Music and Math in Education

Emma Richardson

January 29, 2012

ED 318

References

Pearman, C. J., & Friedman, T. (2009). Reading and Rhythm: Binding Language Arts and Music in an Academic Notebook. General Music Today, 23(1), 12-16. doi:10.1177/1048371309331610

This article is about Language Arts and Music, and using an academic notebook. To begin integration, each student had a notebook which was kept in the music room. The notebook was used to put their reading and music learning into words. Students were allowed to decorate their notebooks to show ownership.

Teachers would read a story such as, “The Deaf Musicians”, by (Seiger & Dubois-Jacobs, 2006). The story tells of a band member who loses his hearing, and has to leave his band. He goes to a local school for the deaf and finds out that he can still have music in his life.

Class discussions followed the story along with questions. Students reflected and wrote their own answers in their notebooks. As a follow up activity, the school speech pathologist taught the class a song in sign language.

They also began notating rhythms. In the music section of their notebooks, they used popsicle sticks to represent a single quarter note, and two vertical sticks with a third barred across the top was an eighth note. Students took turns clapping out the rhythm using one another’s popsicle sticks as a guide.

Students used color-coded pages from their notebooks to correctly place notes on the staff as the rhythm of the current book was demonstrated. The integration of music and language arts in this article was full of wonderful ideas. I will definitely keep this in my collection to use one day in my own class.