Are you looking for lesson plans for substitutes? Need help getting Solo & Ensemble going at your school? Want a template for concert programs? Fellow choral educators, we got your back!
If you have materials or suggestions you'd like to add to these resources, please reach out to Derek Machan, NextDirection Chair.
If you have materials or suggestions you'd like to add to these resources, please reach out to Derek Machan, NextDirection Chair.
NEW BEGINNINGS: A Handbook for first-year teachers in Wisconsin
Contact an Experienced Teacher
Need help registering for Solo & Ensemble? Working with the changing voice? Need a clinician? Need authentic assessment ideas? Check out this document of people who want to help!
Advocacy
Articles
Choral Websites
Classroom Aids
Concert Programs
Canva Template - thanks to Joshua Schmidt at DeForest Area Middle School!
Concert Assessment, Conflict & Make-Up Policy (from Waterford High School)
Curriculum
DEAIB Resources
Miscellaneous (Vocal Health, Recruiting, Expressive Singing)
Professional Organizations
Repertoire
Sight Singing & Ear Training
Solo & Ensemble
Intro Letters, Handouts and Prep
Practice Tracks
General Solo & Ensemble Questions
Software & Technology
Sub Plans
Note: These are paid resources that have been vetted and used by WCDA members
Elementary Music Sub Plans for the Non-Music Sub
General Music - Genres Activities Bundle
Music Sub Plan Bundle
No Prep Middle or High School Choir Sub Plan
Secondary Chorus Music Sub Plans
Worksheets
Note: Some of these are paid resources that have been vetted and used by WCDA members
Chorus Assignments
Contact an Experienced Teacher
Need help registering for Solo & Ensemble? Working with the changing voice? Need a clinician? Need authentic assessment ideas? Check out this document of people who want to help!
Advocacy
- Advocates Resources: A collection of documents that will help you advocate for a complete education that includes music instruction for every child. Provided by the NAMM Foundation’s SupportMusic Advocacy program.
- Advocate for Music Education as the Major Key to Building Community by Eric Whitacre
- Dana Foundation Report: Learning, Arts and the Brain
- Essential Music Advocacy - originally a CD-Rom by NAfME, here is the PDF of the contents
- A Hard-Headed Case for Arts Education by Author Dan Pink
- The Inside Voice by Eric Whitacre
- Music Advocacy Articles for Parents, Teachers, and Administrators from Children’s Music Workshop
- Sounds of Learning Research Initiative
- Why Music Matters Video with Jack Stamp
- Why Music? Music is…
Articles
- Conductor’s Flow Chart for Copyright Programming by Abbie Betinis
- The December Dilemma: Religious Holidays in the Public Schools by Dr. Margaret Hill
- Excellent Vocal Exercises for Choirs by Camila Rabin
- How to Vocalize a Choir and Keep Vocal Health by David L. Jones
- On song, out of tune: a great article on the value of choral singing
- Sacred Music in Schools: A position statement from NAfME
- United States Copyright Law – A guide for music educators from NAfME
Choral Websites
- Choral Director Magazine: A free magazine for choral directors - excellent!
- ChoralNet: A central portal to online resources and communications for the global choral music community.
- Choral Public Domain Library: Access to FREE choral works in the public domain. Also, you can find scores, texts, translations, and information about composers.
- Cipoo: Another site containing FREE choral works in the public domain.
- Hear the Choirs Sing: a directory of choral music clips in various formats
- Musictheory.net: Free music theory lessons
- The Silvis Woodshed: Choral MIDI Files
Classroom Aids
- Blank Sheet Music: FREE sheet music generator, with programmable values (clef, voicing)
- Cheat Sheet: lines and spaces, keyboard, note & rest values (in simple time signatures)
- First day student information survey
- Major scales
- My vocal range chart with Cooksey’s voice classification key
- Kodály (Curwen) Solfege Hand Sign Illustrations: Diatonic | Chromatic
Concert Programs
Canva Template - thanks to Joshua Schmidt at DeForest Area Middle School!
Concert Assessment, Conflict & Make-Up Policy (from Waterford High School)
-
Elementary
-
Woodland Intermediate School (Kimberly, WI)
- 2022 Winter Concert (combined choir and band, grades 5-6)
- 2022 Spring Concert (Grade 5 general music, choir, and band)
- 2023 Spring Concert (combined choir and band, grades 5-6)
-
Woodland Intermediate School (Kimberly, WI)
- 6-12 // K-12
-
Middle School
- Altoona Middle School
- DeForest Area Middle School - PDF
- Gerritts Middle School (Kimberly, WI) - Google Doc
- Platteville Middle School
-
High School
- Muskego High School - Google Slides, presented on the sides of the auditorium proscenium
-
Indian Trail High School & Academy
- Fall 2021 - PDF
- Christmas 2021 - PDF
- Spring 2023 - PDF
- Kaukauna High School
- Oak Creek High School
-
Waterford High School
- 2022 Jazz Concert - Google Slides
- 2023 Winter Concert (Masterwork) - PDF
- 2023 Spring Concert (Pops) - PDF
-
College
- UW-Eau Claire
- UW-Milwaukee
Curriculum
- Choral Activities That Infuse Reading and Writing Skills
- Comprehensive Musicianship through Performance (CMP) from WMEA
- Secondary (6-12) Choral Curriculum - Orange County Public Schools (FL)
- Sequential K-12 General/Choral Curriculum - New York State School Music Association
- Sequential K-12 Music Curriculum (2019 revision) - Waterford, Connecticut
- Sight Reading Scope & Sequence
- National Core Music Standards - from NAfME
- Teaching Concert etiquette - from NAfME
DEAIB Resources
- Beyond Elijah Rock: The Non-Idiomatic Choral Music of Black Composers
- Blurring the Binary: Teaching Transgender Students in the Music Classroom
- Choral Diversity Database - choral works of composers from historically excluded groups
- Making Vocal Classrooms Safe and Inclusive for Transgender Students - Madison, WI West High School choir teacher Anthony Cao shares strategies to create safe, more inclusive vocal classrooms for transgender and nonbinary students. This presentation was hosted by GSAFE (gsafewi.org) with financial support from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
- NewMusicShelf Anthology of New Music: Trans & Nonbinary Voices, Vol. 1
Miscellaneous (Vocal Health, Recruiting, Expressive Singing)
- Encouraging your child to produce a healthy voice fact sheet from the Institute of Child Health
- How to Prevent and Repair Vocal Damage: Baylor University Teacher Vocal Health Study
- Recruiting: What Works for Me by Sandy Hinkley, Glenridge Middle School (FL)
- Rules for Expressive Singing by Julie Bowers
- Vocal Health Resources: from licensed speech therapist Joanna Cazden
- Vocal Health: An Ultimate Guide by Speech and Language Pathologist Katarina Hornakova
- Vocal Training in Choirs by Robert Russell
Professional Organizations
- ACDA: American Choral Directors Association
- WMEA: Wisconsin Music Educators Association
- WSMA: Wisconsin School Music Association
- Wisconsin Foundation for School Music
- Wisconsin NATS
- NAfME: The National Association for Music Education
- NATS: National Association of Teachers of Singing
- IFCM: International Federation For Choral Music
- JEN: Jazz Education Network
Repertoire
-
The Great Choral Treasure Hunt - presented by members of the CMP committee
- Edition I - 2003 (Jenks/Swiggum/Winnie)
- Edition II - 2004 (Swiggum/Winnie)
- Edition III - 2005 (Swiggum/Winnie)
- Edition IV - 2006 (Swiggum/Winnie)
- Edition V - 2007 (Swiggum/Winnie)
- Edition VI - 2008 (Jenks/Swiggum/Winnie)
- Edition VII – 2009 (Jenks/Swiggum)
- Edition VIII – 2010 - (Jenks/Swiggum)
- Edition IX – 2011 - (Jenks/Swiggum)
- Edition X – 2012 - (Jenks/Ross/Swiggum)
- Edition XI – 2013 - (Jenks/Swiggum)
- Edition XII – 2014 - (Jenks/Swiggum)
- Edition XIII – 2015 - (Jenks/Swiggum)
- Edition XIV – 2016 - (Jenks/Ross/Swiggum)
- Edition XV – 2017 - (Jenks/Ross/Swiggum)
- Edition XIX – 2022 - (Jenks/Swiggum)
- Border CrosSing song series
- Justice Choir Songbook
- Middle School A Cappella Repertoire - by Port Washington (WI) choral directors
- Middle School Recommended Repertoire - by Dr. Lon Beery (Spry Middle School, NY)
- Tried and True Middle School Music by Nancy Cox; all voicings
- Masterworks for High School Choirs by Tucker Biddlecombe
- (re)Consider the Canon: Bringing the Past to the Present - slides, handout, and video from a presentation at National ACDA 2021 with lesser known Baroque and Renaissance choral pieces
- Reliable Repertoire for Middle School and Beginning High School
Sight Singing & Ear Training
- FREE sight singing exercises by Jussi Doherty
- Big Ears: free online ear trainer
- Good-Ear.com: another free online ear trainer
- Masterworks Press - Reproducible sight reading and theory sheets
- Sequential 6-8 Sight-Singing Program - Choraltech, Inc.
- Sight Reading Factory
- Sight Reading Project by Kevin Albright
- Sight Reading Strategies for Success by Matthew Swope
- Sight Reading in the Vocal Warm-Up by Dr. Rachel Carlson
- Strategies for Successful Sight-Reading by Jeremy Little (Vernon Hills, IL)
Solo & Ensemble
Intro Letters, Handouts and Prep
- "The Solo & Ensemble Experience" - from Brookfield Central High School
- "Don't Know What to Sing?" - spreadsheet with YouTube links
- Solo & Ensemble Guidelines - from Waterford High School
- Twenty Suggestions for Success At Solo & Ensemble
Practice Tracks
- tinyurl.com/wsmase-new (Derek Machan)
- tinyurl.com/OCS-Etracks (Sam Wulterkens and Hope Bogusch)
General Solo & Ensemble Questions
Software & Technology
- Audacity - FREE open source cross-platform audio software
- AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition: This antiviral program offers rock-solid protection for no financial commitment. AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition provides all the necessities, including a tool for scanning your hard drive and e-mail, as well as a real-time shield to prevent infections.
- Cute PDF: This free application allows you to create PDF files from any application on your computer. Very handy for sending music files to people who don’t have the same program (Finale, Sibelius, etc.)
- Finale - One of the industry standards for music notation programs. Be sure to check out their educational pricing!
- OpenOffice.org: Compatible with other major office suites (like Microsoft Office), OpenOffice.org is free to download and distribute. You can use it to open Word, Excel, Powerpoint, and other documents.
- Sibelius - A very user-friendly music notation software program. Also has educational pricing, but it is a subscription platform.
- Reason - Propellerhead Reason is a powerful modular music creation software for people of all skill levels. Click on the link to download. At launch, select to run in “Demo mode,” which is a very robust version. A full curriculum for music technology class is available on the secondary market, called “Teach Music with Reason.”
Sub Plans
Note: These are paid resources that have been vetted and used by WCDA members
Elementary Music Sub Plans for the Non-Music Sub
General Music - Genres Activities Bundle
Music Sub Plan Bundle
No Prep Middle or High School Choir Sub Plan
Secondary Chorus Music Sub Plans
Worksheets
Note: Some of these are paid resources that have been vetted and used by WCDA members
Chorus Assignments
- Chorus exam for middle school
- Post-Concert Evaluation & Reflection
- Concert Makeup Assignments: 01 02
- Listening Sheet
- Music in Our Schools Month Listening Journal (grades 2-8)
- Participation rubrics:
- Amadeus
- Bach’s Fight for Freedom
- Beethoven Lives Upstairs
- Finding Nemo
- Handel’s Last Chance
- Hunchback of Notre Dame
- Les Choristes Study Guide
- Les Miserables
- Mr. Holland’s Opus
- My Fair Lady
- Pirates of Penzance
- Sister Act
- Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit
- Sound of Music
- West Side Story
- FREE “Fill in the Solfege” assignments - website by Michael Kravchuk
- You are the composer