Integrating Music KLA links with Mathematics, English and Science and Technology prove essential for the reinforcement of concepts within these subject areas. For instance, Music embedded within Mathematics may assist the complex understandings of fractions where crotchets represent one beat, quavers portray half a beat and minims two beats (Adams, 2017). One archetypal example of the integration of this Musical language consists of the use of Musical equations or algebra.
However, extensive thought and the creation of appropriate resources are required of in service teachers, proving to be perhaps challenging pedagogical considerations. In this regard, thorough knowledge of the beat and tempo within the overarching concept, duration, are crucial. This serves to best assist students in their accuracy of answers and hence contributes to the “success of their overall learning processes” (Ehrlinger & Shain, 2014, p. 13).
Alternatively, in order to promote learning of meaning based on stimuli such as picture books, engaging and stimulating activities, based on student centred learning should take place, as scaffolded by teachers (Crapoulet, 2009). Soundscapes could be created by students to depict the emotions in stories.
The experimentation of pitch, involving melody and harmony, often mirror the meanings of vocabulary such as up, down, straight, curvy, as depicted in Henry and Amy (King, 1999). Useful resources for students to utilise consist of Purple Planet Music, Watch Create and Wrightstuffmusic.com (Cincotta, 2017).
Cincotta, N. (2017, May 16). Personal communication.
Crapoulet, E. (2009). Voicing the Music in Literature. European Journal of English Studies, 13, 79-91.
Ehrlinger, J., & Shain, E. A. (2014). How accuracy in students’ self perceptions relates to success in learning. Applying science of learning in education, 84, 5-17.
King, S. M. (1999). Henry and Amy. Lindfield: Scholastic Australia.