HOT TOPIC: Music
Volume 1, Issue 24 - March 6, 2005"Music is an integral part of every child’s school experience. We may not all be musically inclined, but we all respond to and benefit from music in our lives. In particular, there is the math and music connection. We have been seeing research come out over the past decade suggesting a connection between young children learning music at an early age and math achievement. This has caused much buzz among educators, not just because it justifies music programs in our schools, but because it means there is an important connection between early learning experience with auditory patterning and the ability to master math concepts.
The learner with a strong musical intelligence will look for patterns in new information he or she encounters. The learner with a musical orientation needs time to immerse themselves in new material and make sense of it by finding patterns in it they can naturally identify for themselves. Another key concept in understanding the musical intelligence is audiation. This is a relatively new concept developed by Edwin E. Gordon (see http://www.giml.org/). The concept behind the term is to think musically in your mind. We have traditionally thought of the process of thinking as a verbal phenomenon, whether processing ideas in our mind or vocally. However, many learners have formed ideas in sound patterns, or audiated, rather than the more linear verbal thought process. While this is still a relatively new way to look at thinking, learning and applying knowledge, it will surely have implications for how we look at instruction in the future.
More than any other reason for including music in your curriculum, though, is its sheer power to enrich and enhance our lives. Classical music, folk songs and popular lyrics all are compelling conduits to learning, remembering, appreciating and understanding. By bringing music into your classroom you bring learning alive. This week’s edition of the Digital Dozen offers you twelve great sites that will help you make connections for your students; not just connections about music but connections through music to the many areas of the curriculum you cover every day. I hope you will find these sites as enticing and engaging as I have – enjoy! ....."
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