Elementary school students experience music by listening, speaking, chanting, singing, moving, playing, reading, writing, and arranging. Leaving out even one element shortchanges students' learning of music. These basic elements provide a foundation for advanced development when students interpret, compose, improvise, and evaluate music and musical performances.

Elementary students also learn to listen to a melodic line and match it accurately with its visual representation. This exercise enables students to use both ear and eye to identify forms such as AB, ABA, theme, variations of a theme, and rondo. With more experience, children learn to hear the difference between two very similar phrases, for instance, those having the same melodic line but different rhythms or vice-versa. From simple learning processes that begin at primary levels, students advance to analyzing longer and more complicated musical works in which harmony and texture also create form.

Music specialists and classroom teachers who are responsible for music instruction have a challenging task. To enable all students to realize their musical potential, elementary schools must impliment a solid music program based on scaffolded course content.  Activities that involve music, but are not based on sequenced content as described by the TEKS, rarely build a foundation for musical achievement. Class musicals do not substitute for the ongoing, well-rounded instruction necessary for the development of sequentially-based content knowledge and skills. Excursions to concerts and performances do not constitute, and should not supplant, regularly-scheduled music instruction.

Scheduling

Districts and campuses make decisions about time allocations, meeting patterns, and class size. The time needed for teachers to teach and students to learn is the primary consideration. Instruction in music concepts and skills, plus distribution and collection of materials, also need to be considered when estimating time requirements. In addition to the content taught, the facility to be used and staff availability help determine maximum enrollment in music classes. Final considerations include the number of class meetings per week, the time of day, the length of the class, and the number of students in the class.

The music specialist should have no more than five to six classes per day and a total of no more than 150 students. Strong music education relies on both group and individualized instruction; large numbers of students reduce both the effectiveness of teaching and the quality of learning.

Elementary specialists have one duty-free planning and preparation period per day and scheduled intervals between classes. Classroom teachers may escort students to and from the classroom, providing security for students and time for the music specialist to set up for the next class. Specialists may require additional assistance when a class contains students with special needs. In small school districts where specialists are assigned to multiple campuses, an additional period is needed for travel, record keeping, materials management, and preparation of multiple music laboratories. An additional benefit of having a music specialist on the faculty is the added flexibility in scheduling teachers' conference periods.

Facilities

The range of class activities determines the specific space allocations for elementary music courses. Playing classroom instruments, movement, singing and singing games require adequate room for safety and instructional effectiveness. Other space considerations include:

• Secure storage for equipment and materials (e.g., tapes, compact discs, VCR/TV, classroom instruments, computers)
• The number of chairs, risers, and/or desks needed to accommodate the largest class. (If classes scheduled in the room include students from kindergarten through grade five, a variety of desk and chair sizes is needed.)