Music and the Developing Mind

Abstract

Music has been an important part of my life ever since I first picked up a guitar when I was eleven years old. Playing an instrument helped me become a more social person and grow as an individual. I believe that music has the power to positively affect the developing minds of children. That is why I have decided to research the importance of music in the class room setting. Music can be incorporated into virtually any subject in an educator’s lesson plan. One of the methods I decided to test while conducting my research is creating a Math lesson using musical notation values instead of numbers in addition and subtraction problems. Teaching the students basic music theory allowed me to substitute numbers for notes and showed me that it is possible for children to learn a specific subject through different teaching methods. A second method I decided to test is the ability for students to increase memorization skills through music. In conducting my research at Terrace View Elementary I helped the educator I was shadowing create catchy jingles for her students to memorize. Before the jingles were created, her students had a difficult time memorizing punctuation rules in her daily language lesson. After a week of incorporating the new jingles I noticed that her students were having less trouble answering the questions she presented in her daily language lesson. While conducting my research, I discovered how versatile music can be in the classroom setting. Not only did the students benefit from each lesson plan but they genuinely craved the unique approach music gave to learning