Integrating Music Into Literacy Practice

The combining of music into literacy practice was one successful teaching and learning event that I was intrigued by on my placement. I had not been exposed to this kind of learning in previous education experiences, nor had I seen the approach used by other teachers I have observed. This made the teaching and learning event all the more fascinating and I was eager to see the outcome within the Grade three and four class.

The students had been working on a poem that was later going to be presented to the class for an Oral Presentation Assessment. Through the planning process I assisted students and noticed majority of them had written quite creative poems, although some student’s rhyming of lines was not very strong. When it came to the oral

McIntire (2007) explores a wide range of teaching strategies that involve the application of music into literacy practice. One strategy was setting up reading and listening centres and having students read a final piece of writing or oral presentation to another student. This way the reader can gain feedback on their work and improve their expressive and communication skills and the listener can advance their listening skills. Another strategy was having students compose a song about a certain topic or having students write a poem and set the poem to music. These two activities focus on students gaining expressive, rhythm and communication skills as well as vocabulary development. One other relevant teaching strategy was reading books that include song lyrics, helping students’ pronunciation of words, once again providing students with vocabulary development and rhythm skills (McIntire 2007). Music is a part of children’s daily life, so it would make sense to draw on their funds of knowledge and create an engaging and familiar environment, whilst using music to assist with bridging the gap from what they know to gaining an understanding of what is new. From the literature examined it is clear there is a positive effect when merging music with literacy practice. I have discovered not only does music assist with improving children’s oral presentations, like I experienced on placement, but it can assist with a number of learning outcomes within literacy. Implementing music into literacy practice is a teaching strategy I will most certainly consider implementing into my teaching in the future. Not only can music be a unique contribution to children’s learning, but also to their ability to think creatively and imaginatively (Gibson