Literacy and Music
Education
A Listing of Resources
By Dimitry Ekshtut
Developing Music Literacy
Through Original Shared Book
Experiences
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http://www.vosa.org/paul/sales_folder/manins_art.htm
Excerpt from Early Childhood Connections: Journal of Music and
Movement-Based Learning.
The author, Stuart Manins, develops a narrative describing the
similar ways in which linguistic literacy and music literacy are
developed and fostered in children - specifically as it relates to his
native New Zealand.
I particularly enjoyed the examples of children's work at the end of
the article which illustrate Manins' points so eloquently.
The children's work also serves as a good template for teachers
wishing to borrow some strategies and lesson plans from Manins.
Songs For Teaching:
Using Music to Promote
Literacy
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http://www.songsforteaching.com/index.html
A great wealth of teaching materials (both free and for sale) can be
found on this site.
Songs For Teaching offers a large repository of lyrics, games,
downloadable music or CDs, and other materials teachers can use
to supplement their curriculum with music.
The offerings look to be geared toward the classroom teacher
(mostly elementary and below) looking to incorporate music into
their classroom.
There are entire sections devoted to Science Songs (with materials
for Earth Science, Animals, Food/Nutrition, Biology, etc.), Social
Studies, Special Education, Foreign Languages, and Life Skills.
Highly recommended for resource-starved teachers.
The Effects of Music Instruction on
Emergent Literacy Capacities among
Preschool Children: A Literature
Review
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http://ecrp.uiuc.edu/v10n1/bolduc.html
This concise scholarly article comes from the Early Childhood Research
and Practice Journal, housed at the University of Illinois at UrbanaChampaign.
Written by Jonathan Bolduc, University of Ottawa, the paper is a review and
brief analysis of the recent literature (circa 2008) concerning the connection
between music education and emergent literacy in preschoolers.
The research evidence Bolduc cites makes for interesting reading, though
little of it is entirely conclusive.
Teachers looking to advocate for music education (and in turn bolster their
case for their own jobs) would find a treasure trove of citable data here.
However, I think that the linkages are correlative at best - the author
includes a whole section on studies strictly confined to correlation - and I do
not think it best for the long-term interests of the music education profession
to base our professional self-worth solely on music's effect on literacy
development in children.
ESL Through Music
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http://www.forefrontpublishers.com/eslmusic/
This handy website/blog is curated by Dr. Suzanne
Medina, professor of Graduate Education at Cal State
and an expert in ESL (English as a Second Language)
methodology and instructional design.
Offers both rationale for the use of music in the ESL
classroom as well as practical curricular
examples/adaptations.
ESL Through Music fills both the scholarly and pragmatic
needs of music educators working with an ESL
population and/or ESL teachers wishing to engage their
students by incorporating music.
The Inspired Classroom:
Music and Literacy
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http://theinspiredclassroom.com/tag/music-and-literacy/
This blog by Elizabeth Peterson hosts a wide array of activities and
other imaginative ways to incorporate music and storytelling.
Peterson had her students create a short story based on
Beethoven's "Coriolan Overture". There are entries such as "The
Story in the Backwater Blues", "The Blues, Storytelling, and
Science", "Reading and Drumming", "ESL, Literacy, and Jazz", and
"Visualization in Music and Writing".
There is a plethora of blueprints for new, inventive lesson planning.
Strongly recommended for teachers wishing to expand the scope of
their awareness of what they can do with music in the classroom.