Middle School General Music - The Dilemma

I teach at a middle school where we are fortunate to have excellent participation in, and support for, our performance ensembles. With separate 6th, 7th, and 8th grade chorus, band and orchestras, it's easy to see the progression in skill development at concerts, from the time the students enter middle school to the time they move on to the high school.

I have found it a lot more difficult, however, to measure the growth in skills from our students who participate only in the General Music program. As someone who's been teaching middle school music for over 10 years this has always been something of a conundrum. 

So, I'm constantly asking myself, "What is the point of my general music curriculum?" What life long skills am I hoping to instill in my students if they're not involved in performance? Is it necessary that they learn to read notes and rhythms if they're not progressing on an instrument? 

As I attempt to answer these questions, there are several factors specific to the General Music curriculum at our school that I have to consider: 

Middle School rotating encore (special area) schedule:
All 6th and 8th grade students take 10 weeks of general music and our 7th graders take 20 weeks. (I shouldn't say all, because many student who require AIS services will miss out altogether on General Music and other encore classes.) We're on 4 day rotating block schedule, so I get to see my general music classes every other day for 50 minute periods. This means any student who has general music in 6th grade during the 4th marking period hasn't had general music since the end of elementary school... almost a full academic year. Similarly a student who gets general music in the 1st marking period of 6th grade, may not get General Music again, till 2nd semester of 7th grade. Most of these students lose any skills they acquired in the previous general music class, so we spend a lot of time reviewing old material. 

Variety of skill levels the students have coming into General Music:  
Because our instrumental/chorus students also participate in General Music I always have students who have been practicing reading music for the last 2 to 4 years in the same class as student who have never performed in a music ensemble. (I'm aware that this is not the case in many school districts where students who participate in music ensembles do not take General Music, and I feel fortunate to have this set-up than the alternative.)

No general music alternatives for students in 9th grade:
Our district has a 9th grade academy that students go to after middle school, and other than performance ensembles, there are no music offerings. At the high school there is a "Piano in our Lives" class, a "World Music" class and some music theory classes, but if a student isn't involved in performance ensembles, the 9th grade academy pretty much acts as a stopper for music education.

I tell my students at the beginning of every marking period, that it is my goal to instill in them an appreciation and excitement for music. I haven't found the perfect way to do this, and I don't expect this blog to provide specific answers to these questions, but hopefully it'll start a dialogue. I plan on sharing some of the things I'm doing in an attempt to peak my students' musical curiosity, and hopefully hearing some ideas from other teachers on what they're doing to spark there students musical interest.