The Carver Center for Arts and Technology (CCAT) in Baltimore County, Maryland, is a comprehensive magnet high school that offers unique and intensive courses of study in the fine arts. The academic program provides a range of gifted and talented, honors, advanced placement and standard courses. The integration of technology, the arts, and academics is accomplished by connecting theory and "hands-on" application--an approach that ensures students have a competitive edge for college and for their career of choice.

Areas of fine arts concentration are called "primes" at Carver and include the visual arts, theatre, dance, literary arts, and culinary arts. Music is the newest prime offered at the school. academic courses include general and advanced courses in mathematics, science, foreign languages, and various vocational programs such as carpentry, welding, and architecture. Special senior year experiences include studying in Italy, internships, college level courses, and advanced placement classes.

Students must audition or interview for the opportunity to participate in a lottery which gains them entrance into the school. The names of qualified students are drawn, and their families notified of acceptance in the Spring before their entering year. The demographics of the student population are as diverse as Baltimore County

The class schedule at Carver is set up as an A/B day. Each day has 4 periods that are ninety minutes long. The ninth grade students take their prime for one period each day, and the crest of the grade levels have two periods in their prime. By the end of the senior year, students will have accumulated over 1100 hours of contact time in their area of concentration .

The purpose of this paper is to provide the music education community with a new model which incorporates the Dimensions of Learning (Marzano, et al, 1988) curriculum framework with a sequenced course of study in music. The incorporation of Marzano's thinking is at the heart of all curricular decisions made at CCAT.

In 1990, the Baltimore County schools began looking at new curricular designs that might be implemented to improve both student instruction and lesson/unit integrity. To that end, it was decided to adopt Dimensions of Learning, a direct descendant of Marzano's text, Dimensions of Thinking. Administrators and teachers received inservice training regarding instructional strategies, implementation and assessment tools. This tripartite approach embraces the essence of the Dimensions of Learning framework. In 1991, the superintendent of Baltimore County Schools decided to open an arts magnet school. The school opened in 1992, and the primes were started in 1993. The music program actually begins in the academic year 1995-96.

The Dimensions model is a research based instructional framework about learning. The basis of the framework are five types of thinking, called the five dimensions of learning, which are essential to successful learning.

Dimension 1: Positive Attitudes and Perceptions About Learning

The attitudes and perceptions students bring to school and into the classroom affect their ability to learn. It is easy to understand that if students consider an environment unsafe or lacking order, they will not be able to learn effectively. Therefore, a key element to successful learning is for the instructional staff to establish positive attitudes and perceptions about learning.

Dimension 2: Thinking Involved in Acquiring and Integrating Knowledge

Students should acquire and integrate new knowledge with what they already know. The integration of this new knowledge must be structured so that they can effectively organize it such that new and unique ways of knowing become possible.

Dimension 3: Thinking Involved in Extending and Refining Knowledge

Once knowledge is acquired and integrated, learners should extend and refine their knowledge so that they make new distinctions and conclusions. Common activities which assist extending and refining include: comparing, classifying, induction and deduction, analyzing, and creating.

Dimension 4: Thinking Involved in Using Knowledge Meaningfully

According to the most current cognitive research, effective learning happens when knowledge is used to perform meaningful tasks. In the Dimensions of Learning model, there are five tasks that support the meaningful use of knowledge: decision making, investigation, experimental inquiry, problem solving, and invention.

Dimension 5: Productive Habits of Mind

Successful and effective learners have developed mental habits which allow them to be aware of their behavior, think critically, and think creatively. Some of these mental habits are: being sensitive to feedback, being accurate and seeking accuracy, and working at the edge rather than at the center of competence.

Using Dimensions of Musical Thinking (Boardman, 1989), a curriculum was designed which remains true to the overarching themes of learning theory and instructional design as set down in Dimensions of Thinking and Dimensions of Learning, yet speaks to the uniqueness of musical knowing.

The skills of knowledge acquisition, processing, and of transfer and application comprised the basis of all curricular decisions. How, within a musical framework, could these skills be addressed to provide for valid musical learning? When students are actively engaged with music, they begin to act and think like musicians. Therefore, it is imperative that students have a curriculum available to them which allows for meaningful performance, description, and creation of music. A brief examination of the ninth grade Musical Encounters class illustrates how students may begin their journey from novice to expert. Technological support is central to the course. Using technology within a critical thinking framework allows the students to become active participants in their own musical growth and understanding. The interdependence of musical elements is recognized by the very structure of this course.

The components of this course are music theory, keyboard musicianship, introduction to MIDI technology, composition, criticism, and historical and cultural perspectives. For each component there are program goals and experiences which speak to the Dimensions of Learning as well as more than adequately addressing the suggested National Music Content Standards.

It is hoped that the music program at Carver will attract the attention of one of the many institutions of higher education in the Baltimore area. Research and student teaching cohorts seem likely outgrowths of this unique and new program. It is the intent of the teaching staff and administration to open our doors and share with the music education community the ongoing results of the music prime at the Carver Center for Arts and Technology

I. Demonstrate an understanding of traditional and non-traditional notation.

II. Demonstrate an understanding of specifically designated forms and structures.

III. Display an understanding of melodic, rhythmic, harmonic and formal structure through

written and verbal analysis.

GOALS

I. Demonstrate elementary technical patterns.

II. Play from written notation.

III. Participate in individual and group musical expression.

GOALS

I. Demonstrate a basic understanding of the MIDI environment.

II. Use available sequencing software in experimentation and composition.

GOALS

I. Demonstrate an understanding of the process of composition.

II. Create and organize musical ideas and sounds.

III. Perform, alone or in groups, original compositions.

IV. Identify parallel structural elements in various art forms.

GOALS

I. Identify and apply criteria to make and support aesthetic judgements.

II. Display an appreciation of music as an art form.

III. Demonstrate critical listening and communication skills.

GOALS`

I. Display an awareness of the interrelationship of music and societies.

II. Listen to, perform, and describe music from different historical periods and various

cultures.