The Importance Of Music In The Classroom

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Introduction
Music affects our moods, feelings and energy levels. Music sets the atmosphere and mood in any classroom. Chris Boyd Brewer (1995) states music is a powerful tool teachers can use to help children emotionally connect with what they are learning. Much research is currently being conducted to determine how music can intentionally be used in the classroom. Indeed, research suggests music and reading are processed with similar parts of the brain (Georgetown University Medical Center, 2007). These areas memorize and organize information, from both music and reading. The ways sentences are structured are similar to that in music, there is a structure, or rules, to harmony and melody. Knowing that music and reading are processed in the brain in a similar fashion, educators could potentially create powerful lessons utilizing music to teach core content.
Statement of the Problem
The National Research Council (Snow, Burns & Griffin, 1998) believes academic success is easily predicted based on the child’s reading ability by the end of third grade. Our Nation encounters many challenges with the bewildering task of improving literacy skills amongst our Nation’s youth. U.S. House of Representatives, Andrew Coulson (2011) explains while there is no evidence of gains in reading and math scores based on the family income, there is, however, alarming evidence of the continued discrepancies among students’ abilities based on the parent’s education level. Even after 40 years, there continues to be a gap between children of parents who failed to graduate high school and children whose parents completed college. The following graph illustrates the amount of Federal expenditures and the impact of using these monies for interventi...

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...egrating Music in the Classroom. Retrieved July 5, 2014 from http://education.jhu.edu/PD/newhorizons/strategies/topics/ Arts%20in%20Education
Coulson, A. (2011). The Impact of Federal Involvement in America’s Classrooms. CATO Institute. Retrieved from http://www.cato.org/publications/congressional-testimony/impact-federal-involvement-americas-classrooms
Georgetown University Medical Center. (2007). Music and language are processed by the same brain systems. Science Daily. Retrieved July 5, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com
Online Colleges. 10 Salient Studies on the Arts in Education. Retrieved on July 5, 2014 from http://www.onlinecolleges.net/10-salient-studies-on-the-arts-in-education/
Snow, C., Burns, M. S., & Griffin, P. (1998). Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, National Research Council. National Academy of Sciences. Washington, D.C.

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