The Darien Public Schools Music Department is currently engaged in a project that will introduce the prolific American composer, Duke Ellington, to all of the students in the district. Teachers will be supplied with the resources and professional development necessary to develop units, lessons and tasks that incorporate Ellington's music. The musical activities may range from guided listening and movement exercises with the younger students to the study and performance of Duke Ellington compositions, to include improvisation and composition for the older students.

The Music Department will devote Professional Development time and resources to music teachers in order to better learn about the man, music, era and style of Duke Ellington and then will work on developing methods of integrating some of this essential information into our music curriculum.

We are not familiar with any models of this concept on a K-12 scale and we will be pioneering and piloting some of the ideas that we are initiating. The main incentive however, is that all of the students in the Darien Public Schools experience the music of Duke Ellington with some depth on different levels and have an opportunity to study the music and life of this prolific American composer.

We have already discussed some possibilities of coordinating with the Darien Music for Youth Foundation's enrichment programs and sharing what we are doing with all of the classroom teachers in the district with the hope that some teachers will incorporate Duke Ellington into web searches, American History projects, Social Studies/civil rights, Black History Month, writing/literacy lessons and art projects. We have discussed the possibility of posting grade level lessons submitted by teachers onto our Darien meets Duke Ellington web page and of collaborating on special art projects, essay contests and period swing dancing units.

Our resource webpage resource is available to all teachers via the Darien Public Folders or the Music Department link on the opening page of the DPS webpage and will be revised and updated with new information on a regular basis.