Music Possibilities for the Classroom

An article review and response of
"Teaching with Tunes: 21 Ideas for Incorporating Music Throughout the Curriculum" by Folwell Dunbar

Early in my studies at JMU, I became aware of the Theory of Multiple Intelligences, by Howard Gardner. The idea that students have uniquely different ways of learning information was new to me, insightful, and inspiring! I have visited and revisited the concept over the years, increasingly convinced of its significance to effective teaching and learning. I have always considered myself rather weak in ‘musical intelligence,’ as I have never been able to sing a tune and quite literally mimed my way through band in junior high. I recognize music’s potential to teach in the classroom, but sometimes feel limited by my lack of ability in how I could use music in the classroom.

This article by Folwell Dunbar was motivational, explaining how a teacher could incorporate music into the curriculum and why that is important for the students. I have been familiar with the concept of mood-setting music in the classroom, but Dunbar went well beyond my basic understanding of music in the elementary classroom. A cooperative composition is one idea he proposed in which the students write, produce and perform a piece of music. Each student is given a different role in the simulated industry that requires a unique skill, such as a lyricist, musician, album designer, marketer, performer, etc. Another suggestion was to sample musical artifacts from other time periods, movements, cultures, and languages, allowing the students a chance to study geography, history, social change, anthropology, or a foreign language through music. Another notable idea was the influence of mathematical patterns and formulas in music, particularly when studying sheet music and beats. Lyrics from songs are a useful way of studying literary styles, such as narratives or poetry. Yet another great idea from the article was to have the students create a soundtrack for a particular unit or book, with justification for their song choice. Overall, the article gave some creative and unique ideas that would empower and inspire any teacher to utilize in the classroom, and I plan to!

In researching these ideas, I came across a site that has several cross disciplinary lesson plans that connect music to classroom learning. Another idea presented in the article was music as a way of exercising, and I later stumbled on a new product called Geofitness, which allows students to learn through movement, dance, and music, among other things. Lastly, Virginia’s Opera has an in-school tutoring program in which they come to your school and perform. Prior to coming, there are activities and free study guides to complete. Their site lists many correlating Virginia SOLs for each performance, to integrate classroom learning objectives with the Opera and coming performance.

All of these ideas seem exciting to me, rich both in content and music, and definitely worth sharing! The musical application to classroom learning will make the knowledge and experience more memorable. I am eager to try some of them in my future classroom!