Incorporating Music and the Arts in Literacy Tutoring

By Kiya Shafer, Anna-Claire Hubbard, Vina Onyango-Robshaw, and Fabiola
Gutierrez, Summer Reads VISTAs

About Summer Reads
This children’s literacy tutor resource was created by Summer Reads VISTA members. Summer Reads is an AmeriCorps VISTA national service (Volunteers In Service To America) program of Literacy Minnesota. For eight weeks over the summer, Summer Reads VISTA members volunteer full-time as children’s/youth literacy mentors in schools, libraries and out-of-school-time programs across Minnesota. They bring literacy to life for low-income students through a variety of activities – one-on-one tutoring, creative enrichment activities like using arts and drama to explore language or practicing vocabulary and comprehension in science and other subjects. They also connect students and parents/caregivers to community resources through wrap-around basic needs support. At the same time, the VISTA members build their own leadership, explore career paths, pay for college and become lifelong advocates for the communities they serve due to the power of their experience. www.literacymn.org/summerreads

Why incorporate art and music with literacy? Art and music can enhance learning reading, writing, and speaking skills. Here’s what is what the research says about the benefits of incorporating art and music in the classroom:

Benefits/positive outcomes of incorporating Music:

• Can increase memory
• Focus concentration
• Enhance imagination
• Accentuate theme-oriented units
• And our favorite - it can help to incorporate an element of FUN!

Benefits/positive outcomes of incorporating Art:

• Can enhance social skills
• Enhance understanding of material that words alone do not covey
• Enhances self-expression/creativity
• Increase hand-eye coordination

Activity Ideas: Art

1. Kids can write a story or be given a story: They can read through and replace each of the nouns with a drawing that represents that noun. It gives them a better understanding of what that word represents, as well as an opportunity to be creative and have fun while writing.
2. Make an alphabet book: Students can make a book filled with each letter of the alphabet, one letter on each page. They can draw objects that start with that letter, or anything that helps them remember the sound of it or what the letter is. It gives them a chance to draw and color while still learning the alphabet and how to spell certain words.
3. Creative Story Writing/Telling: The objective of this activity is to create a story with the teacher and students. Write the story on the board with different colors for the students and the teacher. Alternate between the students and the teacher to write a complete story. When you finish read the story to the class and let them draw a picture describing the story.
4. Artistic Interpretation: For this activity you can use anything, from paper folding to play-doh.
   • Instructions:
     • Weekly: Assign students a book to read and present to you, emphasizing that the more they read the book the more detailed the story will be.
     • Tell the students they have to also prepare a question on any vocabulary they have.
     • Have them present the story to you.
     • Most of the students will draw pictures and work off of the pictures to tell you about the book.
     • After they present, it’s a simple conversational presentation, have them ask any questions they had or words they stumbled upon. (A great time to work on vocabulary!)
   • Recommendations:
     • This worked best because we gave them books on Thursday and they had the weekend to prepare then present the story on Monday. Do give them time to work on it on Monday morning and help them with it. Students learned a lot of vocabulary this way as well because they’d ask questions when they didn’t understand.
5. Use connect-the-dot coloring sheets with “ABC Dots”: Connect-the-dot coloring sheets can be obtained from a simple Google search or websites such as:
   • Bogglesworldesl.com
   • Nickjr.com
   • Abcteach.com

This activity is great because it gets young learner to start recognizing the alphabet, while also working on motor skills, and being creative. You can vary the type of connect the dots by focusing on a specific portion of the alphabet or by upper and lower case letters. You can also get creative by changing the theme for the season, or lesson plan.

Activity Ideas: Music

1. Sing a Song: It is an added bonus if you can provide a visual aide such as a book or video to accompany you while you do the activity, this will give the children an extra source to draw from for increasing memorization of the material. When choosing a song it is nice to tie it to a theme or relevant vocabulary you would like them to learn, but the overall purpose is just to engage the children in another form of spoken language that may result in increased vocabulary skills.
2. The “I love to read” song: This is a creative song that could be used as a segue into reading time, or as standalone song to just get kids excited about reading! The song is based on a poem by Jack Prelutsky.
   • (Sung to the tune of "My Bologna Has a First Name”)
   • I am a lucky person, because I love to read!
   • Reading gets me thinking and helps me to succeed!
   • Sometimes when I am lonely a book is all I need!
   • I am a lucky person because I love to read!
3. Music Listening Workshops: Music listening workshops are pretty simple, this works best when students are restless and you’re trying to accomplish something with the limited time. Select a piece of classical music and then ask students questions to keep their minds actively thinking. Then tell them that you’re going to play a piece of music for them and have them either write or draw whatever comes to mind.

Articles/research studies used and links to more info:

The Harmony Project: The award-winning Harmony Project gives free instruments to at-risk youth around the country, making a deal that if they stay in school, they can get free music lessons. The study found that those students who attended the lessons improved in their communication skills, attention, and memory. It also was discovered that this project could help close the academic gap between rich and poor students. Overall, the project found that by incorporating music and art into schools, struggling students and at-risk youth are able to excel almost to the same level as their peers.

Northwestern University Study: A study was done by Northwestern University looking at the effects of music on the brain. Research revealed that musical training, or just the incorporation of music into education, could heavily influence one’s speech and language, memory and attention, and conveying emotions vocally.

Music and Learning: Integrating Music in the Classroom (article): This is a fantastic article published by Johns Hopkins University’s School of Education, highlighting some of the major benefits of using music in the classroom. As well as highlighting some examples of how you can incorporate music in your class. http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/strategies/topics/Arts%20in%20Educa tion/brewer.htm

Listening to Music and Reading Comprehension (article): This is great article that focuses on the link between hearing music and what is going on in the brain and how it can enhance reading comprehension. The site also has some great links to other articles that cover similar areas of interest. http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/Literacy/whatresearch5.asp

Additional Resources:

These are great sources to find more information on this topic or find additional activities to do at home!

• http://lesson-plans.theteacherscorner.net/music/
• http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/03/090316075843.htm
• http://www.education.com/magazine/article/Can_Music_Help_Learn/
• http://www.aboutartschools.com/education/benefits/’
• http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2013/10/using-music-to-close-theacademic-gap/280362/
• http://www.naturalnews.com/029324_music_brain.html
• http://www.nwt.literacy.ca/resources/famlit/howtokit/musiclit/musiclit.pdf
• https://www.teachervision.com/music/reading-and-language-arts/54323.html
• http://educationcloset.com/2012/07/17/integrating-music-and-literacy/
• http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/education/2002-05-20-arts.htm
• http://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9902EED9153FF934A15754C0A9 609C8B63
• https://www.missouriartscouncil.org/graphics/assets/documents/b657d9f1adf c.pdf