When I was approached about the possibility of a guest post I was hesitant. After reading the content I happily said, YES.
Guest Post by: Angelita Williams
Ever get a song stuck in your head and couldn’t get it out? Wouldn’t it be great if the material your children learn in class got stuck in their heads as well? Music is a great way to teach school lessons to young children. Why? Because the rhythmic melodies help otherwise boring facts and figures get “stuck” in their young brains right alongside the catchy tune. Truth be told, it would still work quite well in high school if most teens weren’t suddenly too cool to sing in class.
Music has long been called a mnemonic device, which is just a fancy word for learning aid. Other common mnemonic devices have included poems (think: “I before E, except after C” or “Thirty days hath September, April, June and November”). Growing up, I learned the 50 U.S. states through a long and clever song that I can still recall word for word today as an adult. When I went to a private religious school, I was made to memorize the books of the Bible in order (there are 66) using a song, which also remains in my head as an adult. Since then, I have learned that students have memorized all of the U.S. presidents, the Preamble to the Constitution and numerous other bits of educational information through song. Who would have thought?
After doing a little snooping around on unique ways teachers are using music and song to aid in the learning process in school, I stumbled upon an excellent Scholastic article where one teacher said she was even able to use songs to aid in the memorization of mathematic principles! Students would find themselves humming to themselves during tests in class, something along the lines of “mean, median, range and mode.”
Turns out that in their training, teachers had been encouraged to use songs to teach mathematic principles that must be committed to memory. Reading this took me back to third grade, where I remember struggling a great deal to memorize the multiplication tables as my teacher drilled me over and over. I would have loved to use a song to help me learn.
I wonder why our educational system widely embraces the use of song for pre-school aged children and kindergarteners (think: “Head and shoulders, knees and toes, knees and toes”), but abandons the concept when children progress to higher grades. I couldn’t help thinking about how beneficial learning through music and song could be for children beyond elementary school. It could also work wonders for parents who are travelling professionals with children in tow and have chosen to home school their children on the road.
How do you use music and song as an educational tool for your children?
By-line:
This guest post is contributed by Angelita Williams, who writes on the topics of online college courses. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: angelita.williams7 @gmail.com.
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