Running Head: BRINGING MUSIC IN THE CLASSROOM 1

Bringing Music in the Classroom and

How it Increase Students Language Arts Skills

Myisha Celestine

California State University, Dominguez Hills

February 23, 2016

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Abstract

This paper addresses the impact that music has in increasing students academic skills in the

classroom. Paquette and Reig (2008) suggest that music in the classroom supports English

language learners in their literacy development as well as reading and writing. By incorporating

music, it provides a pleasant and positive learning environment. This paper also examines

Iwasaki, Rasinski, Yidirim, and Zimmerman (2013) study back songs increase reading skills.

Through the use of music, Iwasaki introduces a new song every week to her students where they

are able to learn memorization skills, comprehension skills, identify word families,

pronunciation, rhythm, , and build confidence while they are learning.

Bringing Music in the Classroom and

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How it Increase Students Language Arts Skills

Introduction

Do you remember songs that your elementary teacher played in class? Songs like Clean

Up, BINGO, Oh MacDonald Had a Farm, and If Your Happy and You Know It. These

are all examples of songs that can be used in classrooms to increase Language Arts skills. By

bringing back music, students will experience an exciting way to learn. Many children songs

help students extend their vocabulary and comprehension skills. It also teaches pronunciation,

rhythm, and word patterns. Music should be included in the elementary curriculum because it

develops memory skills, teaches word families, and builds confident in reading.

Develops memory skills

Through music, students develop a mastery of memorization. Students will learn to

memorize sight words and become better readers. According to Iwasaki, Rasinski, Yildirim, and

Zimmerman (2013) sight words are essentially memorized words by sight and sound. The

memorability of the words in songs offers good opportunities for developing young students

sight vocabulary. Students are encouraged to memorize these words by sight and sound, so

they can be automatically recognized by beginning readers. Sight words are used in most songs.

By using songs to teach students sight words, it provides lots of repetition that allows students to

be successful in memorizing sight words. In Ms. Jimenezs kindergarten class, she makes a sight

word book for every student. Every morning, the sight words are presented on the projector, and

the song is played in the background. The song sings the words and spells it out. By playing this

song every morning students will memorize the word as well as the spelling, through repetition.

Learning Word Families

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Music encourages students to learn word families. Paquette and Rieg (2008) states that

many young children appear to be naturally inclined to hum or to sing a tune so it is beneficial

to build upon their musical interests and enhance their literacy development simultaneously.

Children first encounter music when they are in the womb. They hear it and move to it. Later on

in life they sing to it. It becomes a natural thing in life for children to recite songs they hear. In

the classroom, it becomes very beneficial to use music to make connections in literacy

development. Lyrics in songs have rhyming patterns, which help teachers in teaching students

about word families. Teaching word families through songs provides a fun and easy way to

understand the concept of how word families work. In Iwasakis (2013) weekly routine in her

classroom, she used a children song called You Are My Sunshine to make connections to the

curriculum theme for the week. On day 2, Iwasaki introduces rhyming words that are in the

song. She shows the class how the ay word family in gray appears in other words as well, like

day, say, stay, may, and bay. Students will then gain the concept of how to find word families in

any story they read. This helps students learn how to read new words by identifying the word

family.

Builds Confidence in Reading

Using music, as a teaching tool builds confidence in reading. The repeated readings of

song lyrics allow even the less proficient readers to develop a mastery of the songs that was

equal to the more advanced students.(Iwasaki et. al, 2013) Students that are below basic in

reading will develop confidence when song lyrics are repeated because they will learn words.

They will then be at the same level as the students that are advanced in reading because they

have mastered the song. Using songs, to help teach reading allows everyone to participate while

having fun. Singing songs is something that children of all levels love to do and can enjoy
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equally. For example, at 118th Elementary School, the kindergarten students had to learn I Can

chorus by Nas to perform for Black History Month. At first, when given the lyrics on paper the

students that were unfamiliar with the song did not feel comfortable singing but did gestures that

went along with the song. Since the chorus of the song is very repetitious, the less proficient

students learned the lyrics and felt confident in performing in from of the whole school. The

more advanced students, also builds confidence in reading in songs. Although they know the

lyrics to the song and can sing along very fast, they learn to improve their rhythm and the correct

pronunciation of certain words.

Conclusion

In Conclusion, music is an important tool to use in the classroom. It helps produce

memorization techniques, promotes learning different word families, and establish confidence in

students reading. As one can see, through the examples of Ms. Jimenez sight word repetition,

Iwasakis class routine, and a performance from a kindergarten class demonstrates that by

incorporating music into elementary curriculum it helps increase language arts skills such as

memorization of sight words, learning how to identify rhyming words, and develop confidence

as students learn to read. If music were brought back into classrooms, there will be an increase

in students vocabulary, comprehension, and. Music provides a fun and exciting way for

students to become academically ready for the adult world. So why not try it!

References
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Iwasaki, B., Rasinski, T., Yildirim, K., & Zimmerman, B. S. (2013). Let's Bring Back the Magic

of Song for Teaching Reading. Read Teach, 67(2), 137-141

Paquette, K. R., & Rieg, S. A. (2008). Using Music to Support the Literacy Development of

Young English Language Learners. Early Childhood Education Journal, 36(3), 227-232.

doi:10.1007/s10643-008-0277-9
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