In a Michigan class, music is major

NEA Today, Jan 2000

The 'universal language' helped this media specialist get students of all competency levels excited about learning research skills.

Like most educators, Bill Farmer teaches a diverse student population, with varying learning styles and intelligence levels. For years, he had pondered ways to more effectively teach reading, research, and technology to all his students, even. those who were easily distracted.

Farmer found a solution by marrying his two passions-teaching and music-in the fall of 1998. That's when Farmer, a media specialist at Bach Elementary School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, attended an educational summit in Kentucky.

Sponsored by the International Bluegrass Music Association and the National Music Foundation, the program gave public school teachers intensive training on using traditional music to teach core curriculum.

At the session, Farmer learned how music could be an effective tool in teaching kids-across learning styles and concentration levels-everything from vocabulary and math to social studies and geography.

Through music, Farmer learned, students could "experience lessons in a way they hadn't experienced them before."

Back home, Farmer began infusing his lessons with music-and almost immediately noticed music's calming influence on his most distractable kids.

"The rhythm and pattern of music heightens students' attention and causes even the least attentive child to become engaged in the lesson," he says.

With the music, doing research has actually become fun for students.

"They enjoy coming to the library," says Farmer. "Some kids say it's one of their favorite parts of the day. They want to use the tools in the library, and that's my main objective-to get kids familiar with technology and media, to. get them involved in research projects."

Before each lesson, Farmer looks for songs to accompany the study topic. He projects the lyrics on a screen and sings the song to kids while strumming his guitar. Kids get to dissect the song and interpret its references, providing insights into the topic that can digress into geography, history, vocabulary, and other subjects.

For example, when his fourth and fifth graders were learning about Abraham Lincoln, they read an account of his life. Then Farmer played the song, "Lincoln's Last Train Ride," a contemporary folk song that describes the days after Lincoln's assassination.

The song describes the different towns the funeral train passed through and the people who came out to bid Lincoln a final goodbye.

Kids, says Farmer, can "trace where the train went across the Allegheny Mountains to Springfield, Illinois." They also learn about Lincoln and how people felt about him.

"The song even made a few students cry," says Farmer, who invited them to discuss their feelings.

"This kind of experience-particularly when it evokes a strong emotion-is what they'll remember, and they're more likely to remember the lessons involved because of it," he says.

Farmer stresses that educators can teach any subject using American traditional music, which he defines as music that has been passed down through two or more generations and usually tells a story, with historical references to events, people, and places.

Teaching with traditional music is also easy to do, says Farmer. Teachers can strum a song on a guitar, even if they're not accomplished musicians. Or they can play a tape or CD of a song to complement a subject.

The traditional songs, says Farmer, can even teach math. "John Henry," for example, talks about moving tons of coal, a point that could lead into a lesson on weights. Likewise, for "Lincoln's Last Train Ride," students can measure the miles the train traveled on a map.

Another song, "Shenandoah," speaks to human relations. The song tells the story of a fur trapper who falls in love with a Native American woman. It offers "a lesson in the importance of following your heart," says Farmer.

"I feel as if I'm contributing to kidsproviding them variety and intellectual stimulation and calming them as well," adds Farmer. "Perhaps because music is a universal language, it can transcend differences in people, their learning styles, and forms of intelligence."

For more, contact Farmer at wfarmer@ edcen.ehhs.cmich.edu. To learn about the next International Bluegrass Music Association education summit, E-mail Nancy Cardwell at nancyc@ibma.org or call 888/GET-IBMA or 270/684-9025. For online lesson plans using music to teach core curriculum, visit www.nmc.org/frameset-amei.html.