Tune your curriculum with recorded music - using recorded music to teach language arts and social studies - Reach Every Child - Teach With Music

Instructor, March, 1994 by Barry Louis Polisar

Using recorded music in the classroom doesn't require any formal training on your part. And children in the elementary grades are usually open to every kind of music. For example, one of my six-year-old son's favorite pieces of music is Carl Orff's Carmina Burana, a classical choral masterpiece. "It's castle music!" he exclaims, and he's right. You can almost see knights riding off in their armor as the voices surge into crescendo.

I often find this kind of excitement in the classrooms I've visited over the years, as music opens new windows of learning for kids. Here are some sound ideas I've used along the way.

Soundtrack for Language Arts

You can use music to unlock kids' creativity and inspire them to write with classroom strategies like these.

* Have a Good Listen

Start by letting students listen to music during a quiet moment. Do they associate the sounds with something scary? Happy? Exciting? By talking about the mood of a piece of music, you introduce the idea that even music without words can tell a story.

* Putting Music to Paper

After some simple listening experiences, ask kids to draw or scribble what they hear as they listen to music. Encourage them to write stories about these "music paintings." As they share their stories with classmates, let the music play softly in the background. Ask the audience to try to correlate the sections of the musical piece to the action in the stories.

* Music and Wordplay

Song lyrics can help introduce new words and concepts like metaphor and simile. Because my own young children love animals, their current favorite song is Pepe Hush by Leo Kotke. None of us are exactly sure what action Kotke's lyrics are describing, but it's clear that the dog Pepe should not be hushed: He's telling his owners something important. As my kids listen intently, they're hearing new words and thinking critically about them.

* Writing Songs

Songs are perfect for inspiring students to write about their own experiences. I like to remind kids that lyrics can be about almost anything; after all, I've written about subjects ranging from underwear to diaper rash! Kids can set their own lyrics to existing music or work with simple instruments--drums, bells, sand blocks, kazoos--to create original tunes.

Songs for Social Studies

There's a song for almost every event in history--which makes music a great tool for your social studies teaching. Here are a few examples of noteworthy recordings.

* Immigrant Tunes

Dolores Keane and John Faulkner have recorded a number of songs about the Irish immigrant experience at the turn of the century. The haunting vocals and Irish fiddle deftly evoke the immigrants' despair and frustration.

* Southern Accents

David Massengill, a folksinger from Bristol, Tennessee, has more than a few songs on his Coming Up for Air recording that tie in with social studies units. "Number One in America," for example, is about changes in the American South from the time of the Freedom Riders to the present.

* All the Americas

Artist Peter Rowan's Awake Me in the New World integrates Spanish, Native American, and African instruments into songs about the New World. Check out "African Banjo," which traces the evolution of this popular American instrument.

* Today's Music, Today's World

You can use popular music to pave the way for discussions about our interconnected world. The African and Brazilian drums on Paul Simon's Rhythm of the Saints, as well as his use of South African and Cajun zydeco rhythms on Graceland, are good examples of multicultural musical styles. Have your class study rock music to understand the contributions of many cultures to this groundbreaking American art form.

BARRY LOUIS POLISAR is an acclaimed writer of songs and books for children. He travels extensively to schools across the country to teach kids about music and writing. His latest recordings include Teacher's Favorites and Family Trip.