Songs can embed themselves deeply in our minds and our memories. Can you remember a specific song that immediately takes you back to a place and time in your past?
For me, these three have very vivid memories:
- When I was moving into the dorms at Indiana State University my freshman year — a wide-eyed brand new college student — “Smooth” by Santana (featuring Rob Thomas) was on the radio almost every hour.
- As a high school kid, right after getting my first car (a 1987 Plymouth Reliant K), I remember blasting “Semi-Charmed Life” by Third Eye Blind as I cruised past Indiana cornfields with the cool summer air coming through the windows. (The air conditioning in that car didn’t work!)
- When my wife and I were fixing up a foreclosed house we bought, I remember scraping off old kitchen floor tiles and hanging cabinets with Brandon Heath’s “Your Love” playing in the background over and over.
(If you have one of your own, please post it in the comments below!)
It’s amazing how song lyrics dig themselves deep into our minds and stay there our whole lives. However, when we want to learn something and try to memorize it, it won’t stick as easy as a song will.
Music and lyrics can play powerful roles in the classroom. They can help students remember key content. They can encourage conversations. Plus, there’s great fun in creating music that relates to class content.
In a recent #DitchBook Twitter chat, we discussed the impact of music and lyrics in the classroom and tossed around ideas for incorporating them to engage students. Check out the ideas, along with tons of resources, below. Click here for a recap of the chat.
13 ways to connect music to the classroom
1. Write song lyrics
Shared by: Todd Shriver and Kristin Daley Conti
2. Create an annotated playlist
Shared by: Todd Shriver
3. Try musical timers
Shared by: Adam Juarez
4. Use music for transitions
Shared by: Laura Steinbrink
5. Grab a TeachRock.org lesson
Shared by: Todd Shriver
6. Embed music in Google Slides
Shared by: Brian Thayer and Krista Harmsworth
7. Combine coding and music
Shared by: Karly Moura
8. Conduct a blog opera
Shared by: Kristin Daley Conti
9. Learn about Music, Makers and Machines
Shared by: Todd Shriver
10. Add music to any subject with Flocabulary
Shared by: Tori Dennie
11. Set up your own music studio with Soundtrap
Shared by: Cameron Ross
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12. Schedule a Google Meet with musicians
Shared by: Todd Shriver
#Ditchbook A2 Some of our other guests. Honored to have @jmattmiller join us for the interview with Mark Goodman. pic.twitter.com/vleUTku7mP
— Todd Shriver (@ToddShriver) October 8, 2021
13. Create a classroom playlist
Shared by: Alisha Foor
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[…] was just reading an article about how bringing music and song lyrics into the classroom can impact the learning in your classroom. The author even goes so far as to […]
I have had kids write parodies teaching grammar. It really does help them remember the parts of speech! They really love it when I do a pronoun rap to model the process for them!
I recently used two songs — Keith Urban’s “John Cougar, John Wayne, John 3:16” and Andrew McMahon’s “Cecilia and the Satellite” in my college freshman writing class (actually, advanced seniors in high school). We were working on word choice and meaning. Thus, we discussed the messages throughout both songs. I provided them with a template for each with the actual song lyrics in one column and then particular sections blanked out of the lyrics in another column. Their task was to choose a song and fill in the blanks with words that related to and revealed their own lives. Doing the second song was an extra credit option. They loved the whole copy-change concept — and yes, we discussed plagiarism and how to cite the original artist first. Several of the students did both songs!
Dear Matt,
Thank you for some more great ideas.
I use 101 Hand Motions and catchy slogans to teach US History.
Visit Youtube: Mr. Goodwin Hands Across Time.
I’m also adding songs from US HIstory to go with each chapter.
Keep on singin’
Todd Goodwin
When we are having a day we need to get our energy up we get up and get moving with GoNoodle.com
This is a topic that really resonates (pun intended) with me. I’d like to share three things.
First, I recall Christopher Cross’s “Ride Like the Wind (to be free again)” being the very first song to come on the radio as I drove away from college for the summer – and this was over 35 years ago! I was transferring to a college the next year that would bring me closer in proximity to my husband-to-be. We have been married now for 34 years, and I still ride like the wind to get to where he is.
Second, one of the best math teacher colleagues with whom I have had the privilege to work had her HS algebra students singing silly songs to learn the concepts. They grumbled, but they loved her for it. When she was awarded teacher of the year during an assembly, students in the audience stood up and started singing one of her songs, and the rest of the student body pretty much joined in. The power of music helped her be an effective math teacher, and it apparently made a lasting memory for a lot of students over the years.
Third, I am a visual learner – something I didn’t know when I was in high school. I often listen to books on CD in the car, but it’s a bit of a stretch since I am not good with auditory inputs. Over the years, this has actually helped me better process info when I am in auditory-only settings (e.g., meetings). However, the connection to learning hit home in an unusual way. Sometimes, something would happen and I’d lose my place on the CD – for example if someone took it out and it started back at track 1. But the strange thing was this – as I would fast forward and listen to a snippet of conversation, I’d ‘see’ in my mind where I happened to be driving when I heard those words before. I would think to my self, “I heard that sentence when I was at intersection X” or “I heard this one when I was pulling into the driveway.” So my visual-learner brain made the connections it needed to process and store the auditory input. I had read that the brain learns by making connections, but this was an up-close and personal way to experience that for myself – very powerful and something I have never forgotten. The lesson for me is that by using a variety of inputs (visual, auditory, etc.), not only am I making sure to meet individuals’ learning needs, it also helps students who prefer other learning modes to make connections as well.
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