Exploring the Role of Music in Secondary English and History Classrooms through Personal Practical Theory Michael Magee
Benefits to using music as a teaching tool Allows students to explore cultures, time periods, or genres Students can reflect on a text with flexibility Music can be used as a tool to prime student learning Caters to various learning styles (auditory, spatial, and linguistic)
Benefits continued. Allows students to express themselves Encourages students to interpret texts from a different perspective Practical for any content area
A few ideas for incorporating music in various contents measure wave lengths and sound decibels in science calculate percentages based on popularity and revenue of a musician in mathematics analyze the poetic structure of a song in English.
Including music into a lesson Step one: Find music relevant to time period you are teaching (Vietnam war) -Songs about war -Songs for protest -Songs relating to civil rights
Step two: Have students read lyrics to analyze what the author is expressing -Have various texts for students to interpret -Practice a “Think-Aloud” to show students how to identify key words & themes of a time period in a piece
Step three : Reflect on vocabulary with historical meaning Vocabulary in lyrics can be related to a classroom word wall, text book, or be the start to a new word wall
Step four: Ask the students to find a piece of music that addresses current important issues - Have students find one song that is popular today with some significant historical meaning behind it (war, peace, global issues) - Give students a chance to express themselves and look for clues in the current main stream media - Prime students to want to look for more meaning behind the music they are listening to
Questions?