Language Literacy and Music Learning

Language Literacy and Music Learning:

How a Strong Music Curriculum Naturally Supports Language Development

by Nyssa Brown, Music Education Coordinator, Perpich Center for Arts Education

Music teachers are often expected to “support” a children’s language literacy learning. As someone who grew up bilingual and is fascinated with language, I wanted to be able to articulate how a strong, high-quality music curriculum naturally supports language development – and be clear that I didn’t need to change my music curriculum by adding inauthentic repertoire, activities, or games. In the process of trying to document these natural parallels, I connected with my friend and colleague Kim Wieber DuSaire who has taught emergent readers throughout her entire career and wrote her masters thesis on the process of learning to read. We sought to decipher the natural ways music teachers support language learning through music instruction, without sacrificing music content or time spent involved in music activities. When Kim and I present together, she takes the opposite view: how can music naturally enhance the learning goals in language arts? We found that there many parallel paths in the learning of music and language learning in the elementary school – our challenge is articulate them clearly and teach them intentionally. This article is aimed at music teachers who would like to be able to use reading jargon to help themselves, classroom teachers, and administrators understand how a high quality music curriculum supports children’s learning both inside and outside the music classroom, in this case specifically focusing on reading.

Article Goals:

To describe the parallels of music and language learning
To identify music activities that support language literacy
To identify how music activities support the five components of reading

The four modalities of language learning are listening, speaking, reading, writing.

Possible framework for discussing music learning and language learning parallels:

Music learning / Language learning
Children listen to adults sing
(preschool) / Children listen to adult talk (birth to 2-3)
Children imitate exactly what adults sing
(exact echo songs) / Children mimic adult words
Children answer something different
(call and response songs and improvisation) / Children make up their own verbal answers
Children “see” the sounds they are already creating (reading music – from icon to formal symbol)
-From known to unknown (familiar to unfamiliar) / Children learn to read the sounds they already speak - reading
-From known to unknown (familiar to unfamiliar)
Children learn to write what they read
(music notation)
-From known to unknown (familiar to unfamiliar) / Children learn to write letters and words
-From known to unknown (familiar to unfamiliar)
Children express meaning and emotion through music (improvisation/composition) / Children develop ability to use words to express more abstract meaning

Further Print Resources:

Arts as Meaning Makers: Integrating Literature and the Arts Throughout the Curriculum, The by Claudia E. Cornett
Integrating Music and Reading Instruction: Teaching Strategies for Upper-Elementary Grades by Laura J. Andrews and Patricia E. Sink
Literacy and the Arts for the Integrated Classroom: Alternative Ways of Knowing by Nancy Lee Cecil, Phyllis Lauritzen
Lively Learning, Using the Arts to Teach the K-8 Curriculum by Linda Crawford. Northeast Foundation for Children, 2004.
Music and Literacy Connection, The by Dee Hansen, Elaine Bernstorf, Gayle M Stubor
Music as a Way of Knowing by Nick Page
Multiple Forms of Literacy: Teaching Literacy and the Arts by Carolyn L. Piazza
Sound Ways of Knowing: Music in the Interdisciplinary Curriculum by Janet Barrett, Claire W. McCoy, Kari K Veblen
Weaving Music into Young Minds (book and cd) by Mary Miché
Weaving through Words: Using the Arts to Teach Reading Comprehension Strategies by Roberta D. Mantione, Sabine Smead

Websites:

National Reading Panel Research Project that provides definitions of the 5 stages of reading, and their research findings on best practices in those 5 areas:
U.S. Department of Education: Basic information for parents about steps to reading –
Please see your own state department of education website for reading standards.

My assumptions about music instruction:

Music is an active, participatory learning process – students are singing, dancing, playing, reading, notating, improvising, etc EVERY day!
Sound comes before sight – students are building aural/oral skills and fluency with song material and patterns before they are seeing any rhythmic or melodic notation.
We expect highest quality learning IN the arts – we construct curriculum based first and foremost on student needs and best practices IN music education.
We value learning THROUGH the arts – collaboration with various content areas is important to student learning, and music a viable way to learn other subjects.
We move from known to unknown using sequential curriculum – students build on their knowledge from simple to complex.

5 Strands of Reading:

phonemes – the smallest units making up spoken language, focus on sound (aural/oral)
phonics - how to put letters together and get correct sound, focus on sight to sound (visual)
fluency - speed, accuracy, gate, phrasing, expression of what is read
vocabulary - meaning and pronunciation of words
comprehension – culmination of all the above, determine the meaning of what is read

Phonemes (K-1)
the smallest units making up spoken language that correspond to a letter of the alphabet
focus on sound (aural/oral), not the visual – sound before sight
Reading goal: / Music repertoire/activity:
Rhyming – (using pictures and sounds without words) / 1, 2, buckle my shoe
Over in the Meadow (folksong, book) John Langstaff, Ill. Feodor Rojankovsky
Kitty Alone (Bandy Row)
Spelling / Any spelling song, like Bingo

Bridge from Phonemes to Phonics

Beat vs. Rhythm – beat icons and rhythm icons, tapping beat and clapping out the rhythm/syllables

(Beat)(Rhythm – syllables)

Name games – sing a name song and students take turns clapping their names (showing rhythm syllables) NOTE: use correct accents within names (E-liz-a-beth)

Phonics (K-2)
how to put letters together and get correct sound
(more about seeing words - visual)
Goal: recognize familiar words accurately and automatically so brain can focus on comprehension
Automaticity
Reading goal: / Music repertoire/activity:
Syllables / Bate, Bate, Chocolate (cho-co-la-te)
Left to Right Tracking / Reading icons (like the bees above) prepares this skill.
Reading patterns (rhythmic or melodic) reinforces this skill.
Word families (cat, bat, hat, sat . . .) / Rain, Rain – write words “a-way” and “day” on board and point to them when you sing them.
Hickory Dickory Dock – “dock” “clock”
Fluency
speed, gate, phrasing, expression of what is read
Reading goal: / Music repertoire/activity:
Expressive reading / Any echo song, like The Water is Wide – teacher sings expressively, and the students echo back with expression “Tell me a story when you sing the song or say the poem”
Songtales, like Over in the Meadow – anytime you sing a song to the students expressively and they listen, absorbing your artistry
For older students, Mary and the Soldier (Lucy Kaplansky)
Recite poems/nursery rhymes (like Humpty Dumpty), adding vocal sound effects or instruments
Automaticity / Read books with students with repetitive text (like Go Tell Aunt Rhody, Ill by Aliki) where the same phrases or words are repeated often.
Music word wall where often-used music words are posted.
Flashcards and memory – show students a 4-beat rhythmic flashcard and then turn the card face down. Students say the pattern on the card. Eventually rotate cards so students are saying one flashcard and reading another one at the same time.
Notes:
- Students need lots of practice with fluency. . . using the same songs repeatedly allows them mastery.
- Like muscle memory, the more they do it, the better they get at it.
- They are fluent when they can do it alone.
- Move from known to unknown. The ultimate test of fluency is to take known concepts, put them in a different order, and students are able to accurately read pattern.

Different Vocabulary ALERT!

For language teachers / For music teachers
decode / look at something and read it / listen to pattern (either clapped or spoken on neutral syllables) and 1) say it back, or 2) write it down
encode / hear something and write it down / ?
Vocabulary
pronunciation and meaning of words
the more words in a child’s spoken vocabulary,
the more words they can “access” when learning to read
Reading goal: / Music repertoire/activity:
Increased vocabulary / Rhyming songs, like Down By the Bay – students choose words and then need to rhyme those words
Homophones – words that sound alike but are different in spelling (ex to, too, two) / When singing songs with homophones in them, write the words on the board or flashcards.
Multiple meaning words / When singing songs with word with multiple meanings, write the words on the board or flashcards, like Pitter Patter (rain, pane)
Syllabication (pronunciation) breaking words apart where there are 2 consonants (bas-ket, loc-ket) / When reading music notation and octavos, draw student attention to words that are split at consonants.
Notes:
- Music is a great way to get words into kids - and it sticks better
- The more “channels” a child has to access a word (read it, move it, hear it, sing it, draw it), the more likely they will be to internalize it and remember it.
Comprehension
culmination of everything, determine the meaning of what is read
brain can read so fluently and automatically that the brain can focus on the meaning of what is read
Reading goal: / Music repertoire/activity:
Fiction or
Nonfiction
(real or unreal) / Ask students whether a song you are singing is fiction or nonfiction and why.
Summarizing / Ask students to summarize a song (Songtale) with multiple verses that you sing to them, like the Harriet Tubman Song by Walter Robinson.
Culmination/
comprehension of Musical experiences / Listen to a piece of music and analyze a piece of music using all the musical and nonmusical information they know.
Compose music using rhythm, melody, form, harmony, etc
Improvise music using rhythm, melody, form, harmony, etc
Creating context for comprehension / Background knowledge helps students connect new content to their own experience which aids in for comprehension
Notes:
- Emergent readers – more brain space for decoding while experienced readers – more brain space for comprehension (which is why vocabulary and fluency are so important)

Songtales/Ballad-type songs/longer songs:

Father Grumble, traditional U.S. Folksong

Harriet Tubman Song, The – Walter Robinson

Mary and the Soldier – traditional, as performed by Lucy Kaplansky

Whistling Gypsy – Traditional Scottish

Books/Songtales:

Cat Goes Fiddle-i-fee, Paul Galdone

Crabfish, The, Adapted by John Feierabend, Ill. Vincent Nguyen

Down By the Bay, Ill. Nadine Bernard Westcott (a Raffi “Songs to Read”)

Frog Went a-Courtin’, John Langstaff, Ill. Feodor Rojankovsky

Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing, James Weldon Johnson, Ill. Jan Spivey Gilchrist

Over in the Meadow, John Langstaff, Ill. Feodor Rojankovsky

This Land is Your Land, Woody Guthrie, Ill. Kathy Jakobsen, 0-316-39215-4

This Old Man, Ill. Pat Adams

There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly, Ill. Pat Adams

The Fox Went Out on a Chilly Night, Ill. Peter Spier

Simple Gifts, Ill. Chris Raschka

Summertime, George Gershwin etc, Ill. Mike Wimmer

What a Wonderful World, George David Weiss and Bob Thiele, Ill. Ashley Bryan

Storybooks with songs embedded in the story:

Follow the Drinking Gourd, Jeanette Winter

When Marian Sang, Pam Muñoz Ryan

Books about songs:

Purple Mountain Majesties (American the Beautiful), Barbara Younger, Ill. Stacey Schuett

The Star-Spangled Banner, Ill. Peter Spier
Some ways we can integrate literacy into the music classroom:

Read books in class (folksongs with pictures, books that provide historical/cultural context, etc)
Echo read song and rhyme lyrics with the class (call and response reading)
Read song lyrics from LCD projectors, chart paper, overhead projector, songs sheets, books, etc)
Use flash cards with text (and pictures, if desired) to cue cumulative songs
Display text of ballads – color coding sections of the song by character.
Discussion aspects of literature as they appear in ballads: plot, character, setting, beginning-middle-end, etc.
Label bulletin board displays with text (rhythm names, instruments, maps, musicians, composers, etc.)
Create word walls (including the elements of music)
Find and clap syllables in children’s names. Determine accents of these syllables
Have students write artist statements that explain their work as displayed in the classroom
Create books of classroom songs. You provide the text, students illustrate book. These books can stay in your classroom, go to the classroom teacher, or be placed in the library.
Use listening maps that include text and musical symbols.
Use a visual/graphic organizer that include words in lessons (mind maps/webs, Venn diagrams, KWL, etc – many more examples at
As a way to respond to or critique music, ask students to write. (ex: Is it music?)

Ways to encourage the school community to participate:

Ask your librarian/media specialist to include music books that children read in the music classroom in the school’s library collection.
Include a sing along, with projected words, at every assembly. (Establish a repertoire of school songs, sing them in music class (and/or the classroom), and sing 1-3 at each large-group gathering.)
Present parents with book options for language literacy at music open house, curriculum night, conferences, Scholastic book fairetc.
Collaborate with classroom teachers, asking them to integrate songs for singing, where students are reading the words, into their daily classrooms.

Suggested Music Education Resources, as compiled by Nyssa:

Special thanks to Kim Wieber duSaire, first grade Spanish Immersion teacher at Park Spanish Immersion School, for collaborating with me to develop this article.