The Music and Literacy Connection

By (author) Dee Hansen, Elaine Bernstorf, Gayle M. Stuber

Hardback - £88.00

Publication date:

24 September 2014

Length of book:

314 pages

Publisher

Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

ISBN-13: 9781475805987

The second edition of The Music and Literacy Connection expands our understanding of the links between reading and music by examining those skills and learning processes that are directly parallel for music learning and language arts literacy in the pre-K, elementary, and secondary levels. This edition includes two new chapters: one dedicated to secondary music education and teacher evaluation, and another that offers a literature review of latest literacy research in education, neuroscience, and neuropsychology. Readers will find extensive instructional examples for music and reading teachers so that they may enrich and support each other in alignment with current initiatives for twenty-first-century curricula. Instructional examples are aligned with The National Core Music Standards and the Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts and Media Arts. Readers will find an in-depth review of the benefits of music learning in the listening, viewing, speaking and writing literacy as well as comprehensive information for children with special needs. The Music and Literacy Connection is a valuable resource for professional development, college literacy courses, and curriculum administrators.
Pressure to improve student literacy skills has grown in this era of common core state standards (CCSS) and the Race to the Top initiative. Many administrators and specials teachers have sought to tie subjects such as music to literacy as a means of obtaining greater student achievement in this area. The Music and Literacy Connection provides a framework that will permit music education specialists, administrators, reading specialists, and general education teachers to teach musical activities in a way that allows students to transfer certain skills to reading. The book, which also contains an introduction and appendices, is organized into four parts that treat children as interactive learners, explore the connection between literacy and music instruction, discuss ways to teach literacy through multiple processes, and examine the lifelong benefits of musical training. The book includes detailed explanations of some of the fundamentals of music and literacy instruction and a variety of charts, tables, figures, and other visuals that make the work accessible to all. Especially useful are a variety of subsections directed at practitioners, including recommendations for using instructional strategies with cooperative groups, children of different ages, and connections with the CCSS. Summing Up: Highly recommended. General readers, upper-division undergraduate students, and above.