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Question

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Molly Phelan

M.M. Music Education

Master’s Exams

Northwestern University

2020

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Given that there is a clear social disadvantage for illiterate adults and a defined critical learning period for literacy, how can early elementary music teachers structure their curricula and classroom to improve literacy outcomes for students? What is already working well and what could be added?

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“Lacking vital literacy skills holds a person back at every stage of their life. As a child they won't be able to succeed at school, as a young adult they will be locked out of the job market, and as a parent they won't be able to support their own child's learning. This intergenerational cycle makes social mobility and a fairer society more difficult.”

National Literacy Trust

https://literacytrust.org.uk/information/what-is-literacy/

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National Reading Panel

Critical Period

Classroom Experiences to foster Emergent Literacy Behaviors.

What we know about literacy

Phonemic Awareness

Phonics

Fluency

Vocabulary

Comprehension

(6.) Concepts of Print

Most 3rd grade students identified experiencing reading difficulties will remain below grade-level reading in high school. (Lynn and Moats, 1997).

Print-rich classrooms

Active participation in storybook sharing

Group reading w/ embedded knowledge- concepts of print and elements of story

Opportunities to learn thematically with language activities integrated into all areas of the curriculum.

Meaningful reading/writing opportunities.

Christie, Ens, & Vulelich (2007)

1997-2000. included prominent experts in the fields of reading education, psychology, and higher education. Review all the research available (more than 100,000 reading studies) on how children learn to read.

Determine the most effective evidence-based methods for teaching children to read.

Describe which methods of reading instruction are ready for use in the classroom and recommend ways of getting this information into schools.

Suggest a plan for additional research in reading development and instruction.

Phonemic Awareness- Words are made up of sounds put together.

Phonics- sounds have association (though sometimes loose) with symbols

Fluency- ability to read whole word, decoding takes less mind effort than whole sentence comprehension

Vocabulary- The term vocabulary refers to words we need to know to communicate with others. There are four types of vocabulary: listening, speaking, reading, and writing

Comprehension- connecting prior knowledge/background knowledge and creating questions.Making connections.

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED512569.pdf

Quality children’s literature, displayed CONVENTIONAL PRINT, functional print, environmental print in learning centers, and ample children’s writing.
Children are active participants in the sharing

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Evidence?

No Baby Mozarts

Is this our job?

What we know about literacy and music

Music-making + experience in sound/symbol reading may develop cognitive process to pick out phonemes. (Gromko, 2005)

Music and language acquisition already utilize parallel reading instruction strategies (Fisher and McDonald, 2001; Hansen and Bernstorf, 2002).

Music education is the only place where pitch is addressed (Weinberger, 1998) facilitating pitch discrimination.

“The interconnectivity of notation skills in music supports a positive relationship with achievement in mathematics and literacy” (Scripp, 2003)

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Applications

Phonics

Vocabulary

Phonemic Awareness

Fluency

Bringing Home a Baby Bumblebee, focus on alliteration and /b/ (Curtis, 2007)

Apples and Bananas, vowel replacement, consonant play

Identify rhyming words in a song.
Engine, Engine, Number 9: look at the chart and mouth words silently in time till you come to the rhyming word which you say aloud together (Fisher & McDonald, 2001)

Children chant their names while patting a steady beat- notice that longer names and shorter names overlap beat in different ways (Curtis, 2007)
Singing a known song while looking at words

Listen to a piece of music and generate a list of adjectives to describe what the children heard (Curtis, 2007)
Songs with unfamiliar vocabulary (Gilles, Andre, Dye and Pfanenstiel, 1998) and led discussion of new meanings and concepts (Fisher and McDonald, 2001).

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Applications

Concepts of Print

Meaningful Writing

Comprehension

Print-Rich Classrooms

Listen to/learn a story song and ask children to dramatize what they hear in the song (Curtis, 2007)
Storyboard a song. Activities using visuals or writing to re-create listing songs (Fisher and McDonald, 2001)

Use a pointer to reinforce concept of reading direction left–right (Curtis, 2007)
Discuss and discover why lyrics are written the way they are. (Fisher and McDonald, 2001)

Replacing words to a song using a sentence frame (Fisher and McDonald, 2001).

Standard print visible on the walls and throughout the classroom.
Quality children’s books
Interactive share-aloud/read-aloud (Christie, Ens, & Vulelich, 2007)

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CITATIONS

Butzlaff, R. (2000). Can music be used to teach reading? Journal of Aesthetic Education, 34(3-4), 167-178

Christie, J.F., Enz, B.J., & Vukelich, C. (2007). Teaching language and literacy: Preschool through the elementary grades (3rd ed.). Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

Clay, M. M. (1993). An observation survey of early literacy achievement. Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann Education, 93 pp., $25.00. (1994). Psychology in the Schools, 31(3), 244-245.

Critical Conceptual and Methodological Considerations in Reading Intervention Research. (1997). Journal of Learning Disabilities., 30(6), 578.

Curtis, L. J. (2007). The role of music in early literacy learning: a kindergarten case study (Doctoral dissertation, Kansas State University). Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/2097/350

Deasy, R. (Ed.). (2002). Critical links: Learning in the arts and student achievement and social development. Washington DC: Arts Education Partnership.

Hansen, D., & Bernstorf, E. (2002). Linking music learning to reading instruction. Music Educators Journal, 88(5), 17-21,52.

Holmberg, S. D. (2010). Music Teachers’ Perceptions: The Role of Music Education in Early Literacy [ProQuest LLC]. In ProQuest LLC.

Fisher, D.; McDonald, N., The Intersection between Music and Early Literacy Instruction: Listening to Literacy!

Reading Improvement, v38 n3 p106-15 Fall 2001

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CITATIONS

Gilles C., Andre, M., Dye, C., & Pfannenstiel, V. (1998). Talking about Books: Constant Connections through Literature—Using Art, Music, and Drama. Language Arts, 76(1), 67-75. Retrieved June 9, 2020, from www.jstor.org/stable/41482939

Gromko, J.E., (2005). The effect of music instruction on phonemic awareness in beginning readers. Journal of Research in Music Education, 53, (3), 199-210.

Kassner, K. (2002). To be or not to be...a reading teacher. General Music Today, 15(2), 19-26.

Lamb, S. J. and Gregory, A. H. (1993). The relationship between music and reading in beginning readers. Educational Psychology, 13(1), 19-27.

National Reading Panel (2000). Teaching children to read: An evidence-based assessment of the scientific research literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction. (National Institute of Health Pub. No. 00-4769). Washington DC: National Institute of Child Health and Human Development

Scripp, L. (2003). From conference to coalition: The makings of a national musicin education consortium. [Electronic version]. Journal for Learning Through Music, Summer.

U.S. Department of Education (2004) A Closer Look at the Five Essential Components of Effective Reading Instruction: A Review of Scientifically Based Reading Research for Teachers https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED512569.pdf

Weinberger (1998) The Music in Our Minds. Educational Leadership., 56(3), 36.

Yopp, H. (1995). Read-aloud books for developing phonemic awareness: An annotated bibliography. The Reading Teacher, 49(6), 538-543.