Adventures in Music
Adventures in Music
Program Description
Adventures in Music (AIM) is a sequential music education program designed specifically for San Francisco’s public elementary schools, in partnership with the San Francisco Unified School District. AIM serves every student in every SFUSD elementary school, as well as a number of San Francisco’s independent and parochial schools - a total of more than twenty-two thousand schoolchildren. AIM is presented free of charge. The goal of AIM is to provide the elementary schoolchildren of the SFUSD with equal access to music education through an interdisciplinary program that integrates live music performances and related music-learning experiences with every classroom curriculum.
AIM is committed to introducing students to artistic excellence, increasing students’ abilities to perceive and comprehend music, and fostering an awareness of music in the context of everyday life.
AIM was launched in 1988, the culmination of dialogue initiated by the San Francisco Symphony with the SFUSD, the purpose of which was to forge collaboratively a blueprint for a music education program specifically tailored to the needs of the district.
The AIM program consists of:
- a series of four in-school participatory performances by ensembles of diverse musical genres; ensembles are selected and trained by the San Francisco Symphony Education Department
- a music-centered interdisciplinary curriculum
- professional development sessions for teachers and principals
- supplementary resources for teachers, as required for program implementation, such as CDs, books, maps, and videos, as well as a pencil and pencil sharpener for each student
- a workbook journal for each student
- an evening component on selected campuses for parents and families
- collaborations with local institutions to enhance curricular opportunities
- ongoing evaluation and assessment.
Taught by the generalist classroom teacher in collaboration with ensembles of visiting musicians, AIM presents music concepts in tandem with other curricular areas, such as aspects of the language arts, social sciences, and physical sciences. Annually, AIM adopts an overarching theme that serves as the basis for the program’s curriculum development. AIM’s pluralistic approach teaches about music of many cultures, mirroring the rich diversity of the area and as represented in San Francisco’s public classrooms. AIM is designed in alignment with local, state, and national curriculum frameworks. The entire program culminates in a field trip to Davies Symphony Hall for a private concert by the San Francisco Symphony, which draws upon the students’ in-school experiences.
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Program Objectives
Program objectives are developed each year, tailored to the specific interdisciplinary focus of each year’s curricular offering. This year’s curriculum, Sounds of Music, integrates the study of music and science through an exploration of concepts relating to properties of sound, acoustics, vocal production, and instrument development. In other years, the AIM curriculum may focus on music and history, geography, and social studies, or music and fine arts, or other disciplines. Every year, the AIM curriculum includes a strong interdisciplinary focus on language arts.
Specific objectives in music that remain constant from year to year include:
- engaging students with live music in a variety of styles and representing diverse cultures, and developing students’ awareness and appreciation of these musical styles
- engaging students in active listening and gaining an understanding of appropriate behavior when listening to live music in school and concert settings
- introducing music concepts and vocabulary
- familiarizing students with different instruments by sight and sound
- fostering students’ awareness of music as a means of communicating ideas and feelings
- fostering students’ awareness of the expressive qualities of music
- having students experience and understand ways in which music is made in San Francisco
A community-oriented program, AIM maintains collaborative relationships with various community and arts organizations. Collaborations with institutions for the purpose of enhancing AIM’s curricular offerings have included work with the San Francisco Public Library system, the Exploratorium, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Polaroid Company, the DeYoung Museum of Fine Art, and the Architectural Foundation of San Francisco. Collaborations of an advisory nature include long-term relationships with San Francisco Community Music Center, San Francisco Conservatory of Music, and Young Audiences of the Bay Area. Representatives from these and other institutions, along with school personnel and local educators, serve as members of the San Francisco Symphony’s Education Committee, an advisory group for the Symphony’s education programs that operates under the aegis of the Symphony’s Board of Governors.
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Davies Symphony Hall Concerts
A central component of the AIM program is the San Francisco Symphony concert at Davies Symphony Hall designed specifically for AIM students. The Symphony performances will take place in February for AIM II (grades 1-2) and in April for AIM I (grades 3-5). The San Francisco Symphony performance is thematically linked to the AIM in-school presentations. The curriculum for the San Francisco Symphony concert is contained in the Concerts for Kids Study Guide, which is distributed to each teacher. Along with the Study Guide comes a compact disc of the music being presented at the Symphony concert.
The San Francisco Symphony performance is a key part of the AIM curriculum and plays an integral role in students’ understanding of AIM concepts. The concert is designed to engage the imaginations of AIM students as they listen to very colorful and exciting music resounding throughout Davies Symphony Hall. Through the AIM curriculum, we hope to foster an environment whereby the San Francisco Symphony concert will be a powerful and meaningful experience in young people’s lives. We want students’ encounters with live symphonic music to be engaging and memorable.
We encourage parents and guardians of AIM students to accompany students to hear the San Francisco Symphony - above and beyond the usual number of chaperones that may be required by schools for field trips. The AIM program welcomes parents and guardians to Davies Symphony Hall to experience the excitement of a live orchestral concert along with students. We hope principals and teachers will encourage students’ parents/guardians to take advantage of this special opportunity.
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Student Journals
The AIM program provides each student with his/her own individual journal for use as a study and reference tool. Uses of the Student Journal can include recording impressions, feelings, and highlights of each performance. To reinforce the AIM theme, each ensemble curriculum card includes at least one activity that specifies use of the Student Journal. The Student Journal also includes illustrations of musical instruments, photographs of the AIM in-school teaching artists, and information about the San Francisco Symphony concert.
A feeling of pride and accomplishment can be fostered in both student and teacher through tangible evidence of a student's efforts. At the end of the school year, the Student Journal may provide a portfolio assessment mechanism for evaluating students' growth and understanding of AIM concepts
Samples of Student Journals
Last year’s AIM theme, Music Talks!, integrated music concepts with the study of language arts.
AIM Student Journal for grades 1-2
AIM Student Journal for grades 3-5
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AIM "In-The-Evening" at Selected Schools
The evening component of the AIM program consists of a series of musical performances at selected school sites around the city. The performances are geared to parents and families of AIM students, and to members of the community in each participating school’s neighborhood.
Each musical evening - hosted by the school’s principal and presented by the San Francisco Symphony - features an AIM ensemble performing a program based on the ensemble’s daytime presentation to AIM schoolchildren. AIM “in-the-evening” provides an opportunity for students to share a small slice of the school day with their families. This season’s program included fourteen schools in nine geographically distinct neighborhoods of San Francisco. It is presented free of charge.
In addition to providing an opportunity for parents and families to experience a live AIM performance on their child’s campus and to learn about the AIM program, AIM "in-the-evening” also supports lifelong learning by:
- Providing parents and families with an opportunity to engage with professional musicians and live musical performance in an intimate setting
- Impacting school culture through presenting a free evening educational experience that will attract parents and families to school sites
- Providing parents and their children with opportunities to learn together at the school site
- Promoting parents' interest and involvement in their child's music education experiences.
AIM "in-the-evening" builds closer connections between AIM parents and the San Francisco Symphony, and helps to strengthen community awareness of the Symphony’s role in children's education.
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