Music and Reading are both enjoyable!

One of the reasons music can be such a successful tool in teaching literacy skills to children is because music and reading by themselves are both enjoyable leisure activities. When we enjoy something, we relax. When we are relaxed, our minds are more open to accepting new information.

When we capture children’s interest during leisure and then repeat the information we are teaching, It’s a successful formula for getting them to retain the information taught, so they can independently generate that information when necessary!

1.Capture interest 2. Repeat information 3. Independently generate what was learned!

For emerging readers, visual aids WITHOUT words reinforce the information being taught, and those images become symbols that bring meaning to the words they represent. In “The Animals” below, for example, there are no words on the screen, just four different animals that represent different melodies. Each animal represents one of the four pitches of the music (baritone, tenor, alto and soprano), which eventually come together to make a pleasant four-part harmony.

Children will learn to associate each animal with its accompanying music:

If the video associated with the song you’re learning has LYRICS making their way across the screen, we introduce literacy awareness and start to build reading skills.

Music has a magical way of feeding the mind information subconsciously. Lyrics sink in naturally as children hear their favourite tunes repeatedly. Add the visual component of lyrics appearing on the screen as the song plays, and you’re “sneaking in” literacy training while their focus is captured by the music and video.

While your children/students are learning about the specific content being taught in a music video that includes text, they are also learning about sentence structure from the words moving across the screen.