Bloom's Taxonomy and the Nine national Standards for Music Education- A Comparison

A teacher uses a full bag of tricks to design curriculum, plan lessons, teach classes, and assess students. For a music teacher, the most important tools in that bag are the nine national standards laid out by the National Association for Music Educators and the hierarchy of learning in Bloom's Taxonomy. The national standards guide a teacher's curriculum and lesson planning, while Bloom's Taxonomy directs that teacher's classroom methods and assessment. The two guidelines complement each other while providing two different support structures essential for a classroom's success

As a class begins to study the basic concepts of music, each student masters each skill at a different pace. As they progress through the curriculum, they increase their mastery of more, and more complex, concepts, as well as gain an understanding of the importance of each lesson. The music standards presented by the National Association for Music Educators provides a gradual and fluid transition from the first day of elementary music class to their final performance as a music student and offers a blueprint through which each child will comprehend the basic precepts of music performance, theory, and history. Bloom's Taxonomy also gives teacher the ability to ensure that each child understands the lesson, performs independently, and assesses themselves and their classmates during and after a performance.
We teach with the standards in mind so we are able to design the appropriate lesson to engage all learners.  This crucial tool should be used daily to ensure full class engagement and understanding.  The basic lesson should be based around the standards and should be assessed through Bloom's Taxonomy.  For example:  in a lesson taught in a preschool music class there would be a March played and then briefly discuss what the music made us feel.  Nothing too intense, just s simple 'happy' or 'sad'.  Then move forward with 'what did your feet want to do?'- did you want to dance?  March?  By asking these questions we are using Bloom's Taxonomy to assess their knowledge, and comprehension of the lesson, all while meeting the standards of responding to music and understanding music. Next in the lesson we move onto responding to music, creating music, and singing and playing instruments.  While handing out "crash cymbals" (paper plates) to each student, we talk about if anyone has seen actual crash cymbals or who has heard them.  Next we stand up and begin to march in place while crashing as we stomp.  Now we have created movement, an understanding of steady beat, responding to music, and creating.  We have gone from the basic topic of steady beat and applied what we know and can now evaluate ourselves. 

While we use these tools at the same time to create effective lessons, they are different in a sense that we design the lesson around the standards with the assessment in mind.  We use Bloom's Taxonomy to organize the learning process.