Music/Literacy Connection
* Music can motivate children to read.
* Music is a potential tool for helping build successful readers.
* Music and reading go together because music celebrates language.
* Music is universal.
* Through music, children experience the wholeness of language.
* Language naturally has rhythm and melody. Children bring this language with them when they read.
* Shared, choral and echo reading are effective ways to help children connect songs to print.
* Children are naturally drawn to the rhythm, rhyme and tempo of music.
* Using music to teach reading draws on the natural rhythm and rhyme of language.
* The music/reading connection helps to develop a love for reading.
* Within group music experiences, children learn as they read, write, comprehend and express ideas.
* Many literacy concepts are taught through the use of music including:book concepts, phonemic awareness, sight vocabulary concepts of print, comprehension fluency , sense of story and sequence, and phonics.
*The use of music for early reading instruction allows children to easily recall new vocabulary, facts, numbers, and conventions of print.
* Repetition in songs supports and enhances emergent literacy bu pffering children an opportunity to read higher-leveled text and to read with the music over and over again in a meaningful context.
* Print put to music allows children to build on past experiences , which in turn invites them to participate in reading and singing at the same time.
What Does the Research Say?
* The similarities between literacy acquisition and musical development are many. Therefore, teaching that combines music with language arts instruction can be the most effective. (Davies, 2000).
*Through music, memory skills can be improved, and aural (listening) discrimination increased.
*Music and songs helps increase listening skills in a fun, relaxed manner. Listeing skills are key in singing, language and expressive movement, and later reading and writing. (Wolf, 1992).
* Music and song stimulate creativity and foster a positive attitude towards school. (Feldman, 2000).
* Language in music and language in print have many similarities, such as the use of abstract symbols. Both oral language and written language can be obtained in the same manner. That is, by using them in a variety of holistic literacy experiences, and by building on what the students already know about oral and written language. (Clay, 1993).
* Music connects the functions of the left and right hemispheres of the brain so that they work together and make learning quick and easy. Brain function is increased when listening to music and studies have shown that music promotes more complex thinking. it can make connections between emotions, thinking, and learning. (Davies, 2000).
* Emergent readers will attempt to "read" along in a shared reading of a familiar text, just as they will join in a sing along to a familiar song (Sometimes making up the words as they go !) Just as emergent reading and writing are acquired to drawing and pretending to write, musical learning is connected to song and movement. Children instinctively listen to music and try to identify familiar melodies and rhythms, just as early readers will look for words that sound alike, have patterns, or rhyme. (Jalongo & Ribbett, 1997).
References
Clay, M. (1993). An observation survey of early literacy achievement. NH: Heinemann.
Davies, N.L. (2000). The beat goes on. Childhood Education, 148-153.
Feldman, J. (2000). Learn to sing with Dr. Jean.
Jalongo, M. & Ribblett, D. (1997). Using song picture books to support emergent literacy. Childhood Education 15-22.
Wolf, J. 91992). Let's sing it again: Creating music with young children. Young Children.
Making Connections
"Whether a child is mastering a language or learning music, the foundation is the same: enjoyment. Just as a young child's inauguration into the world of music is not learning to read musical notation, a young child's introduction to literacy with print is not learning to decode words. Although both types of literacy-musical and language-ultimately depend upon reading abstract symbols, both skills ideally begin by immersing the child in the medium.Whether young children are learning music or learning language, they serve an "apprenticeship" that begins by observing competent, enthusiastic role models who take pleasure in story and in song..."
Jalongo, M. & Ribblet, D. (1997) Using picture books to support emergent literacy. Childhood Education,15-22.
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