Blog Posts

Music and Literacy

Denise Gagne

Pre-readers and Beginning Readers

The use of music, rhythm and rhyme have been shown in many studies to help children learn. For hundreds of years, parents have sung the ABC song to teach their children the letters of the alphabet. I would bet that 99.9% of the adults who’ve grown up in North America, could sing the alphabet song. Use songs to teach letter sounds and letter recognition. In “Alphabet Action Songs” we used familiar tunes to teach the letter sounds of the consonants. You can use this collection of songs, or make up your own songs to teach letter sounds.

Letter c says c. Letter c says c. C like Cool Cat. Letter c says c.
(Sung to the melody of “Bow Wow Wow” with a modified rhythm)

In “Alphabet Action Songs” we used different melodies for long and short vowels. We teach only the short vowel sounds in kindergarten, but use both in first grade.

When letter A is long it says it’s name - A A.
When letter A is long it says it’s name - A A.
When letter A is long it says it’s name out loud and strong.
When letter A is long it says it’s name - A A.
(Sung to the melody of “If you’re happy and you know it clap your hands.”)

Short letter a says a a a, a a a, a a a. Short letter a says a a a like Alligator Al.
(Sung to the melody of “Wheels on the Bus”)

Draw attention to the beginning sounds of words in songs to develop phonemic awareness. If you’re teaching “Penguin Polka” from Musicplay for Kindergarten, chart the words and have the students find every letter p in the song. In the “Cookie Jar Chant” find the letter z. In the collection, “Alphabet Action Songs” we’ve written songs that repeat the letter many times to really reinforce and develop phonemic awareness. While most of the songs have original melodies, a few use familiar tunes.

Penguin Polka Notation

Cookie Jar Chant Notation

Chart the words to the song. Have the class find and highlight the letter u wherever it occurs. This reinforces the recognition of the letter and the sound it makes. You can do this with every song you teach, or with just a few. Whether you are the classroom teacher or the music teacher, we can all contribute to the job of helping our children learn to read. An additional teaching tool can be used to reinforce letter recognition. Decide upon an action that you’ll use each time you sing a letter song. For the letter A, I use an “alligator” action - opening and closing one hand, like the opening and closing of an alligator’s jaw. For some children, the physical action helps them to remember the letter name and sound. An action can be derived for each song in “Alphabet Action Songs”.

Pre-Readers, Beginning Readers and Readers:

Use the text of songs to develop vocabulary. When you teach a new song, make sure that the children know what the text means. This will enhance their vocabulary, and is important musically, so that they can be expressive singers. You can’t be expressive in a song if you don’t really understand what it’s about. In the song “Little Red Wagon” in Musicplay 1 teach the names and functions of different tools. In Musicplay 2, students sing “I’ve been working on the Railroad.” Do they know what “all the livelong day” means? In Musicplay 3, students will learn some Australian words in “Waltzing Matilda”. They will enrich their vocabulary AND learn about a different culture. In Musicplay 4 students learn to sing “Little Old Sod Shanty”. Do they know what a sod shanty is? Find pictures of early settlers sod shanties to share with the students. At all grade levels, the students will develop vocabulary from the texts of the songs.

Students who are reading should always have access to the music, so they can read the texts and the music. While many of the songs in Musicplay can be taught by rote, teaching everything by rote denies the students the opportunity to develop reading fluency by reading texts as they sing. Student textbooks are available for grades 2-6 at minimal cost. If budget is limited, you could economize by purchasing only 1 textbook for 2 students and have the students share the book. In some cases this is an advantage. You can pair up a weak and a strong reader and have the strong reader help track the words for the weaker one. (Please remember that it is NOT legal to photocopy or make overheads of teacher guides or student books. All the arrangements in Musicplay are copyrighted.)

As children develop their reading ability, music can and should continue to be used to develop their language learning. Studies have demonstrated that children who can maintain a steady beat have greater fluency in their reading. Classroom teachers and music teachers should work with children to develop beat competency. Have children dance, move to music, and pat or clap a beat as they listen to music. Reading or reciting chants with a steady beat will help to develop beat competency. In Musicplay K and 1 many chants are given.

Name Chant:

Listen as I play the beat
Gee this drum sounds really neat!
This is such a silly game.
Sit down when you say your name.
My name is ______.

Pussycat:

Low voice: Pussycat pussycat where have you been
High voice: I’ve been to London to visit the Queen
Low voice: Pussycat pussycat what did you there?
High voice: I frightened a little mouse under a chair.

Song lyrics are poetry. Use lyrics of songs as you would use poetry - discuss the meaning of the text, word coloring, and poetic devices used. In Musicplay 4, we have the song “Grandfather’s Clock”.

My grandfather’s clock was too large for the shelf so it stood ninety years on the floor.
It was taller by half than the old man himself though it weighed not a pennyweight more.
It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born and was always his treasure and pride.
But it stopped - short - never to go again when the old man died.

Ask the students to find the rhyming pattern. (AABB) Ask the students to find an example of internal rhyme. (morn, born) If you ask what other poetic devices they can find, they may notice that on the word stopped, the music “stops”. On the word short, the note is short.

Create new verses, and new lyrics to songs. Students who have difficulty journal writing, may find the idea of song writing intriguing. In a school in Medicine Hat, Alberta, we had second grade students write new verses to “Pizza Hut”. The classroom teacher commented on one student who was busily creating his third verse. She was astounded at how much he was writing. During daily journal writing, this same student had a hard time getting even one sentence down on paper.

Create accompaniments to poems and stories that illustrate and enhance the meaning of the text. One of the easiest stories to do this with is “Mortimer” by Robert Munch. Invite the children to find places in the text where they can create sound effects or add instruments. There are a wealth of other stories to do this with.

Music can provide wonderful opportunities for student writing. Have them listen to a piece of music and respond to it in writing. Invite the students to write about how the music makes them feel or what the music makes them think of. Let them share some of their responses with the class. If they all want to share, but time is limited, give them 1 minute to share with a partner, and then have the partner share with them. In the “Listening Resource Kits 1-5” there are many musical examples that could be used to inspire student writing. In the Listening Kits we’ve given many response journal starters. Have the students listen, choose one of the responses and write about what they hear. Play the selection several times giving the students plenty of opportunity to write.

Response Journal Starters: (from The Listening Resource Kits level 3-4-5)
This music makes me think of.......
The music made me feel ......
I liked the part in the music where ....
My favorite instrument in this piece is ...
I would like to hear this piece again because .....
I didn’t like the part ............
If this music was a color it would be _____________ because .........
If I made a cartoon with this music the cartoon would be about ..........
I would use this music in a movie about ..........
I would use this music for a commercial advertising ____________ because .......
Draw a design that this music makes you think of.
Draw what the music makes you think of.
Draw the way the melody goes.

There is a strong connection between reading music and reading language. When a child learns to decode music, it helps them to decode language. Teach your students to read rhythms and melodies. In Musicplay, songs that students can read, are designated by a small musical staff above the right hand side of the music. Have the students read the rhythms or the melodies of these songs using whatever system you prefer.

Administrators who think they will improve reading scores by cutting music instructional time should be given copies of this newsletter. If administrators want to improve literacy and reading scores in their schools they should increase the amount of music instructional time. Administrators should be providing the resources for teaching music. In many schools, the teacher has to purchase music materials out of their own pockets. The school should be providing every classroom with teacher guides and student books, so students can benefit from reading the text.