A guide to
Cambridge Lower Secondary Music
Introduction
Cambridge Lower Secondary Music encourages creativity and builds confidence, helping learners develop a deeper understanding of self-expression and shows them the importance of communication as they learn to connect with other musicians and with audiences. Music broadens learners’ experience as they explore music as performers, composers and informed listeners. This encourages an understanding and appreciation of music from different cultures, times and places.
Our curriculum is flexible so you can combine music from your local context with music from other cultures. Learners will experiment and contribute as they follow a wide variety of possible musical paths. This helps them to develop an affinity with music and to find ways to express their unique musical personality. Throughout Cambridge Lower Secondary Music, learners will develop a genuine depth of understanding, so they can both make music and make sense of music. This prepares them to be lifelong makers and listeners of music. It also provides a solid foundation for learners who continue to study music through the Cambridge Pathway.
Cambridge Lower Secondary Music learners:
- cultivate a joy of music through participating in meaningful and enjoyable experiences
- develop the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to contribute as musician
- collaborate with others in purposeful and expressive ways through singing and playing instruments
- nurture their individual and collective creativity
- use their growing knowledge to explore and generate music that is unique, relevant and valuable.
Teaching Cambridge Lower Secondary Music
We provide a wide range of practical resources, detailed guidance, innovative training and professional development so you can give your learners the best possible experience of Cambridge Lower Secondary Music.
We believe that for teaching and learning to be effective, there should be alignment between curriculum, pedagogy and assessment. We have designed Cambridge Lower Secondary Music around this principle:
Curriculum – taken from Lower Secondary Music Curriculum Framework
78MS.02 Begin to explore and recognise specific features of particular styles, genres and traditions in music, relating it to context.
Pedagogy – 78MS.02 activity taken from the Stage 7 Scheme of Work
Listen to a short excerpt of a loop-based piece of music, such as Steve Reich’s ‘Piano Phase.’
To help learners create their own piece of loop music, start by giving them images that learners can represent with sounds. For example, you could provide images of animals and learners could create sounds to represent a frog, cat or rabbit. They can use voices or any available instrument.
In groups of three or four, learners can rearrange the images and sounds into a particular order to create a structure for a short piece of music. Learners will need to decide who will play the rhythm part and who will play the pitched sound(s).
Groups can perform to each other, suggesting ideas for feedback and refining work. Record pieces if possible and listen back.
Ask learners:
- Do the sounds accurately represent the images?
- Can you guess the images just by listening to the sounds?
- What effect does the loop have on the piece of music?
- Have you listened to any other loop-based music, and if so, can you describe it?
- What would you do next to improve your piece?
Assessment
Learners give feedback to each other as they discuss their creative ideas.
The teacher and learners provide feedback on the group performance to inform next steps.
Curriculum Framework
The Cambridge Lower Secondary Music Curriculum Framework is available to download on the Music (0078) page of the Cambridge Lower Secondary support site. It provides a comprehensive set of learning objectives that give a structure for teaching and learning and can be used to assess learners’ attainment and skills development.
We have divided the learning objectives into two main areas called ‘strands’, which run through every stage:
In the Cambridge Lower Secondary Music curriculum, Stages 7 and 8 have the same learning objectives. However, learners should listen to and perform a wider range of music in Stage 8 than in Stage 7. There are separate learning objectives for Stage 9.
We have designed the learning objectives to ensure progression in learning from Stage 7 to Stage 9 and onwards into Cambridge Upper Secondary. You can download a Progression Grid, that outlines the progression for all learning objectives across all stages, from the Music (0078) page of the Cambridge Lower Secondary support site.
Find information from the Progression Grid
Find information from the Progression Grid
In the Progression Grid, identify the stage that you will be teaching, and the prior knowledge that learners are expected to have. It is important to ensure that this prior knowledge is secure before moving on to new skills and knowledge.
Below are some examples of how knowledge, understanding and skills progress across the stages:
Curriculum Framework
The Cambridge Lower Secondary Music Curriculum Framework is available to download on the Music (0078) page of the Cambridge Lower Secondary support site. It provides a comprehensive set of learning objectives that give a structure for teaching and learning and can be used to assess learners’ attainment and skills development.
We have divided the learning objectives into two main areas called ‘strands’, which run through every stage:
In the Cambridge Lower Secondary Music curriculum, Stages 7 and 8 have the same learning objectives. However, learners should listen to and perform a wider range of music in Stage 8 than in Stage 7. There are separate learning objectives for Stage 9.
We have designed the learning objectives to ensure progression in learning from Stage 7 to Stage 9 and onwards into Cambridge Upper Secondary. You can download a Progression Grid, that outlines the progression for all learning objectives across all stages, from the Music (0078) page of the Cambridge Lower Secondary support site.
Find information from the Progression Grid
Find information from the Progression Grid
In the Progression Grid, identify the stage that you will be teaching, and the prior knowledge that learners are expected to have. It is important to ensure that this prior knowledge is secure before moving on to new skills and knowledge.
Below are some examples of how knowledge, understanding and skills progress across the stages:
| Learning objective examples | ||
|---|---|---|
| Strand | Stages 7 and 8 | Stage 9 |
| Making music | Contributing to coherent and successful compositions and improvisations, drawing on internalised sounds from a wide variety of sources. | Improvising and composing using a range of musical structures and devices, with growing independence. |
| Making sense of music | Beginning to explore and recognise specific features of particular styles, genres and traditions in music, relating it to context. | Identifying, explaining and demonstrating how specific features of music relate to its context. |
Pedagogy
The Curriculum Framework gives you a list of learning objectives for each stage. Our support materials then give you guidance on:
- the order in which to teach the objectives
- ways of grouping them
- how to split the objectives into smaller steps, and how to differentiate to make the work easier or harder
- suitable activities through which to teach
- ideas for active learning.
Our support materials include:
- Progression Grids
- Schemes of Work
- Teacher Guide
- Training
Find and access these support materials, on the Music (0078) page of the Cambridge Lower Secondary support site. You can find more general information about these support materials on the About Cambridge Lower Secondary page of the Cambridge Lower Secondary support site.
Cambridge Lower Secondary Music is flexible, allowing you to use musical instruments of any kind (as well as other objects and music technology). Learners should have opportunities to improvise and compose using a range of singing techniques and musical instruments. They should also present and perform regularly to a variety of audiences. The curriculum is designed to supplement, rather than replace instrumental or singing lessons.
Learners should also have opportunities to listen to and evaluate a range of music. This includes each other’s compositions, and pieces from their own and different cultures, times and places. This will support them to be more adventurous in their listening choices, experiment with new ideas and be more creative in their own compositions. Playing different types of music as learners enter the classroom can help to expose them to a range of music. It can also set the context for making music and thinking musically. Learners should have regular opportunities to develop active listening. This requires them to notice musical features, such as dynamic changes, instrumentation, stopping and starting, tension and release.
Find information from the Scheme of Work
Find information from the Scheme of Work
Look at the Scheme of Work for the stage you will be teaching. Select one of the suggested activities and think about how you will deliver the activity in your classroom with your learners.
- How can the activity be adapted to build on what your learners already know or have covered?
- How will you promote active learning?
- What language support might your learners need?
- What opportunities are there for cross curricular links with other subjects?
- What else might you include to ensure your learners meet the learning objective(s) for this activity?
For more information on the approaches to teaching and learning in Cambridge Lower Secondary Music, refer to Section 3.4 of the Teacher Guide.
Assessment Guidance
Assessment guidance provides support and advice on how to assess learners in the classroom, including:
- examples of how teaching and learning activities can be assessed
- approaches to recording achievement
- different approaches to reporting results.
There is no Cambridge Lower Secondary Progression Test or Checkpoint for this subject.
Find the Assessment guidance on the Music (0078) page of the Cambridge Lower Secondary support site.
You can find more general information about Assessment guidance on the About Cambridge Lower Secondary page of the Cambridge Lower Secondary support site.
Assessment Guidance
Assessment guidance provides support and advice on how to assess learners in the classroom, including:
- examples of how teaching and learning activities can be assessed
- approaches to recording achievement
- different approaches to reporting results.
Find the Assessment guidance on the Music (0078) page of the Cambridge Lower Secondary support site.
You can find more general information about Assessment guidance on the About Cambridge Lower Secondary page of the Cambridge Lower Secondary support site.
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