I believe that music can be used in many facets of teaching and that it is probably not used often enough outside the music room.
Music certainly engages and calms students as well as creating an atmosphere in the classroom. The type of atmosphere depends on the type of music.
I searched the Incompetech website for a piece of music which could accompany a presentation on Vietnam to link in with the senior’s trip next year.
I found a piece called ‘Cambodian Odyssey’ which perfectly suits the Eastern theme. It uses flute and percussion to create a dark, mystical and eastern feel. It was written specifically for a documentary on Cambodia, so couldn’t be more ideal.
Using music in the primary classroom is the norm, especially in lower grades, but not so much in secondary school where the learning can become routine and predictable.
Purcell (1992) says that regularly incorporating music into the learning can help to reinforce important curricular factors such as ‘skill development, grammar and vocabulary acquisition and cultural sensitivity.’ He further states that the use of music adds the dimension of right brain (or creative/emotional) activities to the curriculum and helps the learner to use another method of processing new information.
This is an important point, as all learners have different needs, and it could be a way of catering for students who learn differently, using their creativity or emotional aspects of their personality to enhance their learning.
Cheers
Mia
References
Cambodian Odyssey, Macleod, K. (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0" http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"
http://incompetech.com/ Viewed August 15, 2009.
Purcell, J.M. (1992) Using Songs to Enrich the Secondary Class, Hispania, Vol. 75, No. 1 (Mar., 1992), pp. 192-196 http://www.jstor.org/stable/344779 Viewed August 15, 2009
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