Making the Grade: Comb Bound Book

This resource delivers exactly what busy elementary teachers need: 55 complete lessons anchored to the nine MENC standards, with all materials and worksheets ready to use. The comb binding isn't a small detail, it means pages stay open while you're teaching, and you can actually use this book in the classroom without fighting with it. Built by someone who spent 20 years in elementary music rooms, it reads like it was written by someone who understands what works and what doesn't.

This is a working teacher's toolkit. It balances structure with flexibility, moving through folk traditions, established classical works, and original compositions without oversimplifying any of them. The lessons feel designed for real classrooms, manageable, creative, and built to hold students' attention.

General music teachers and classroom music specialists working with elementary students in grades 3 through 6. Substitute teachers will find this especially valuable because every lesson is self-contained with clear objectives and materials lists. Teachers new to standards-based instruction will appreciate the direct alignment to MENC frameworks.

• Use the reproducible worksheets as formative assessments rather than busywork. Have students revisit the same worksheet midway through a unit to show growth on the same skill.
• Adapt the folk and classical selections to match instruments and voices available in your specific class. The lesson structure is flexible enough to accommodate different skill levels.
• Build continuity across units by returning to concepts from earlier standards when reviewing. This reinforces understanding and shows students how musical ideas connect.

Use these lessons as the backbone of your general music curriculum across the year, with one unit per standard and roughly six lessons per unit. This works particularly well for schools implementing standards-based grading, since each unit directly maps to assessment criteria. Individual lessons also work as standalone additions to your existing program when you need a focused activity on a specific skill.

• Singing with appropriate posture and breath support
• Reading and performing rhythm patterns and meters
• Identifying and describing elements of melody and harmony
• Playing classroom instruments with accuracy and expression
• Listening and analyzing music from folk, classical, and contemporary sources
• Creating original melodies and simple compositions
• Understanding form and structure in instrumental and vocal pieces
• Connecting music to other subjects and cultural contexts
• Collaborating and responding constructively to peers' musical work