Teaching with Music

Music in the Classroom

As teachers, we want to give our students every and any opportunity to learn. Of course we know that the arts provide a great way to do this. But today, I am going to focus on music in particular. Music offers students a unique learning opportunity. According to Chris Brewer, here are some benefits and outcomes of using music in the classroom:


Credit: http://www.songsforteaching.com/teachingtips/classroomoutcomesofusingmusic.htm

As you can see, music can be used in a variety of ways to either catch students' attention, help them remember important information, or just to have fun! Music can also be used as a brain break for children. Fun songs can be played to give the students a break, you can even incorporate dancing too. Here is a fun little brain break activity:

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Rewrite Songs for Learning's Sake

A fun and creative way to teach your students new concepts, is to rewrite popular songs in order to teach that new information. People tend to remember concepts or ideas better when it is in the form of a beat. Here is an example of a song that I rewrote to teach the writing process:

To the tune of the “Hokey Pokey”

Writing Process

You put your prewrite in,

You put your prewrite out;

You put your prewrite in,

And you start to think it out.

You do the writing process,

And you twirl your pencil around.

That’s what the first step’s about!


You put your rough draft in,

You put your rough draft out;

You put your rough draft in,

And you start to write it down.

You do the writing process,

And you twirl your pencil around.

That’s what the second step’s about!


You put your revising in,

You put your revising out;

You put your revising in,

And you start to improve your writing.

You do the writing process,

And you twirl your pencil around.

That’s what the third step’s about!


You put your editing in,

You put your editing out;

You put your editing in,

And you start to make corrections.

You do the writing process,

And you twirl your pencil around.

That’s what the fourth step’s about!


You put your publishing in,

You put your publishing out;

You put your publishing in,

And you start to share your writing.

You do the writing process,

And you twirl your pencil around.

That’s what the final step’s about!


Written by: Alexandra Rice

This is just one of many different examples of what a rewritten song to fit educational needs can look like. Since I am minoring in literacy, I chose to do an ELA concept. But for math, this would be a great tool to use in your classroom. For most students, math does not come easy, but in a musical form, that just might help. You can teach students an educational song and then sing it with them every day, until the concept is memorized. As an extension activity, you could even have students create their own song composition. You can let them decide a concept for a certain content area or you can assign them one. From there, you can send students off to choose a song to rewrite in order to fit their concept. Then, students can perform it in the front of the class. This is very useful to the teacher because those songs can come in handy to continue teaching in the classroom! Since some students may struggle with this, it may be best to have students work in partners or even small groups. The overarching goal of this assignment would be to help students remember concepts that they may be struggling with.