Music in the Classroom

During my early years of teaching, I didn’t implement musical arts in my classroom. I might have brought my guitar in class during winter holidays but aside from that, that was about it.

It was not until I had the opportunity to attend an Eric Jenson workshop that I fully realized the powerful impact of music on the brain and student achievement

I slowly began to incorporate music into the curriculum. I first started with a “call back” song. Now, when my students were involved in activities such as cooperative learning, partner work or brain storming, or whatever it was, and I wanted them to return back to their seats, I would play the call back song – which was “Brown-eyed girl.”

So, what would happen when my kids heard the beginning of the song, they would automatically stop talking, gather up their materials and quickly (without running) make their way back to their seats. And of course, this was practiced over and over until it became second nature.

After my students got the call back song down pat, I introduced music (with lyrics) as children entered the classroom in the morning and departed school in the afternoon. I kept this up for a few days, and once I felt comfortable, I introduced music (no lyrics) during independent reading time. 

Then after about a week or so, I introduced music during partner work and brainstorming activities.

Before too long I was playing music a good part of the school day. I guess this whole process took me less than 30 days to implement. I found it to be one of the best things I ever did for my students. And they really enjoyed it as well.

I would recommend that you not rush into implementing music in the classroom all at once. Take your time—and only add music as you feel comfortable doing so.

Kids today are exposed almost constantly to music of various kinds on television, in malls and office buildings, on their own cellphones or computers. As movie makers know, music can set the mood for any scene. Playing music during classes can change the atmosphere of the class from noisy to quiet, from chaotic to organized. It is an important tool that is not used as much as it could be by teachers.

The next thing that I want to address is the beats per minute or BPM. The BPM is likely to have real effects on student learning and the mood in the classroom. Like a conductor, you can orchestrate the mood of the class.

Theoretically, listener’s physical heartbeats may change to sync up with the musical beat. Scientists have recorded brain changes with differing beats. Again, try to match the BPM appropriately to the task or activity you want students to do while the music plays.

Now, as far as the type of music that I played in the classroom, it was mostly from Eric Jenson’s CD Collections of Music.

Jensen has become internationally recognized for his brain based” publications for teachers. He links current brain research with strategies to improve student achievement. Music is one of the key tools he uses to stimulate positive feelings in the classroom.

He suggests considering the emotional state you are trying to elicit, the age of the listener and the types of music that that are most familiar to them. Songs with words should be reserved for special occasions or games; Jensen suggests relying mainly on instrumental music of various kinds.

To celebrate the start or completion of tasks, something upbeat can get students inspired. For lengthy writing tasks, calming music with a slow rhythm can aid concentration.

Accordance to various brain studies, beats per minute can have profound effects on the human body and brain. Jensen writes:

“Songs in the 35-50 BPM range will be more calming, while those in the middle 55-70 BPM will be more moderate for seat work. For activities, the pace might be 70-100 for energizers, maybe 100-160 BPM will REALLY rev things up.”

Lyrical music is best when the activity does not involve memory formation, for example: lining up, cleaning up, finding a partner, greeting students at the door, exiting the class, etc.

Music with no lyrics is best played at low volume when engaging in executive functioning for example: reading, writing, math problem solving, group discussions—things of that nature.

Now once I finished the workshop I bought a $600 BOSE IPOD Sound Dock System that I had used regularity in the classroom. Now I would not recommend that new teachers spend that kind of money initially.

I would suggest going to Wal-Mart and picking up a CD player for around $25 – or if your school offers Audio-Visual equipment, to request that a CD player be made available in your class every day.

Alternatively, you can attach good speakers to a computer or smartphone – just be sure they can put out sufficient volume to be heard by a classroom full of excited, noisy kids!

The point here is that it is not the cost of the system but rather that appropriate music can assist students with a given activity and you will want to be able to access music as a teaching tool at any time.

Like I mentioned earlier, I’d recommend that you gradually introduce music into the classroom to coincide with your instruction. Music itself and the technical issues to get it playing can become distractions. Start with a few minutes a day and gradually increase the use of music as you begin to feel comfortable with its use.

My friend, we barely skimmed the surface with respect to the advantages of implementing musical arts in teaching your curriculum. There is an excellent book by Eric Jensen that I’d like to recommend to you that is chock-full of valuable information and studies. The book is: Music with the Brain in Mind – it is an excellent read.

I will conclude by saying that one could fill volumes when making the case for musical arts in the classroom. There’s overwhelming evidence that music is central to learning. It impacts academic achievement, motor and social skills and much, much more.

  

Teaching your students question answer relationships [QAR]

You may wonder why one would even use this strategy at all. Well, first and foremost it  

greatly improves your students’ reading comprehension. It helps students think about

the text that they are reading. It teaches students how to ask questions and lastly, encourages students

to think creatively and challenges them to use higher order thinking skills. 

Now there are 4 types of questions that students will encounter that I want to talk about.

The first is “Right there” QARs -- These are answers that are literally right there in the

text. Example: the question might be: “What color was the boy’s bike?” Well, when you

refer back to the text, you find that the boy’s bike was red. Well, that would be a right

there answer, because the answer is literally right there.  Making sense?

Next, we come to “Think & search” QAR’s. Now you find the answers to think and

search QAR’s by reading through various parts of the text or the chapter – I kind of refer to this as reading between the lines. It’s been my experience that think and search

QAR’s were difficult at first for my students, because they were so used to seeing the

answer pop up right there – but after lots of explicit instruction and practice they

eventually got better and better at it.

 

This leads us to the next QAR referred to as “Author and you.” Now these kinds of

answers are found in the text; however, the student must relate it to their own

experiences. Now just to be clear, the answer does not appear directly in the text, so

the student must have read the text in order to answer the question. In other words, the

students after reading the text, brings it back to his/her own life experience to answer

the question.

 

Lastly, the “On my own” QAR answers. It’s important to note here that these types of

answers do not require that the student read the passage at all. So, therefore, the

student must use their own background knowledge to answer that type of question.

For instance: If I were to ask you: “What are some of your favorite sports?”

Well, you wouldn’t need to read any particular text to answer that question. You would

simply state your personal preference – there’s no right or wrong answer here.

 

Now after teaching my students the 4 different QAR’s, it was time to put this strategy into effect.

When I first started teaching this concept to my students I would start with a rather easy

to read simple text and read it aloud to my students. I began with the right there

question. I would have a few already made questions for the class. Then after reading a

the question, I would model how I got the “right there” answer.

 

During each QAR session I would introduce a new type of QAR: ie: think & search,

author & you and on your own. Here again, I would have preselected questions, read

the text and model the strategy. After which, I would show students how to find the

information to answer the question. I have used QAR with my students when reading

social studies, science and math information from their textbooks. This process worked

great for independent and group or partner work.

 

As time went on, I would gradually increase the length and complexity of the reading

assignments. The students would continue to use QAR through the school year. It

wasn’t just taught once as a lesson and forgotten about.

There is so much more that can be said about QAR, and we just skimmed the surface,

If you are interested in learning more about the QAR concept, I’d like to recommend a

book that will get you up to speed about the process. It’s called, QAR Now – A powerful

and practical framework that develops comprehension and higher-order thinking in all

students. The authors are Taffy E. Raphael, Kathy Highfield and Kathryn H. Au

 

In conclusion, I’d recommend introducing QAR as early in the beginning of the year as

you can – obviously, the earlier the better, so that kids have enough time to enhance

their comprehension skills. Also, it would be great to use QAR systematically as part of

your day-to-day lessons. Now keep in mind that QAR doesn’t just apply to Reading

language arts lessons, but in social studies, science and math as well.

 

Establishing a Book Requirement for Your Class

I remember early on in my teaching career I didn’t require my students to read a certain number of books per school year, or a certain number of books per genre.  I did however, always encouraged my students to read and check out books from the school library. They also had the opportunity to read independently daily. And they were always encouraged to read books of their own choosing.

It wasn’t until I began implementing the reader’s workshop that I began to require my students to read a required number of books for the year.

At the time I was teaching 4^th graders and set a requirement of 40 books broken down by genre for the year.

And I have to tell you I had students that were a little disgruntled and moaned about why they had to read so many books. I got comments like I’ll never be able to read that many! But I’d give them a pep talk and tell them that they can do this and encouraging them to do so.

Now I know that some teachers do not subscribe to the belief of requiring a number of books to be read in a school year. But let me share with you what I found to be true as I started requiring my 40 books per year -- and let me just say that my reading requirement was one of my non-negotiables. 

I found that even my most reluctant reader who may have read only a few books in the past was now reading more than if there were no requirement in place. Additionally, that student was reading a variety of books.

As we progressed week by week my students weren’t all that concerned with the 40 books that were required, and just concentrated on reading. My kids were given ample time Monday through Friday during reader’s workshop to read – which was a minimum of 30 minutes with a book of their own choosing.

I also found when you have high, but reasonable expectations students will rise to the occasion. And if you think about it – if you had no requirement in place, do you honestly think that students would actually read more? I always believed in this statement: “Don’t expect what you don’t inspect.” In other words, if you want to ensure that your class is on track with their reading goals, then you have to inspect the results -- Right? For example, how many books are your students currently reading and how they are progressing. Are they achieving your milestones that you’ve set – for one month, 3 months, 6 months, and so on.

Since I began implementing the 40-book requirement I have to say I never had a student ever tell me -- well, I’ve read my 40 books now and I’m done. They were congratulated and encouraged to keep going. Even the child that had to be prodded to read may not have achieve our class goal – he/she might have read only 10 books or so but think what would have happened if there had been no requirement.

I have had children go well beyond the 40-book requirement, and a few of my students read over 100 books during the school year! And that was just totally incredible!

Now from time to time I’d have a student say, Mr. Hiles, what if I don’t reach this goal will I be in trouble? Well at that point I would just encourage the child to keep reading and tell him/her that many students have done so before them.

Now I want to address some of the different genres that I had incorporated into my book requirement. Some of these were: chapter books, fiction, biographies, autobiography, fantasy, non-fiction, informational text, poetry, memoires and book choice category.

In this way my students were exposed to a wide variety of reading material that otherwise they would’ve missed out on. Also, another big plus in having an extensive range of genres is the fact that the teacher can tailor instruction in accordance with your district’s learning objectives and state standards.

Lastly, I think having a book/genre requirement is a positive thing – despite some student discontent at the beginning. But let me tell you it will pay off in a big way.

Please note that I set up this requirement for 4^th graders, but when I taught 5^th grade, the requirement was 50 books. So, my advice would be 10 books per grade level – minimum. Example 1^st graders 10 books, 2^nd graders 20 books, 3rd graders 30 books, and so on. But be flexible nothing is set in stone!

Ultimately, in the end imagine you will have opened up a whole new world for your students and by doing so foster a love for reading.