QUAVER LESSONS: THE TEACHER’S MAJOR TOOL OF INSTRUCTION
Quaver Lessons:
The Teacher’s Major Tool of Instruction
The purpose of this section is to explain how our unique solution for providing instructional materials should be interpreted when assessing our Major Tool.
Quaver’s General Music Florida Curriculum is 100% online, and therefore has many fundamental
differences from a traditional printed curriculum product. For one, there are no materials delivered
directly to schools in print form. Instead, all materials are delivered digitally over the internet. Even
materials that are intended for print, such as teacher lesson plans and worksheets, are delivered in
electronic formats that can be printed when needed.
Additionally, our curriculum is unique in that we present interactive lesson plans using our Lesson
Plan Presenter web application. This delivery method serves several purposes: it enables a teacher
to present instructional material by displaying it to the class (preferably with a projector or interactive whiteboard), and it enables students to receive instruction and demonstrate understanding
through the interactive elements.
Instructional material in our elementary general music program is separated into grades K-5. In
each grade K-5 there are 12 modules, and each module contains 3 lessons for a total of 36 lessons per grade. To accommodate a variety of class lengths among schools, each lesson contains
approximately 30–45 minutes of core lesson material which completely satisfies the lesson objectives and meets the indicated standards, plus 30-45 minutes of additional extended activities
which the teacher can use as the situation warrants. In our Exploring Music 1 Course for Grades
6-8, the 116-lesson course is divided into 14 projects, each with 6–10 lessons also including 30–45
minutes of core lesson material, plus 30-45 minutes of additional extended activities.
Each lesson is comprised of three parts:
1) Lesson screens. This content is what the teacher presents to the class by displaying it at the front of the classroom. Many of the screens contain images, audio, or
video that illustrate key knowledge points or skills. But our format enables us to go
beyond mere presentation, as our lesson screens also contain interactive elements,
games, song creation tools, assessments, and more. The lesson screens are equally
important for the teacher to instruct students as for the student to receive information and demonstrate knowledge.
Quaver Lessons: The Teacher’s Major Tool of Instruction
3) Printable materials. Most lessons have accompanying printable materials
which the teacher may choose to print and distribute during class. These may
include worksheets, music scores, lyric sheets, crafts, or other manipulatives. Depending on the printable, it may have a different target audience. For example, a
worksheet will probably be distributed by the teacher to be completed by the students. But a music score is just as likely to be used by a teacher as well as a student.
Together these three elements comprise each Quaver Lesson – our Major Tool of Instruction.
Because of the nature of delivery of this program described above, any of these pieces are just
as important for the teacher to teach as they are for the student to learn and demonstrate that
knowledge. Since the teacher is the registered user of the account capable of accessing the content, all our program content is housed together for teacher access regardless of the intended
audience. This, taken with the dual audience of each lesson component, describes why we believe that our lessons serve as the teacher’s Major Tool of Instruction, and why no student Major
Tool is necessary.
For example, since the lesson notes alone are not sufficient to teach the material but do contain
the subjects and methods of instruction, the lesson notes must be used in conjunction with the
lesson screen (as it would be in a classroom setting) to fully assess our coverage of Florida standards
and benchmarks.
QUAVER LESSONS: THE TEACHER’S MAJOR TOOL OF INSTRUCTION
2) Lesson notes. Each lesson screen has easy-to-access notes which remind the
teacher of the key points for that screen. The lesson notes go beyond simply describing what is shown on the screen and may also contain key knowledge points
to pass along to the student, outline in-class activities or discussions, describe how
to use printable materials which accompany the lesson, or instruct the teacher
how to operate interactive elements. The lesson notes are critical to the success of
the lesson, as they give direction and meaning to each lesson screen.
Therefore, our standards correlation references only teacher-specific content (lesson screens or
notes) to satisfy the requirements for each breakout.
Quaver Lessons: The Teacher’s Major Tool of Instruction
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