INTEGRATING READING INTO THE MUSIC
CLASSROOM
Karen Harvey
am an elementary music teacher.
As a music teacher, it is my responsibility to
pass on to students in my classes a love and
appreciation of the arts. I also understand the
importance of supporting regular education
teachers and their efforts to teach students to
read. It is easy to integrate reading into the
songs I teach the students. In the article,
Making Music, Reaching Readers: Making
Powerful Connections Possible for Young
Students, D’Agrosa (2008) writes about music
and reading connections. According to
D’Agrosa, capitalizing on the connections
between music and reading and intentionally
including them in lessons can be a powerful tool
in educating the whole child and may improve
reading scores. D’Agrosa found that reading
connections have a natural connection to
learning and creating music. Musical
connections to reading include pre-reading
skills, such as phonological awareness,
syllabification, fluency, vocabulary, and
comprehension.
Pre-reading skills include listening and
speaking, which are usually developed before
reading and writing (D’Agrosa, 2008). The
kindergarten students quickly learn my
classroom routines. When I introduce the
kindergartners to a new song, they always echo
each phrase of the song. After echoing phrases,
I move on to the whole song where I sing the
entire song alone; then the class sings the
entire song together with me. Students need to
listen carefully so they can sing the