Illinois Learning Standards
Stage A - Fine Arts—Music
Students who meet the standard understand the sensory
elements, organizational principles, and expressive qualities
of the arts.
- Identify loud, soft, high, and low sounds.
- Identify fast and slow music.
- Identify tone colors (timbres) of voices and environmental
- Identify long and short sounds.
- Echo a steady beat.
- Distinguish between same and different phrases or sections
in a simple song.
- Match the mood, emotion, or idea expressed in a musical
example with the sensory element that creates that expressive
Students who meet the standard understand the similarities,
distinctions, and connections in and among the arts.
- Name one way each art form is different from the others
(e.g., music and drama use voice; dance and visual arts
- Describe the theme, idea, feeling, or story within an
art work (e.g., mood in "Starry Night", Peer Gynt
Students who meet the standard understand processes,
traditional tools, and modern technologies used in the arts.
- Identify voices of classmates.
- Label environmental sounds.
- Demonstrate differences between singing, speaking, shouting,
and whispering voices.
- Connect sound characteristics (e.g., long/short, high/low)
to iconic notation.
Students who meet the standard can apply skills
and knowledge necessary to create and perform in one or more
of the arts.
- Sing songs of various cultures in rhythm maintaining a
- Improvise "answers" in the same style to given
rhythmic and melodic phrases.
- Create and perform appropriate music to augment stories.
Students who meet the standard can analyze how the
arts function in history, society and everyday life.
- Listen attentively to and observe performances and art
- Name one occupation associated with each art form (e.g.,
actor, painter, dancer, musician).
- Name the four fine arts.
- Identify ways arts are used in celebration's.
- Interpret movements, sounds, and visual images in art
works made by self and others.
- Tell about a personal experience in the arts.
Students who meet the standard understand how the
arts shape and reflect history, society and everyday life.
- Connect images and sounds from a work of art to stories
about people and everyday life.
Return to Fine Arts Classroom
Assessments and Performance Descriptors