W4_Reading

Integrating Music and Children’s Literature

Calogero, J. (2002). Integrating Music and Children’s Literature. Music Educators Journal, 88(5), 23. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

This week I continued with my reading by selecting four articles specifically related to this music and literacy connection. The first article was entitled, “Integrating Music and Children’s Literature” written by Joanna Calogero, an arts educator in southern New York. Calogero makes it rather clear from the onset that music and literature plays an integral role in helping students learn different ways that ideas and emotions can be expressed creatively. In fact, she goes as far as to say that music helps in allowing students to “make sense of their world and their place in it.” She shares that teachers, rather than isolating each subject, are working to cross disciplines so that connections are made. It is quoted, “Language arts, however, that forms the catalyst binding all the content areas.”

For any teacher, this is a task that requires at least two important parts. First, it requires organization. Calogero suggests going through all of the available music and literature resources and organizing them by themes. It seems that the most practical and efficient way for this connection to take place is by using a thematic approach.

To help with this organization, Calogero offers eight musical categories to organize books.

1. Books that are songs (e.g., “Yankee Doodle” and the “Eensy Weensy Spider”)

2. Songbooks

3. Books in which the important of music is the theme

4. Books, either fictional or nonfictional, about composers or musicians

5. Books, either fictional or nonfictional, about instruments or other musical concepts

6. Books with a natural rhythm, including poetry and picture books with strong patterns or rhythmic sense

7. Books in which aspects of music are included, but are not primary to the story

To conclude her article, she offers an in-depth look at a unit on animals, as well as providing an extensive list of books for classroom use.

Children’s Literature in the Music Classroom: Finding the Music Within

Gauthier, D. (2005). Children's Literature in the Music Classroom: Finding the Music Within. Music Educators Journal, 91(3), 51-56. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

The second article was by Delores Gauthier, an associate professor of music education at Western Michigan University entitled, “Children’s Literature in the music Classroom: Finding the Music Within.” Gauthier clearly pinpoints the value of reading. She says, “Reading to students aids in the understanding of story structure, broadens familiarity with different styles of books, and helps to increase vocabulary. Book language is often different from spoken language, and reading allows students to hear different ways of expressing thoughts.” She later parallels this with how books help the music curriculum, as well. She writes, “Books can help students understand musical structure, become aware of different styles of music, and develop a musical vocabulary and musical skills.”

With this said, Gauthier cautions that it is important to find just the right book. To continue this thought, she offers three suggestions. First, she says that selecting the right book is all about “finding the music within.” The idea here is that some books may not necessarily be written to help students understand musical concepts, but they might be rhythmic nature or could be easily set to a melody. Second, remain open minded about all kinds of books. Third, a book may be useful at various age levels.

The rest of the article focused on various books and their connection with various musical concepts including Barnyard Banter by Denise Fleming, Do You See A Mouse? by Bernard Waber and others.

Using Music to Support the Literacy Development of Young English Language Learners

Paquette, K., & Rieg, S. (2008). Using Music to Support the Literacy Development of Young English Language Learners. Early Childhood Education Journal, 36(3), 227-232. doi:10.1007/s10643-008-0277-9.

The third article by Paquette and Rieg focuses on how music and literacy help English language learners. The article opens with a story that concludes with this statement, “Children’s music is not always like adult music.” This statement is very powerful and thought provoking, to say the least. The point is this—despite a teacher’s level of expertise or musical training every teacher needs to foster creativity through music within his or her classroom.

The authors mention that the first experiences for a child with patterned text usually occur through songs, chants and rhymes. Many children’s songs are repetitive in nature, which obviously allows students the opportunity to hear words over and over again.

It is suggested that songs can be used “to teach a variety of language skills, such as sentence patterns, vocabulary, pronunciation, rhythm, and parts of speech. Prosodic features of the language—stress, rhythm, and intonation—can be presented through song as well.”

In regards to fluency, “paired or partner reading, echo reading, choral reading and phrasing are four instruction strategies often used to improve reading fluency.” These four strategies are connected with music and Paquette and Rieg make it rather clear how they can be implemented. This was perhaps the most beneficial portion for this article seeing that my action research is directed at fluency.

Enhancing learning through multiple intelligences.

Özdemir, P., Güneysu, S., & Tekkaya, C. (2006). Enhancing learning through multiple intelligences. Journal of Biological Education, 40(2), 74-78. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

The final article expands the idea of music interventions to all of Gardner’s multiple intelligences. In fact, this article shares a study conducted with two fourth grade classes where one was instructed utilizing all of the multiple intelligences and the other focused on more traditional methods.

Gardner suggests that the verbal-linguistic and logical-mathematical intelligences seem to have dominated the traditional teaching. However, the other six intelligences, of which music is one, are normally overlooked.

One of the most intriguing aspects of this article was how the dominant intelligences for students seemed to change throughout their school years. The authors give an in-depth look at which intelligences were the highest at the elementary, middle and high school years.

This article has helped me think through the organization and set-up of my own study and how the data will be collected, as well. Needless to say, this week’s reading has been extremely helpful.

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