Q: Why did you start using music in your classroom?

A: When I taught third grade, my student population was English Language Learners (ELL). During my first year, I asked myself, “How are these kids going to get words like ‘isosceles triangle’ and ‘parallel lines,’ if they don’t speak English with friends or at home?” I’m not a professional musician, but I know the power of music, and music is an important part of my life. So I had this idea of using songs to teach. There are different things out there related to how to teach with music, but I really got kids involved by asking them to compose their own songs about concepts like isosceles triangles, and subject-verb agreement. And it worked! I see them taking tests and singing songs to themselves, and using different strategies for recalling the information. You can’t underestimate the power of music. I believe that we are fighting a war against video games and action-packed films. So what can I do in my classroom to make it exciting? Teachers have the choice to teach from the book in the 1950s way, or they can be given a little bit of freedom to investigate the material and get active with the material.

Q: What are some examples of how you’ve done that?

I’m a big arts advocate, and an advocate of using visual arts to help them start their stories when they are doing creative writing. Other teachers should employ, and probably do, their personal experiences to teach. So I’ll show a videotape of me bungee jumping in Costa Rica as an example of my own personal adventure story, and then they have to think of their own personal adventure and write about it. Engaging activities like that are the way to go.

Q: Tell me a bit more about the use of music in your classroom.

A: With the isosceles triangle song, we wrote it as a group so we could recite the song as a group. I said, “Here’s an isosceles triangle. What are the specifics about it? It has two equal sides, and the third side is different.” The kids came up with, “An isosceles triangle has two equal sides, and the third is alone so it always cries.” I just finished my masters on the importance of integrating music in elementary education. When students attach an emotion to a concept, it’s more easily retrievable than through rote memorization. So singing is part of that strategy. I also incorporate sign language into the class, just the basic alphabet. I use a program called Whole Brain Teaching. It’s another encryption method that the brain uses to encode what is happening. So I’ll use music, and then the hand movements when they’re signing add more layers of memory to create more possibilities that the students will retrieve the information when they need it. For example, taking the word “baby” from singular to plural, the students will learn to chant, “Drop the ‘Y,’ change to ‘I,’ and add ‘es.’” And they will sing that out as they say it.

Q: Tell me about your master’s thesis.

A:A thesis always starts with a question or concern, and mine was, “If I’m a general education teacher with no music background, how do I bring music into the classroom?” I drafted 10 to 15 lessons that general education teachers can bring to the classroom. And because my student population was the ELL population, I combine music concepts with books. For example, in one lesson, I have students reading a book about Duke Ellington. I introduce them to the composer, and jazz in America. They get all of these vocabulary words like “genre,” and the concepts brought out by the book, like characters, plot. The Ellington book also has great use of similes, which is a 4th grade standard. There’s also one or two lessons that introduce students to the recorder. In it, you ask the students, “What’s a musical staff?” Well, it’s five, horizontal, parallel lines. So in that way, you’re bringing in math when you’re teaching music. But you’re also introducing the concept of a measure, and the blocking of time. I’m trying to cross-connect over the disciplines. I’m trying to gray out those hard, demarcated lines between subjects.

Q: What do you ultimately hope your students will learn from music?

A:My mantra is that no child should leave my class not knowing how to read and not knowing how to read music. If they want to continue music in middle school, that’s great. If not, that’s great, but at least they have that option. I may not be able to teach them how to play the flute, but at least they have an appreciation for music, and an ear to say that what they’re hearing is a trumpet or a trombone, or that that’s Baroque and not jazz. I even have kindergartners who can identify the difference between Beethoven and Duke Ellington!

Letford is a founding teacher at New Academy Canoga Park in Southern California who received a Masters of Arts in Elementary Education from California State University, Northridge.