its challenges and it was learnt very quickly that expectations around suitable listening content for the classroom were established, this was an enjoyable class discussion and collectively we agreed on some ground rules for the choice that they would be making. This came mostly in the form of ‘radio edits’.

Controlled student choice is relatively new to me as a practitioner as I have been exploring this for only around 2 years. In my limited experience I believe that it has had an increase in numbers at KS4 and further exploration, will hopefully define if this was an anomaly or a fad that may wear off. This approach could potentially have more impact over time, as our demographics change, students musical experiences differ and we change as teachers.

Final Thoughts

To many the element of choice in curriculum decision is nothing new, and we naturally as teachers want to find a ‘way-in’ with our students to build a positive and professional relationship. I truly believe this is easier in music because of how personal and vulnerable it can leave you feeling. I have lost count of the number of times that students have had to leave my room because I am playing a song that reminded them of a sad time in their life (usually a recently dead pet). These feelings are genuine and need to be acknowledged.

With this in mind, I ask you to consider these questions; where could choice fit and suit your current curriculum design? When could choice be used to deepen musical understanding and engage students? How could you successfully empower students to help enhance your current provision?