Dissimilar to the Kodály movement in Hungary, the Orff movement in America is not as precisely historied. The world players are fewer and can be summed up more readily because Orff (most likely Keetman) purposely defined the playing field in his five books and then let the players play. In the United States, two teachers have become prominent in the Orff movement in their attempts to lateralize the Orff curriculum by giving some sense of sequence for day-to-day classroom activities.

    First is Jane Frazee. She wrote her celebrated 1987 tome, Discovering Orff: A Curriculum for Music Teachers, out of a need for some guidance for the American Orff movement. While Orff-Schulwerk may best be viewed as the "pedagogy of suggestion" (Frazee, 1987, p. 23), insomuch as the provision of too many classroom prescriptions might endanger the Schulwerk's aim of free and creative musical expression, not enough renders the opposite effect. It recognizes music teachers often "seek a framework that addresses the questions of which music should be worked on, when and through what means" (Frazee, 1987, p. 17).

    The second is Arvida Steen. Steen wrote Exploring Orff in 1992 to expand the concept of curriculum help for the day-to-day music teacher with lesson planning. As a classroom teacher, she had a unique perspective on curriculum and lessoning planning. "The statement of your lesson objective should include three kinds of information: focus, level of understanding, performance" (Steen, 1992, p. 27). The latter half of her book dedicated itself to broad grade-level objectives in expression, rhythm and melody, texture, timbre, and form. In addition to the 100-plus annotated songs and instrumental arrangements suitable for classroom use, handy curriculum grids outline the learning from grades kindergarten through sixth.
Doug Goodkin's Play, Sing, & Dance: An Introduction to Orff Schulwerk again attempts to help the teacher learn about the Orff process by providing examples of day-to-day lesson planning. His book contains an introduction to the development of Orff-Schulwerk and simple lesson planning, day-to-day activities and a discussion of the distinguishing features of this approach. All of these books are for those teachers who want detailed, practical assistance in how and why one uses Orff techniques and materials in the classroom. Nevertheless, unlike their Kodály counterparts, disciples of Orff — by their very nature of being rooted in improvisation — still struggle with the lack of concrete, day-to-day lessons planning guides as in the graded level Kodály books of Houlahan and Tacka.