Thursday, July 29, 2010
Appendix Two B - Music Studies Continued
Young children who take music lessons show different brain development and improved memory over the course of a year, compared to children who do not receive musical training. The brains of musically trained children respond to music in a different way to those of untrained children, and that the musical training improves their memory. After one year the musically trained children performed better in a memory test that is correlated with general intelligence skills such as literacy, verbal memory, Visio spatial processing, mathematics and IQ. Dr. Laurel Trainor, Prof. of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Behaviour at McMaster University, Director of the McMaster Institute for Music and the Mind; Canada; published 9/20/06; http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/09/060920093024.htm
Playing a musical instrument significantly enhances the brainstem’s sensitivity to speech sounds. This relates to encoding skills involved with music and language. Experience with music at a young age can “fine-tune” the brain’s auditory system. – from a study supported by Northwestern University, grants from the National Institutes of Health, and the National Science Foundation. Nina Kraus, director of NWU’s Auditory Neuroscience Laboratory and senior author of the study, which appeared in April 2007 Nature Neuroscience. Other contributing researchers/authors: Patrick Wong, primary author “Musical Experience Shapes Human Brainstem Encoding of Linguistic Pitch Patterns” Other researchers Erika Skoe, Nicole Russo, Tasha Dees; info from www.sciencedaily.com
A study of 31 children found that children who received keyboard instruction for two years beginning at age 3 continued to score higher on spatial-temporal and arithmetic tasks two years after the instruction was terminated (Rauscher & LeMieux, 2003). The age at which children begin instruction appears to affect the duration of extra-musical cognitive outcomes, and longitudinal research suggests that at least two years of music instruction are required for sustained enhancement of spatial abilities (Rauscher, 2002); ERIC Clearinghouse on Early Education and Parenting , Can Music Instruction Affect Children's Cognitive Development? ERIC Digest; Frances H. Rauscher; ERIC Identifier: ED480540, Publication Date: 09/2003. http://www.ericdigests.org/2004-3/cognitive.html
“Academic work is really about certain types of deductive reasoning, and especially some forms of verbal and mathematical reasoning. Developing these abilities is an essential part of education. But if intelligence were limited to academic ability most of human culture would never have happened. There’d be no practical technology, business, music, art, literature, architecture, love, friendship or anything else. These are big ideas to leave out of our common-sense view of intelligence and educational achievement.” Sir Ken Robinson, Senior Advisor, Education Policy, Getty Foundation, in an Arts and Minds: Conversations about the Arts interview; Education Commission of the States, April 2005 How Creativity, Education and the Arts Shape a Modern Economy; http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/60/51/6051.pdf
SUCCESS IN LIFE
Each of us wants our children — and the children of all those around us — to achieve success in school, success in employment, and success in the social structures through which we move. But we also want our children to experience “success” on a broader scale. Participation in music, often as not based on grounding in music education during the formative school years, brings countless benefits to each individual throughout life. The benefits may be psychological or spiritual, and they may be physical as well. – MENC
To put it simply, we need to keep the arts in education because they instill in students the habits of mind that last a lifetime: critical analysis skills, the ability to deal with ambiguity and to solve problems, perseverance and a drive for excellence. Moreover, the creative skills children develop through the arts carry them toward new ideas, new experiences, and new challenges, not to mention personal satisfaction. This is the intrinsic value of the arts, and it cannot be overestimated. -- Education Week, Issue 20, vol. 24, pg. 40, 52; Jan 26, 2005, Rod Paige (former U.S. Secretary of Education), Mike Huckabee, former Governor of Arkansas, Education Commission of the States Chairman (www.ecs.org), Chairman’s Initiative on the Arts in Education
“The arts are not just affective and expressive. They are also deeply cognitive. They develop the tools of thinking itself: careful observation of the world, mental representation of what is observed or imagined, abstraction from complexity, pattern recognition and development, symbolic and metaphoric representation, and qualitative judgment. We use these same thinking tools in science, philosophy, math and history. The advantage of the arts is that they link cognitive growth to social and emotional development. Students care more deeply about what they study, they see the links between subjects and their lives, their thinking capacities grow, they work more diligently, and they learn from each other.” -- Nick Rabkin, Executive Director of the Center for Arts Policy, Columbia College Chicago; Robin Redmond, associate director of CAP. “The Art of Education Success”, Washington Post, January 8, 2005, pg. A19
An education rich in the arts and humanities develops skills that are increasingly crucial to the productivity and competitiveness of the nation’s workforce: the ability to think creatively, communicate effectively and work collaboratively, and to deal with ambiguity and complexity. Just as important, exposure to the arts and humanities fosters cultural literacy: the ability to understand and appreciate other cultures, perspectives and traditions; to read and understand music and literature; to craft a letter or essay; to design a Web site; and to discern the “hidden persuaders” in a political or commercial advertisement. Arts and humanities education also develops skills necessary to participate in one of the fastest-growing, economically significant set of occupations and industries in the American economy – the arts, cultural and intellectual property section. The “creative workforce” – which includes traditional artist categories (dancers, musicians, painters, actors, photographers, authors), as well as individuals employed in advertising, architecture, fashion design, film, video, music, publishing and software development – is growing at a rate more than double that for the rest of the nation’s workforces. -- Summary of paper by Prof. Ann M. Galligan, Northeastern University, in her paper “Creativity, Culture, Education and the Workforce”, Center for Arts and Culture, December 2001, www.culturalpolicy.org; summary provided/written by Suzanne Weiss, in the “Progress of Education Reform 2004: The Arts in Education”; vol. 5, no. 1, January 2004, Education Commission of the States; http://www.ecs.org/clearinghouse/49/91/4991.pdf
While many executives turn to golf, tennis or boating for recreation, some unwind by making music together. They may be members of relatively large organizations like the Park Avenue Chamber Symphony, whose 55 members are almost all executives, or of smaller outfits, like a rock ‘n roll band or a jazz ensemble. Beyond the pure pleasure the music brings, some executives say, there can be chances to advance a career. And creating a performance can help executives develop basic management skills. “If you are in an improv jazz ensemble or a small chamber group, you learn to think fast on your feet and how to be flexible and to collaborate and compromise, and that may yield a creative outcome.” (J. Richard Hackman, a professor of organizational psychology at Harvard University who has studied symphony orchestras). Amy Zipkin, “Learning Teamwork by Making Music”, for the New York Times, 11/16/03.
“I dream of a day when every child in America will have in his or her hand a musical instrument, be it a clarinet, a drumstick or a guitar. And I dream of a day when there’s no state legislature that would even consider cutting funding for music and the arts because they realize that it’s a life skill that changes the lives of students and gives them not only better academic capability, but it makes them better people. We sometimes forget that many of us in this room, including this guy standing right in front of you, would not be where he is today if not for having music introduced in my life because it gave me the understanding of teamwork, discipline and focus.” -- Mike Huckabee, Former Arkansas Governor; NAMM University Breakfast Sessions 2007, NAMM Playback Magazine, Spring 2007, pg. 36; www.namm.com
“Music has a great power for bringing people together. With so many forces in this world acting to drive wedges between people, it’s important to preserve those things that help us experience our common humanity.” – Ted Turner, Turner Broadcasting System
“Music is one way for young people to connect with themselves, but it is also a bridge for connecting with others. Through music, we can introduce children to the richness and diversity of the human family and to the myriad rhythms of life.” – Daniel A. Carp, Eastman Kodak Company Chairman and CEO
“Casals says music fills him with the wonder of life and the ‘incredible marvel’ of being a human. Ives says it expands his mind and challenges him to be a true individual. Bernstein says it is enriching and ennobling. To me, that sounds like a good cause for making music and the arts an integral part of every child’s education. Studying music and the arts elevates children’s education, expands students’ horizons, and teaches them to appreciate the wonder of life.” – U.S. Secretary of Education Richard W. Riley, July 1999
“The life of the arts, far from being an interruption, a distraction, in the life of the nation, is close to the center of a nation's purpose - and is a test to the quality of a nation's civilization.” – John F. Kennedy
I have made a career doing things that weren't even invented when I graduated from high school 40 years ago. It will be the same for today's graduates, only on a sharply accelerating timeline. Much of what I learned in the classroom is obsolete or, at best, only marginally useful. What has made a difference in my life has been the ability to learn as I go, to adapt to new ideas, to have the courage to take risks, and to feel confident I will be able to perform and successfully meet the challenges of new situations. These skills I learned through participation in band and drama. - Fred Behning retired from IBM Corporation after a 32-year career that included assignments in systems engineering, product development, management, and customer technology briefings, and is still an IBM consultant. A life-long musician, Fred plays oboe and English horn in the Williamson County Symphony Orchestra and the Austin Symphonic Band. http://www.supportmusic.com
Appendix Two - Music Studies of working with core subjects
MENC: MUSIC EDUCATORS NATIONAL CONFERENCE
The National Association of Music Education.
WHY MUSIC EDUCATION? 2007
FACTS AND INSIGHTS ON THE BENEFITS OF MUSIC STUDY
(formerly “Benefits of Music” brochure and “Music Education Facts and Figures”)
Facts updated by MENC Staff, Summer 2007. When using specific facts/quotes, please be sure to cite the individual source that follows each item. Other text authored by MENC Staff. When citing MENC (non-fact) portions of this document, please cite as: MENC—The National Association for Music Education, Why Music Education? 2007. Further questions (or for information on research studies prior to 2004), contact info@menc2.org. Also see: Supportmusic.com; MusicFriends; Music for All; Education Commission of the States; Arts Education Partnership; The Sounds of Learning Project, NAMM; and MENC Advocacy and Public Policy.
“Every student in the nation should have an education in the arts.” This is the opening statement of “The Value and Quality of Arts Education: A Statement of Principles, http://www.menc.org/resources/view/why-music-education-2007” a document from the nation’s ten most important educational organizations, including the American Association of School Administrators, the National Education Association, the National Parent Teacher Association, and the National School Boards Association.
The basic statement is unlikely to be challenged by anyone involved in education. In the sometimes harsh reality of limited time and funding for instruction, however, the inclusion of the arts in every student’s education can sometimes be relegated to a distant wish rather than an exciting reality.
It doesn’t have to be that way! All that’s needed is a clear message sent to all those who must make the hard choices involved in running a school or school system. The basic message is that music programs in the schools help our kids and communities in real and substantial ways. You can use the following facts about the benefits of music education, based on a growing body of convincing research, to move decision-makers to make the right choices.
The benefits conveyed by music education can be grouped in four categories:
When presented with the many and manifest benefits of music education, officials at all levels should universally support a full, balanced, sequential course of music instruction taught by qualified teachers. And every student will have an education in the arts.
- MENC: The National Association for Music Education
SUCCESS IN SOCIETY
Perhaps the basic reason that every child must have an education in music is that music is a part of the fabric of our society. The intrinsic value of music for each individual is widely recognized in the many cultures that make up American life — indeed, every human culture uses music to carry forward its ideas and ideals. The importance of music to our economy is without doubt. And the value of music in shaping individual abilities and character are evident. – MENC
Data show that high earnings are not just associated with people who have high technical skills. In fact, mastery of the arts and humanities is just as closely correlated with high earnings, and, according to our analysis, that will continue to be true. History, music, drawing, and painting, and economics will give our students an edge just as surely as math and science will. – Tough Choices or Tough Times: The report of the new commission on the skills of the American workforce, 2007, page 29; www.skillscommission.org
The arts provide one alternative for states looking to build the workforce of tomorrow - a choice growing in popularity and esteem. The arts can provide effective learning opportunities to the general student population, yielding increased academic performance, reduced absenteeism, and better skill building. An even more compelling advantage is the striking success of arts-based educational programs among disadvantaged populations, especially at-risk and incarcerated youth. For at-risk youth, that segment of society most likely to suffer from limited lifetime productivity, the arts contribute to lower recidivism rates; increased self-esteem; the acquisition of job skills; and the development of much needed creative thinking, problem solving and communications skills. Involvement in the arts is one avenue by which at-risk youth can acquire the various competencies necessary to become economically self-sufficient over the long term, rather than becoming a financial strain on their states and communities. – The Impact of Arts Education on Workforce Preparation, May 2002, The National Governors Association; http://www.nga.org/cda/files/050102ARTSED.pdf
The abilities associated with the humanities and the arts are vital, both to the health of individual nations and to the creation of a decent world culture. These include the ability to think critically, to transcend local loyalties and to approach international problems as a “citizen of the world”. And, perhaps most important, the ability to imagine sympathetically the predicament of another person. One of the best ways to cultivate sympathy is through instruction in literature, music, theatre, fine arts and dance.
When people put on a play or a dance piece together, they learn to cooperate – and find they must go beyond tradition and authority if they are going to express themselves well. The sort of community created by the arts is non-hierarchical – a model of the responsiveness and interactivity that a good democracy will also foster in its political processes. And not the least, the arts can be a great source of joy. Participation in plays, songs and dances fills children with happiness that can carry over into the rest of their education.
We need to favor an education that cultivates the critical capacities, that fosters a complex understanding of the world and its peoples and that educates and refines the capacity for sympathy. In short, an education that cultivates human beings rather than producing useful machines. If we do not insist on the crucial importance of the humanities and the arts, they will drop away. They don’t make money; but they do something far more precious; they make the world worth living in.
– Martha Nussbaum, Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, University of Chicago; Newsweek International, August 21 – 18, 2006; “Teaching Humanity”; http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14322948/print/1/displaymode/1098/
Secondary students who participated in band or orchestra reported the lowest lifetime and current use of all substances (alcohol, tobacco, illicit drugs). – Texas Commission on Drug and Alcohol Abuse Report. Reported in Houston Chronicle, January 1998
The U.S. Department of Education lists the arts as subjects that college-bound middle and junior high school students should take, stating "Many colleges view participation in the arts and music as a valuable experience that broadens students’ understanding and appreciation of the world around them. It is also well known and widely recognized that the arts contribute significantly to children’s intellectual development." In addition, one or two years of Visual and Performing Arts is recommended for college-bound high school students. – Getting Ready for College Early: A Handbook for Parents of Students in the Middle and Junior High School Years, U.S. Department of Education, 1997; http://www.ed.gov/pubs/GettingReadyCollegeEarly/step2.html
The fact that choral singing is a communal activity is especially significant today when we increasingly rely on internet-based communications, rather than face-to-face interaction. Several recent studies have shown a significant decline in civic engagement in our communities. Robert Putnam, Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government scholar, asserts that the significance of choral singing goes beyond music making, and even beyond the arts. He sees group performing as contributing directly to the social trust and reciprocity that is the basis of civic engagement. His work shows that the mere existence of choral groups helps foster America’s democratic culture…
Chorus America found that choral singers are far more likely to be involved in charity work, as volunteers and as donors (76 %), than the average person (44% according to a 2001 report by Independent Sector). Choral singers are also more than twice as likely as non-participants to be aware of current events and involved in the political process. They are also twice as likely as the general public to be major consumers of other arts – and not just music. – America’s Performing Art: A Study of Choruses, Choral Singers, and their Impact (Chorus Impact Study, 2003); www.chorusamerica.org
SUCCESS IN SCHOOL AND LEARNING
Success in society, of course, is predicated on success in school. Any music teacher or parent of a music student can call to mind anecdotes about effectiveness of music study in helping children become better students. Skills learned through the discipline of music, these stories commonly point out, transfer to study skills, communication skills, and cognitive skills useful in every part of the curriculum. Another common variety of story emphasizes the way that the discipline of music study — particularly through participation in ensembles — helps students learn to work effectively in the school environment. – MENC
The term ‘core academic subjects’ means English, reading or language arts, mathematics, science, foreign languages, civics and government, economics, arts, history, and geography.”
– No Child Left Behind Act of 2002, Title IX, Part A, Sec. 9101 (11)
“When I hear people asking how do we fix the education system, I tell them we need to do the opposite of what is happening, cutting budgets by cutting music programs…. Nothing could be stupider than removing the ability for the left and right brains to function. Ask a CEO what they are looking for in an employee and they say they need people who understand teamwork, people who are disciplined, people who understand the big picture. You know what they need? They need musicians.” – Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee, MENC Centennial Congress, Orlando, Florida, June 2007
Schools that have music programs have significantly higher graduation rates than do those without programs (90.2% as compared to 72.9%). In addition, those that rate their programs as “excellent” or “very good” have an even higher graduation rate (90.9%). Schools that have music programs have significantly higher attendance rates than do those without programs (93.3% as compared to 84.9%). --Harris Interactive poll of high school principals conducted Spring 2006; funded by MENC and NAMM. For more info, contact info@menc2.org.
Students in high-quality school music programs score higher on standardized tests compared to students in schools with deficient music education programs, regardless of the socioeconomic level of the school or school district. Students in top-quality music programs scored 22% better in English and 20% better in math than students in deficient music programs. Students in top-quality instrumental programs scored 19% higher in English than students in schools without a music program. Students in top quality instrumental programs scored 17% higher in math than children in schools without a music program. Students at schools with excellent music programs had higher English and math test scores across the country than students in schools with low-quality music programs. Students in all regions with lower-quality instrumental programs scored higher in English and math than students who had no music at all. – MENC Journal of Research in Music Education, Winter 2006, vol. 54, No. 4, pgs. 293- 307; “Examination of Relationship between Participation in School Music Programs of Differing Quality and Standardized Test Results” Christopher M. Johnson and Jenny E. Memmott, University of Kansas
Students of the arts continue to outperform their non-arts peers on the SAT, according to reports by the College Entrance Examination Board. In 2006, SAT takers with coursework/experience in music performance scored 57 points higher on the verbal portion of the test and 43 points higher on the math portion than students with no coursework or experience in the arts. Scores for those with coursework in music appreciation were 62 points higher on the verbal and 41 points higher on the math portion. – The Student Descriptive Questionnaire, a self-reported component of the SAT that gathers information about students’ academic preparation, gathered data for these reports. Source: The College Board, Profile of College-Bound Seniors National Report for 2006; www.collegeboard.com
Schools that have higher levels of student participation in the fine arts receive higher academic ratings and have lower drop out rates. Average student enrollment in fine arts courses is 17 percent points higher in high schools that are rated “exemplary” than in those rated “low performing”, based on data from the Texas Education Agency on 951 high schools. Schools with the lowest drop out rates on average have 52% of their students enrolled in fine arts classes while schools with the highest drop out rates have only 42% of their students in fine arts courses. The data from 864 middle schools followed the same trend as high schools. – Analysis conducted by the Texas Coalition for Quality Arts Education and the Texas Music Educators Association (www.tmea.org). Full report: www.music-for-all.org/WME/documents/TexasArtsStudy.pdf
Nearly 100% of past winners in the prestigious Siemens Westinghouse Competition in Math, Science and Technology (for high school students) play one or more musical instruments. This led the Siemens Foundation to host a recital at Carnegie Hall in 2004, featuring some of these young people, after which a panel of experts debated the nature of the apparent science/music link. – The Midland Chemist (American Chemical Society) Vol. 42, No.1, Feb. 2005
The Georgia Project found that school districts in Georgia that made staffing and funding of their arts programs a priority tended to have higher overall rates of student participation in the arts, and higher rates of arts student retention. Such districts tend to have lower dropout rates in grades 9 – 12 and thus keep their students in school longer and graduate more of them. Students tended to score higher on achievement and performance tests, such as the SAT and Georgia High School Graduation Test. They tended to graduate more of their students with college prep diplomas, percentages increasing with diversity of arts curriculum and percent of students participating. While these findings do not prove a cause and effect relationship, they do indicate “strong arts programs need not come at the expense of academic achievement. Rather, the arts are an important factor in achieving academic excellence.” – Executive Summary, The Georgia Project: A Status Report on Arts Education in the State of Georgia, 2004; Dr. John Benham, President, Music in World Cultures Program, Bethel University, St. Paul, MN
“Music is an extremely rich kind of experience in the sense that it requires cognition, it requires emotion, it requires aesthetics, it develops performance skills, individual capabilities. These things have to be developed and all have to be synchronized and integrated so that, as a person learns music, they stretch themselves mentally in a variety of ways. What we are finding is that the kind of mental stretching that takes place can be of value more generally, that is, to help children in learning other things. And these other things, in turn, can help them in the learning of music, so that there is a dialogue between the different kinds of learning.” – from the Music in Education National Consortium, Journal for Learning through Music, Second Issue, Summer 2003, “What Makes Music Work for Public Education?” - pg. 87 Dr. Martin F. Gardiner, Brown University; http://www.music-in-education.org/
Harvard Project Zero (http://pzweb.harvard.edu/) researcher Larry Scripp investigated how intensive music study could serve as the basis for academic excellence. His research at Conservatory Lab Charter School (http://www.conservatorylab.org/learning.html) attempted to identify innovative ways to incorporate music into the curriculum and then measure its impact. Among his findings: notational skills in music, not musical performance, correlate positively with achievement in math and reading. According to Scripp, “The ability to process musical symbols and representations, a skill relegated to the training of the talented few in the past, is a leading predictor of music’s association with learning in other subject areas”. He also found that musical pitch is more predictive of mathematical ability while rhythm is more predictive of reading ability. James Catterall (Prof. of Education, UCLA) stated, in response to Scripp, that “since our education systems ideally focus on academic and social development, the arts should legitimately be considered in the array of potential instructional strategies contributing to these goals”. -- EXCERPTED from Terry Teitelbaum, Stephanie F. Gillis, “Arts Education: A Review of the Literature”, Blueprint Research and Design, Inc.; prepared for the Performing Arts Program of the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, 11/03, updated 2/04)
http://www.hewlett.org SUCCESS IN DEVELOPING INTELLIGENCE Success in school and in society depends on an array of abilities. Without joining the intense ongoing debate about the nature of intelligence as a basic ability, we can demonstrate that some measures of a child’s intelligence are indeed increased with music instruction. Once again, this burgeoning range of data supports a long-established base of anecdotal knowledge to the effect that music education makes kids smarter. What is new and especially compelling, however, is a combination of tightly controlled behavioral studies and groundbreaking neurological research that show how music study can actively contribute to brain development. – MENC
Results of an IQ test given to groups of children (total: 144) who were provided with lessons in keyboard, voice, drama or no lessons at all, showed that the IQ of students in the keyboard or voice classes increased from their pre-lesson IQ score, more than the IQ of those students taking drama or no lessons. Generally these increases occurred across IQ subtests, index scores, and academic achievement. -- Summary by MENC; Original source: August 2004, Psychological Science, a journal of the American Psychological Society; http://www.psychologicalscience.org/pdf/ps/musiciq.pdf; Dr. E. Glenn Schellenberg (University of Toronto)
Children with music training had significantly better verbal memory than those without such training, and the longer the training, the better the verbal memory. Researchers studied 90 boys between the ages of 6 and 15. Half had musical training as members of their school's string orchestra program, plus lessons in playing classical music on Western instruments like the flute or violin for one to five years. The other 45 students had no training. Students with musical training recalled more words in a verbal memory test than did untrained students, and after a 30-minute delay, students with training also retained more words than the control group. In a follow-up one year later, students who continued training and beginners who had just started learning to play both showed improvement in verbal learning and retention. -- Summary by MENC. Original source: Ho, Y. C., Cheung, M. C., & Chan, A. Music training improves verbal but not visual memory: cross-sectional and longitudinal explorations in children (2003) Neuropsychology, 12, 439-450.
A 2004 Stanford University study showed that mastering a musical instrument improves the way the human brain processes parts of spoken language. In two studies, researchers demonstrated that people with musical experience found it easier than non-musicians to detect small differences in word syllables. They also discovered that musical training helps the brain work more efficiently in distinguishing split-second differences between rapidly changing sounds that are essential to processing language. About 40 adults, divided into groups of musicians and non-musician, matched by age, sex, general language ability and intelligence, were tested. To qualify, the musicians need to have started playing instruments before age 7 and never stopped, practicing several hours/week. Functional magnetic resonance imaging showed the musicians had more focused, efficient brain activity. “This is the first example showing how musical training alters how your brain processes language components.” – Prof. John Gabrieli, former Stanford psychology professor, now associate director of MIT’s Athinoula A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging. (http://news.stanford.edu/, Nov. 2005)
CONTINUE NEXT APPENDIX 2 B
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Sunday, July 25, 2010
Literature Review
Comprehending Vocabulary in the Elementary Music Education Classroom
Stahl, S. A., & McKenna, M.C. (2006, June). Assessment for Reading Instruction, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy. Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement. Retrieved June 10, 2020. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3336/is_2_29/ai_n29273692/.
Literature Review by Karen G. Smith
Introduction
Elementary music students traditionally have music class 30 minutes, once a week. The Music Standards, written by music specialists, through the Florida Department of Education, gives specific subjects to teach. The only vocabulary listed in the standards is music vocabulary, but no mention of words included in lyrics, stories and poems. Music specialists document the introduction and mastery of standards for each student. The Standards are broken into 4 sections, and within a section, there are Grade Level Expectations, listed for each grade, with a realistic amount of the subject to master in each grade (see Appendix One). These are wonderful, well written standards yet, nowhere in the standards does it say the students need to understand what they are singing. The only vocabulary comprehension mentioned is music vocabulary.
One day, singing the American Folk Song, Old Dan Tucker, boys began lassoing, like a cowboy, and this was repeated in many classes. It always began during the third verse:
Old Dan Tucker came to town, swinging the ladies all around
Circle to the right, circle to the left, kiss the girl that you love best. (Sing Chorus)
When asked why they were doing this, the boys said they were “swinging the ladies all around”, by the hair or a leg. They did not understand he was square dancing. This literature review asks three questions: Why should we teach students to comprehend the vocabulary of the lyrics of the songs? How can we teach the lyrics vocabulary in the small amount of time we have to teach, not only that, but all the required studies listed in the standards? Is it important to teach the students the vocabulary comprehension of the songs, or should we just teach the music skills we are already required to teach?
Why we should teach students to comprehend vocabulary of the lyrics of songs.
Donaldson (2008) wrote a paper, Robust Vocabulary Instruction, which is one of the most complete, concise papers with facts and figures listing why children should be taught vocabulary in all classes, including music. One of the most startling sets of figures states children, age 4, have various amounts of vocabulary already known before starting Kindergarten. Children from professional families usually know 1,100 words, working class children know 700 words and children from families on welfare know only 500 words. The Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement reports Printed School English contains approximately 88,000 different words and the average child, by graduation, may know half of them, approximately 45,000 words. Children enter first grade knowing about 6,000 words and learn 3,000 words each year, but only 300 from actual instruction. Active teaching can cover about 400 words per year. This is the foundation of why we should teach vocabulary to students. The students also have Dolch and Fry word lists, which are sight words the students should know by certain points in their elementary school years.
According to Bromley (2007) students learn vocabulary best when they are first read to out loud. By reviewing the lyrics of the songs, the students hear the words, which is the first step for comprehension. An important part of learning is comprehension of vocabulary. Learning prefixes, suffixes and basic roots of common words is another valuable form of learning basic vocabulary. The students may decode words they have never seen by knowing parts of the words and what they mean.
Piro and Ortiz (2009) reports involving music education with training in increasingly complex rhythmic, tonal and practical skills that have superior cognitive performance in reading skills compared to non-musically educated peers. They also found music education helps with cognition and enhances performance in language and literacy. This study looked at two very specific sub-skills in reading: vocabulary and verbal sequencing, which are vital in the continuum of the development of literacy and is essential in a successful acquisition of proficient reading and language skills, such as decoding and reading comprehension. The students who studied music did significantly better in testing of vocabulary and verbal sequencing than the students who did not receive music instruction. Many other studies and a letter from the Secretary of the US Department of Education (Appendix 2) and (Appendix 3) have shown positive links between music education and other abilities, such as linguistics and mathematics in children Reis (2007) reported on teaching vocabulary comprehension using schoolbooks, workbooks and textbooks, versus books and other forms of literature, songs, and poems the students were interested in. It showed the students using the works of interest tested very high in comprehension, as opposed to the control group using the regular text and workbooks. Clearly, if the students are given works of interest, they will want to comprehend the vocabulary so they can understand what they are reading.
Teaching vocabulary comprehension in quick, concise lessons.
Martin (2009) found that analyzing poetry to music, listening to instrumental music while reading, memorizing important facts by setting them to music and learning how to do various skills while music is playing, was a good way to utilize music in the classroom. Spear-Spurling’s (2006) stated if children are unfamiliar with word meanings, the reading comprehension will suffer. She gave the example of reading the word scarlet, being able to pronounce it, yet not knowing it meant bright red, would make the comprehension suffer. She found the sooner students were given the meanings of words, the earlier students comprehended words and with better results.
According to MENC: Music Educators National Conference’s website (2006), teachers were asked what were their schedules in school and as of May, it showed there are many varied schedules, but most elementary music educators have 25-30 minutes per week with the students. In some of the larger schools, music classes may be held once every 2 weeks for 30 to 40 minutes.
Rasinski (2007) stated oral reading, which includes singing, poetry, and other forms of speech done solo or in chorus, could help with comprehension of vocabulary. He found studies showed some children learn better using all 3 basic styles of learning: aural, oral, and kinesthetic. By reading the words as they sing or speak, they see them, they hear them, and if they can use their finger to point to the word, it gives them the benefit of all 3 styles. Some children succeed better with other tactile objects such as the whisper phone, which can be a PVC pipe in a C shape. When the child whispers into it, sound comes back into their ear, so the word is reinforced by saying it, pointing to it and hearing their own voice in their ear.
The importance of teaching peripheral vocabulary comprehension in music class.
Bromley (2007) stated there are very important reasons for learning vocabulary. She says seventy percent of English words have more than one meaning and it helps to learn various meanings, and not just the one in a particular song, story, or poem. She used the word hand as an example of multiple: body part below wrist, cards dealt someone in a game, applause, and to give someone something.
Congos (2005) of the University of Central Florida wrote an article about mnemonics, stating there are 9 main categories of mnemonics, including music, name, expression/word, and ode/rhyme that are easily incorporated into the elementary music classes. Mnemonics memory devices that help learners remember larger pieces of information, have some categories easily used and taught in music class and can help students with various vocabulary. He found that people who used mnemonics tested 77% better than people without any mnemonic devices.
Some music mnemonics include songs such as the “ABC” song, “50 Nifty United States” and Ode/Rhyme mnemonics, such as “30 Days Hath September”, “In 1492, Columbus sailed the ocean blue”; “I before E, except after C, or when sounding like A in neighbor and weigh”. It is also used in made up names, such as “Roy G. Biv” to remember the colors of the rainbow. Each of these is quite helpful with memorization of various vocabularies. Congos suggested if one has something to memorize and is having trouble, make up a mnemonic to fit the words that need to be memorized.
Hayes (2009) discussed the use of Mnemonics with music, tunes, rhymes or poems to remember things. Because mnemonics helps to learn something, it seems to be in the broad topic of learning vocabulary. She wrote that children learn many things if they can sing it. It has been shown again and again that it works. (see Appendix Four) Children learned multiplication tables and the Presidents of the United States, by singing them. Mesaros and Virtanen (2009) did a study on recognition of lyrics of songs and one thing that came out the study is that 57% of the time, there are errors in what people understand that is being sung. The people hear one thing, but it says another, so, without written words, many people confuse what words are actually sung.
(PAEC, 2007) In a study done on concurrent development of phonological awareness, word recognition, and spelling, they discovered first graders were seeing letters and making up words that made sense to fit in the sentence. Many times, the children concentrated on the first letters listed and immediately made up words that began with that letter. As the year progressed, they began to look at more of the word, and using the spelling and the sounds, still made up words, but this time, tried much harder until they finally read the word correctly.
Conclusion
Children overwhelmingly prefer to learn tedious academic material through music, songs, pictures, video, and games. Through these mediums, they actively listen, watch, participate, and effortlessly memorize. If the content is taught through a tune or melody they already know, a picture or video clip they recognize, and are taught with explicit strategies for recall, students are able to utilize them as needed during tests, quizzes or simply when answering questions or in conversation. Since time is an element always in demand, learning vocabulary works so much better when the students are able to learn in a fun and efficient way.
References
Barr, Robert, Dr. (2007). The Kids Left Behind Leadership Conference Series. PAEC-Panhandle Area Educational Council. Retrieved July 21, 2010 from http://www.paec.org/courses.
Bromley, Karen. (2007, April). Nine Things Every Teacher Should Know About Words and Vocabulary Instruction. International Reading Association, Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 50(7), 528-537. Retrieved from International Reading Association. doi:10.1598/JAAL.50.7.2
Congos, Dennis. (2005, January 24). 9 Types of Mnemonics for Better Memory, The Learning Center Exchange, AccuTrack and NCLCA. Retrieved June 15, 2010, from
Donaldson, Rebecca. (2008, November 8). Robust Vocabulary Instruction. Speech presented at the UCIRA-Utah Council of International Reading Association, Salt Lake City, Utah. [Transcript]. Retrieved from http://www.utahreading.org/pages/conference/ConferenceHandouts/Robustl%20Vocabulary%20Instruction.ppt%20UCIRA%202oo8.pdf
Florida Department of Education. (2010). Sunshine State Standards of Music with Grade Level Expectations. Retrieved from the Florida Department of Education Standards. http://www.fldoe.org/bii/curriculum/sss/pdf/musicglek-2.pdf.
Hayes, Orla C. (2009). The Use of Melodic and Rhythmic Mnemonics, Dominican University of California, San Rafael, CA. ; To Improve Memory and Recall in Elementary Students in the Content Areas. Retrieved June 6, 2010, from http://www.dominican.edu/academics/education/seed/filestorage/hayesorla.pdf
Music Educators National Conference. (2006, May). May 2006 MENC Online Sched
uling Survey. Retrieved from http://www.menc.org/resources/view/may-2006-menc-online-scheduling-survey.
Martin, K., (2009, December). Music and Memory: Integrating Music Into the Curriculum to Aid in the Learning and Memorization of Concepts and Facts. Retrieved from Sierra Nevada College web site: http://www.sierranevada.edu/UserFiles/file/TED/THESES_FA_09/Kathleen%20Martin.pdf
Mesaros, A., & Virtanen, T., (2009, November 23). Automatic Recognition of Lyrics in Singing, Journal on Audio, Speech and Music Processing. www.hindawi.com/journals/asmp/2010/546047.html. doi:10.1155/2010/546047.
Piro, J., & Ortiz, C., (2009, March 16). Music Education Can Help Children Improve Reading Skills. Retrieved from Science Daily Web Site: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090316075843.htm
Rasinski, T., (2007). The Fluent Reader: Oral Reading Strategies for Building Word Recognition, The Elementary School Journal, Volume 108, Number 1. Retrieved from
Reis, S.M., McCoach, D.B., Coyne, M., Schreiber, F.J., Eckert, R., Gubbins, E. J., (2009, December 1). Songs for Teaching: Using Music to Promote Learning. The Elementary School Journal, Retrieved June 23, 2009.
Resource Materials and Technology Center for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing. (n.d.) from CIERA: Why Teach Vocabulary/Why Teach Sight Words? Retrieved July 11, 2010, from http://rmtc.fsdb.k12.fl.us/literacy/vocabulary.html
Stahl, S. A., & McKenna, M.C. (2006, June). Assessment for Reading Instruction, Australian Journal of Language and Literacy. Center for the Improvement of Early Reading Achievement. Retrieved June 10, 2020. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb3336/is_2_29/ai_n29273692/.
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