I was fortunate to have presented again at the Reform Symposium – 3 days of free webinars given by teachers and educators from around the world.  It was another great experience.  I presented on “Integrating Music with Literacy to Help Struggling Readers.”  I find this topic very interesting and was so excited to share my insights with others.  We had about 35 educators in attendance and what a great group!  They were terrific at sharing ideas, and helping each other out.  The overall feeling of our time together was a very positive one!

I wanted to take the time to share a few screen shots of the session with you to make a few points about the power music can have in any classroom.

Here’s an image taken from the session when I polled the teachers on how they feel about music.  As I suspected, no one admitted to not enjoying music.  (Why else would they attend such as session, right?)  But I found it interesting that a majority of those in attendance didn’t consider themselves musicians.  To me, this just shows how you do not have to be a skilled musician to enjoy music and bring that enjoyment to the classroom.

Then I asked what the teachers thought in terms of how their students felt about music.  Overwhelmingly, they felt students enjoyed music a lot.  So – this shows me that if we harness that enjoyment and turn it into motivation, what a powerful tool we have as teachers.  AND couple that with the enjoyment so many teachers have with music.  You have a tool that satisfies both teacher and student making them more invested in music integration.

So what is it about music?  Well, I could have rambled on and on about what I think and know is true about the power of music education and integration, but for this session, I put the question out to the participants and their list was terrific! Here is the whiteboard after everyone had a chance to add to it.  This part of the session went so fast.  Everyone had so many ideas and contributions!

At the end of any workshop, presentation or class, I like to ask what the best take away was for teachers.  I strive to make things relevant and practical for teachers, so this is always a great way for me to get feedback as well as give teachers and myself some nice reflection time.  Here is what people had to say:

I enjoyed my time very much and I could tell people were happy to have the opportunity to learn more about what music integration can do for their literacy programs.  One participant, @aschordine, composed a post talking about her experience attending the webinar.  It was great feedback for me to know that the concepts we discussed were inspiring and helpful.  You can read Alicia’s post at her website With Wings to Fly.

If you interested in seeing the webinar in part or in its entirety, please click this link.  You will be asked to download the session which included the presentation, list of participants, live chat box and Q and A session.   Integrating Music with Literacy to Help Struggling Readers

~EMP

Related posts:

1. The Connections Between Music and Reading
2. Visualization in Reading and Music
3. Linking Music to Reading

One parallel between reading and listening to music that comes up again and again in my classroom is repetitive listenings and readings.  When you actively listen to music, it is important to have students listen again and again over the course of some time (each day for a week, for example).  Each time your students hear the music, they will pick up on new things in it whether that be details in a story they see in their imaginations or details in the music itself (instruments in the layers of sound, differences in dynamics).  You can help them along by encouraging discussions by setting purposes, asking guided questions and conducting other active listening activities.

The same goes for reading.   Each time a student hears a story, they get more out of it.  Often they are encouraged to look back in the text to find an answer to a question, find details that will support their thesis or to simply reread a section they enjoyed.  This is an important skill!  And students should not be afraid to use it.

I find that since we do listen to music each day in my class: one song each week, my students get used to the idea of hearing things repetitively with a purpose.  Each day that we listen to the same piece of music, we are listening for new things, making our active listening experiences deep and rich.

I am always referring to the parallels between this and how it applies to our reading.  Just yesterday I, in preparation for my students to write their big tested narrative, decided to read to them Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing by Judy Blume.  One of my colleagues loves reading this book to her students, drawing their attention to how each chapter is like a mini narrative.  In fact, she read it to both of our classes earlier this year.  But that didn’t stop me from bringing it out again.  When my students saw me take it out and introduce it they were very accepting of the idea of reading it again.  There were even some students (who not only had it read to them before, but read the book on their own) who were excited to read it again.  (Now that’s what we strive for!)

But before starting the book, I told the class that, since they had heard the story before, this time we would be reading for a different purpose.  This time we would read with an Author’s Brain, looking for how the author pieces together the narrative and why.  Then we made a short list of the things we would look and listen for this time around including word choice, dialect, and descriptions of setting and characters.  As I read through the first chapter, I would pause every once in a while and we would discuss how Blume describes something or builds tension to create interest for the reader.  In short, it made for some wonderful real-life discussions around how writer’s write.

This is what we do everyday in class with music.  We listen to music and then each day we listen again and again and every time, we pick up on new things.  Now, we have the perfect opportunity to do the same with reading and, in turn, improve our writing (at least that’s the hope!)

~EMP

This is a modified excerpt from Inspired by Listening by Elizabeth Peterson.

Image from http://www.stryder.com/

Related posts:

1. The Connections Between Music and Reading
2. Linking Music to Reading
3. The Music-Literacy Connection

It has always fascinated me to think of all the connections music has with reading.  In fact, last year, I remember looking over my district’s literacy curriculum, thinking how nearly everything stated on those pages about reading and literacy could be paralleled to music study.

In my book, Inspired by Listening, I explore all the ways we can integrate music listening experiences into our teaching: sharing music with our students and then using those experiences to build community and inspire great writing.

So let’s consider music listening with reading. A while back, I wrote an article entitled “Listen Like you Read” and in it I explored the parallels of reading and active listening to music. For example, when someone reads, there are things they do before, during and after the experience. In fact when we teach reading, our lessons are structured around this format.

The same applies to listening to music. Before you listen, you must know some background about the genre, composer or piece. While you listen, you are concentrating on the experience by becoming familiar with the music as you listen to it many times. After you listen, you interpret what you have just experienced by making judgments about the music.

Knowing the background of the music we listen to can be beneficial. We can learn about the composer, the time in which he/she lived or the style of the piece. Learning about and playing some of the instruments that are used can also provide students with some good vocabulary to use later as well as using vocabulary words learned in music class.

As soon as we begin to read a story we are experiencing it. The same goes for listening. The more we listen to a piece of music, the more we remember main themes, hear the detailed layers of the instruments, anticipate familiar or favorite parts and even pick up on new surprises. Listening to good music has the same effect as reading a good story: we want to listen over and over to continue enjoying the experience.

After we have experienced a piece, we are open to interpretation. We think about and discuss what the piece means to us, making judgments about it, the instruments and even the composer. It is in this stage that integration takes place. Your objective for your students will determine what activity your students may do after they listen. You may want them to write, draw, create something, or practice their speaking skills. The sky is the limit.

So, how can this help our teaching of reading?  By making parallels between the two skills (listening and reading) students are able to understand a concept more deeply.  When I listen to music each day with my students, we take the time to really delve into a piece.  We discuss it, we listen and we discuss again.  What’s more, is that I verbalize the parallels between listening to music and reading a book or story.  I know that by making these connections, some kids seem to “get it” more.

Understanding how they (the students) listen to music is a step in the direction of understanding how they read.  And when those processes are brought to their attention, the students can practice them and get better at them.  For example, a student who listens to any popular music on the radio (especially one that seems to be repeated many times throughout the day) will  immediately think about the performer(s) as the first notes sound, enjoy the music as it plays and may even think about the song after it is done.  Even a quick, “I love that song,” counts as a reflection of one’s experience.

Music can be a motivating factor in how you get students to understand the process of reading.

For more information about how to bring musical listening experiences into your classroom, see Inspired by Listening.

~EMP

Image from http://www.krisbattles.com/Drawing.html

Related posts:

1. Linking Music to Reading
2. The Music-Literacy Connection
3. Collaboration in Action – Music Listening Experiences

When you think of music, do you think of literacy? Chances are you do not. But the two disciplines have a lot in common and we teachers can take advantage of these similarities to help our students become motivated learners. Over the next few blogs, I would like to explore these ideas and see where it takes us…

Let’s first consider music listening with reading. A while back, I wrote an article entitled “Listen Like you Read” and in it I explored the parallels of reading and active listening to music. For example, when someone reads, there are things they do before, during and after the experience. In fact when we teach reading, our lessons are structured around this format.

The same applies to listening to music. Before you listen, you must know some background about the genre, composer or piece. While you listen, you are concentrating on the experience by becoming familiar with the music as you listen to it many times. After you listen, you interpret what you have just experienced by making judgments about the music.

Knowing the background of the music we listen to can be beneficial. We can learn about the composer, the time in which he/she lived or the style of the piece. Learning about and playing some of the instruments that are used can also provide students with some good vocabulary to use later as well as using vocabulary words learned in music class.

As soon as we begin to read a story we are experiencing it. The same goes for listening. The more we listen to a piece of music, the more we remember main themes, hear the detailed layers of the instruments, anticipate familiar or favorite parts and even pick up on new surprises. Listening to good music has the same effect as reading a good story: we want to listen over and over to continue enjoying the experience.

After we have experienced a piece, we are open to interpretation. We think about and
discuss what the piece means to us, making judgments about it, the instruments and even the composer. It is in this stage that integration takes place. Your objective for your students will determine what activity your students may do after they listen. You may want them to write, draw, create something, or practice their speaking skills. The sky is the limit.

There are other parallels to reading and listening to music. Take read alouds. They are used to share experiences, model good reading strategies and build community. The same is with music. When you share listening experiences with your students you are doing something special with your class.

Click one of the tags from this post to find related posts.