How to Teach History to Children With Music
The facts can't be refuted: Children exposed to a balance of scholarly and enrichment-based educational experiences will grow to be more creative, more tolerant and more self-assured when they reach adulthood. That's the reason educators and parents are concerned about disappearing art and music curricula across the United States. Creative teachers know that it's up to them to find ways to customize their learning activities to make up for this lack, so many are going the extra mile and pairing academics with music, art and dance. Want to find out how much kids can learn using this combination of disciplines? Try it out.
Instructions
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Examine the lesson plans your department head has given you, or take a critical look at the ones you've written for your history classes over time. Make sure that each lesson adheres to history curricula mandated by your state guidelines. Head for the Internet to construct a musical time line that matches composers, bands, singers and performing art groups with each era you plan to cover during the semester.
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Create a class structure for each history unit you are required to cover. Visit the library to check out the music collection or make friends with someone at the local music store to find out if there's any way to obtain the recorded music you've picked. With funds disappearing at alarming rates from school budgets, you'll need to be creative about underwriting your music budget.
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Find out which students in your history class are also studying musical instruments and plan for several concerts to be performed in your classroom that coincide with your history lessons. Children who don't play instruments can be assigned percussion duties. Borrow tambourines, drums, bells, sticks, triangles and other such hand-held instruments from a music teacher or a music store.
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Pair up great personalities with music to offer children mnemonic devices for learning important dates and personalities of larger-than-life historical figures. For instance, teaching students that Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492 from Italy offers you a chance to pair color theory (blue) with nautical music (make it loud -- kids love it), and a crowned king and queen (make-believe Ferdinand and Isabella) and a hand-drawn boat contest give children the rich experience of the event. Jumble up the 1-4-9-2 on the board and let kids reassemble the correct date. As another example, mix Beethoven with Napoleon and Grieg with the Vikings.
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Read aloud a story from the historical period you're covering to get away from the videos, films and TV students encounter in and out of the classroom. This promotes awareness, abstract thinking and learning on a subliminal level. As the children listen to the story, deepen the experience by playing background music. When you test the class on that unit, play the music again. Don't be surprised by an overall lift in test scores at the end of the semester.
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Make it real. Suppose you were able to teach history, music and empathy at the same time? Come up with classroom strategies that create natural associations. Consider the Civil War and the issue of slavery. When students learn about what life was like on the plantation, infusing the curricula with music like "Swing Low, Sweet Chariot" helps kids get in touch with that era's oppression. As a bonus, you'll create a receptive environment for discussions on tolerance of other races.
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Pair music with sensations to drive home history's profound social lessons. Hold a discussion group about Americans who have fought in the wars in which this nation has been engaged. Play big band music so kids hear what men and women found appealing during World War II when the United States was at war with Germany, Japan and Italy. Reinforce Vietnam lessons with the music of Jimi Hendrix and Janice Joplin. Use Beatles music to introduce British history. Your students likely know someone stationed in an overseas military base. Bring the names of these countries to the blackboard so that children can connect the music with the historical period.
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Allow your unique curricula to spur writing assignments. Give children in-class time to compose history of their own making accompanied by musical backgrounds to help push thought processes forward. Ask them to find and select music that best represents the period of history covered in class. Give students time to write about reactions to the day's lesson plan, then collect the "history journals" for distribution the following day. Present each student with their book at the end of the term. These priceless mementos will have students saying, "History? I loved that class."
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Tips & Warnings
Teachers pairing history with music report sparking lifelong fascination with history in kids -- the kind of passion for the past that stays with them long after graduation.
References
- Photo Credit © New York Times
