![]() In this article, Bintz' major aim is to instill instructional strategies that give students tools they need in order to achieve success in reading and writing. His target is through singing across all content areas (Bintz, 2010). He expresses his hopes for teachers to use this strategy in their classrooms, to help all students, like it helped his own. Singing supports personal expression, builds community and connects reading and writing naturally (Vacca et al., 2006). Bintz states that singing songs help students learn core phonics, build phonemic awareness and even builds sight word vocabularies. He goes on to say that repeated singings and readings help develop reading fluency (Bintz, 2010). Would you know how to sing, The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round without repetitive singing when you were young? What about Take Me Out To The Ball Game? Bintz also mentions to take a popular song, giving it a new title and words and present it to your students. For example: The song Row Row Row your Boat with changed lyrics a parents desperate plea to put their child to sleep now goes: Go Go Go to Sleep (with the tune of Row Row Row your Boat). I thought this was genius! I do the same thing with my students to line up, only they sing a counting-by-threes song using the Jingle Bell tune. (3, 6, 9…12, 15….18, 21. 24, 27, 30 and we’re done) The students love it and they learned to count by 3’s! Bintz, who is a graduate professor, describes how one can add in more than just words to a song. You can teach by using figurative language and metaphors. You can delve into science and analyze the differences between climate and weather amongst many other amazing ideas (Bintz, 2010). As I was reading this article, Bintz talks about similar issues that I currently face as a teacher in primary classroom: reading. When I look at my schools’ overall reading and writing scores, I can’t help but think why? Why are student's scores not as high as they should be and how can I fix it? I have a passion of wanting students to love what they read, to pick up a book rather than opt for just listening to someone else read to them. So I started singing phonics patterns to them when were learning our spelling patterns and sounds. We started moving our bodies to the beats, we come up with songs all day long. Their little ears perked up and their bodies started moving. We were in business! I had found a new way into their hearts and souls, dancing, singing and coming up with our own songs and jingles. Tips and tricks: Bintz also mentions to take a popular song, giving it a new title and words and present it to your students. For example: The song Row Row Row your Boat and with changed the lyrics a parents desperate plea to put their child to sleep and now the lyrics are; Go Go Go to Sleep (with the tune of Row Row Row your Boat). I thought this was genius! I do the same thing with my students to line up only they sing a counting by threes song using the Jingle Bell tune. (3, 6, 9…12, 15….18, 21. 24, 27, 30 and we’re done) The students love it and they learned to count by 3’s! Bintz, who is a graduate professor, describes how one can add in more than just words to a song. You can teach by using figurative language and metaphors. You can delve into science and analyze the differences between climate and weather amongst many other amazing ideas (Bintz, 2010). Through all the songs Bintz talked about in his article (science songs, weather songs..) he mentioned that the students were not only engaged but didn’t separate reading and writing from science but integrated them efficiently! He goes on to say you can use singing in any content area. I use singing familiar tunes all day everyday and am even known to volunteers as the “singing teacher!” It works! It is not only an engagement strategy, but a very effective learning tool! As a newer teacher, I naturally sung directions, activites or pretty much anything, and realized that students are really drawn to singing. I say a direction, and they sing it right back to me. We have fun with it, it helps build relationships and when you align it to your lessons, it is even more powerful. Try it out sometime. References: Bintz, W. P. (2010). Singing Across the Curriculum. Reading Teacher, 63(8), 683-686. Vacca, J.L, Vacca, R.T., Grove, M.K., Burkey, L.C., Lenhart, L.A., & McKeon, C.A. (2006. Reading and Learning to Read (6th ed). Boston: Allyn &Bacon.
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About:Welcome to my blog! If you are interested in learning how music, movement and the brain work together, check out my summaries and reviews based on peer reviewed and research based articles. I have loved reading and learning more about how music, exercise and movement help the brain learn. I hope you enjoy it too! Archives
March 2017
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