Michael Romicks 'Totally Tuned In' Analysis

Teachers are constantly attempting to find a way to encourage students to be more involved and interested in the learning concepts they are presenting them with. In Michael J. Romicks’ "Totally Tuned In," he discusses his idea of creating an alternative way of teaching in way of merging English standards and music. In the beginning of his writing, he tells a personal anecdotes of the first time his 8th grade teacher introduced him to the idea of music incorporated in learning. The way he describes the connection is almost as though a light bulb went off in his head, because for the first time he really understood. Romick then goes on to describe how since then, he has grown up to be a high school English teacher, and incorporates music weekly with the

According to Johns Hopkins School of Education’s website, bringing in music to a classroom could result in altering one’s brain wave, a higher level of concentration, and increased attention and imagination (Brewer 1995). These are very similar to the positive outcomes that Romick discussed in his article that he noticed occurring in his classroom after creating lesson plans correlated with songs. Also similar to Romick’s beliefs, Chris Boyd Brewer states, “Music will activate students mentally, physically, and emotionally and create learning states which enhance understanding of learning,” which will not only benefit the teacher, but also the student while gaining a greater knowledge in the class (Brewer 1995). The music helps create different feelings to emerge, inspiring creativity and a different outlook than simple textbook related material. Another well given point I found that was stated by another ELA teacher, Heather Wolpert-Gawron, was that music enhances the brain and inspires great writing prompts or poetry connections, similar to what Romick referred to as well (Gawron