Let the singing begin!

My mother's side of the family recently held its tenth family reunion over a twenty year span beginning in 1990. My mother comes from a family of fifteen siblings and she was the last child.She is now seventy years old.I had cousins I had never met or really never had any real connection the way it should have been.the thing is that some were practically strangers and conversations may have been initially stilted but... as soon the chutney and soca music began, we all became one on the dance floor! That is the power of music!
When another brought out his guitar, all inhibitions were gone when everyone joined in a medley of kaiso from Jean and Dinah to Teacher Mildred.The bottle and spoons came out and we had our own rhythm section.
That is the power of singing!

So how does this relate to our educational blogging? Immediately my mind reflected on an article 'Singing across the curriculum' by William P. Bintz(again). In his article he shares his attempt to use singing to help students learn across the curriculum.He particularly felt that this strategy would engage the boys who tend to lose interest in reading and writing if they not actively engaged.

I think as far back as we can remember we have been using singing as an educational tool without our children realising it. How many times have we sung 'The wheels on the bus' The incy wincy spider' or Ten green bottles'? Fountas and Pinnell(1999) recognized the long term effects of singing and recommend having students 'sing songs of such delight that the lyrics remain in the memory forever'

'Singing across the curriculum' is an instructional strategy designed to use reading, writing and singing as tools to learn across the curiculum. The aim is to support literacy and promote content area learning.

The article can be accessed from 'The Reading Teacher' Vol. 63,(8),May 2010.
Let the singing begin!