Friday, February 20, 2009

La La La La

According to Howard Gardner, musical intelligence involves skill in the performance, composition, and appreciation of musical patterns. It encompasses the capacity to recognize and compose musical pitches, tones, and rhythms.
Some of us (not all, but a lot) have this intelligence and may not even know it. Younger children embrace and use this intelligence. Sadly, as we get older (or teach older students), this intelligence gets lost in the shuffle.
Take a look at this site:
http://www.songsforteaching.com/
Here is Dr. Jean's site, too:

Any thoughts? Do you know of any other sites for music to teachers?

2 comments:

mmdspc said...

I think using math songs to remember very basic math skills is a good idea as long as the total concept is taught at the age appropriate level. Using rhymes and peg words are good for remembering things but if conceptual knowledge does not accompany what is being taught - the song is just what it is - a song! I have an eighth grade student who can create a "rap" for anything that he is being taught. He can remember anything when he rhymes. This works for subjects which require memorization to answer questions that were already given in class via reading, definitions, etc. His "rap" songs do not do much for him in mathematics because he does not have the conceptual knowledge and cannot apply anything in his song. It's not that I disagree with using music and songs as an aid to remembering what was taught, but the student & teacher must know it is just an aid to support what was taught.

Donna said...

I love the idea of teaching using Music. I know children learn from this . I find it fascinating that teaching curriculums do not use this type of intelligence more often. From infancy children learn songs and understand what they're reciting. My wish is for schools to incorporate more multiple intelligence techniques to use to reach all of the students.
Administrators must learn to teach outside of the box to reach children, especially in this multimedia day and age. Rote memorization seems to be a teaching tool from the dark ages! Let's get with the program. I loved this site.