Montague Township School District
Music Curriculum Guide
Grade 3
2025-2026
Jody Taylor
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Description
Grade 3 General Music develops student musicianship through four ongoing artistic processes: creating, performing, responding, and connecting. Students compose and improvise rhythmic and melodic patterns using standard notation while building understanding of diverse musicians and adaptive instruments. Performance instruction emphasizes proper technique, breathing, posture, intonation, and concert etiquette across a varied repertoire that reflects multiple cultural and historical contexts. Students learn to analyze and evaluate music using appropriate terminology and criteria, considering how social, cultural, and historical factors influence musical meaning. Throughout the year, students apply personal experiences and interests to music creation and analysis, making connections across disciplines and to real-world contexts.
Big Ideas
- Creative choices emerge from a musician's expertise, context, and expressive intent
- Performance quality develops through rehearsal, evaluation, and refinement guided by established criteria
- Musical response is informed by analyzing musical elements, context, and creator intent
- Musicians connect personal interests and experiences to all aspects of musical practice
Essential Questions
- How do creative ideas, concepts, and feelings influence musicians' work?
- How do musicians improve the quality of their performance?
- How do we judge the quality of musical work and performance?
- How do musicians make meaningful connections to creating, performing, and responding?
Music - Connecting
Music - Creating
Music - Performing
Music - Responding
Students apply mathematical thinking when creating rhythmic patterns, analyzing musical structure, and responding to music through counting, measurement, and pattern recognition.
Students explore scientific concepts through music by investigating sound, patterns, and cause-and-effect relationships in musical performance and creation.
Students develop communication skills through discussing musical choices, writing about compositions, listening to and interpreting lyrics and musical narratives, and engaging in collaborative dialogue about artistic intent.
Students examine music from diverse cultural, historical, and social perspectives, learning about composers and musicians from varied backgrounds and exploring how music reflects social issues and cultural traditions.
Students are assessed throughout the year using a variety of formative, summative, and benchmark assessments. Ongoing assessment includes group work, projects, classroom discussion, question and answer, teacher observation, and skill testing. Students demonstrate learning through transfer tasks such as composing ostinati on recorder, conducting recorder playing tests with student-led solfege echoing, responding to musical form, and creating raps about personal interests. All assessments are designed to measure progress toward the New Jersey Student Learning Standards and provide feedback for improvement.
| Unit | Formative | Summative | Benchmark | Alternative |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01Creating | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| 02Performing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 03Responding | ✓ | ✓ | — | ✓ |
| 04Connecting | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Coverage | 4/4 | 4/4 | 2/2 | 4/4 |
| Unit | IEP | 504 | MLL | At-Risk | Gifted |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01Creating | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 02Performing | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 03Responding | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| 04Connecting | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Coverage | 4/4 | 4/4 | 4/4 | 4/4 | 4/4 |