Movement activities in the general music classroom 1

Movement activities in the general

music classroom

Justin Keeth
Portland State University
CI-563
Teacher as Researcher
Emily De La Cruz
7/17/10
Movement activities in the general music classroom 2

I chose my topic to be about the connection between music and movement as it relates to

student learning after completing my work sample with 1st grade classes. Although my work

sample did not directly address this connection, upon reflection I noticed the most successful

activities involved students displaying their music knowledge through movement. Firstly,

students remained engaged for longer periods of time. The students needed to be moving and had

trouble sitting in one spot throughout class. Secondly, students also retained more information

when playing music games that included movement. Students were learning music through play,

which is the same way they learn to understand the world around them. As I learned more about

music education, I discovered that movement is a commonly used tool for teaching general

music. Seeing how successful it is in music pedagogy motivated me to dig deeper and choose it

as a research topic.

I plan on writing about how movement activities help students become musically

proficient, particularly how movement helps students understand rhythmic concepts. Due to the

fact that early elementary students are not yet at the cognitive level of being able to talk about

some abstract concepts in music, students are often asked to display their knowledge of music in

kinesthetic ways. For instance, most kindergarten students are unable to describe steady beat as it

relates to time in music, yet when they are marching to a steady beat, students can show their

knowledge of the concept by physically performing it.

One lesson activity during my work sample was teaching the students about the quarter

rest in music. I chose to have them play a game in which students stood in a circle with one

student in the center. As we sang a song, the student in the center walked around the inner circle,

tapping the hands of each student in the outer circle to the beat. Since the song had a quarter rest

in it, the point was to have the student still tap a student’s hand on that beat. By having the
Movement activities in the general music classroom 3

student continue the steady beat through the quarter rest, the idea that the beat continues when

there is silence in music was reinforced. Although this was my only lesson on the quarter rest in

the work sample, 80% of the students got the quarter rest question correct on the post-

assessment. This made me realize the potential powerful connection between movement and

music education. On the pre-assessment only seven students were able to answer that question

correctly, yet after the once movement activity, that number increased to 20 students. I had

initially begun the lesson by verbally explaining the concept of a rest to the first graders, lecture

style, with the students sitting in their spots and me teaching in the front of the classroom. I could

tell they struggled with what a rest sounded like and what it looked like. They had nothing to

connect the concept to, so halfway into the lesson I decided I needed to come up with a different

approach. As I discussed above, by having them move and feel the beat and the rests, the

students were able to quickly learn the concept and describe it back to me. What are teaching

methods that can be used to reinforce this connection between movement and learning?

Through music education courses, I learned about the different pedagogical approaches to

teaching students, especially in music. One of the pioneers of movement in music education was

Emile Jaques-Dalcroze. It wasn’t until I began student teaching that I realized the effectiveness

of his approach and I tried to incorporate his methods into my lesson plans as often as possible.

Taking advantage of my knowledge of his theories, I was able to come up with the movement

activity in my quarter rest lesson so quickly. He called his pedagogy method “eurhythmics”,

which in Greek means “good flow” or “good movement” (Mead, 1996, p. 38). According to

Wang (2008),

“The concept of the Dalcroze approach is that children develop a sense of rhythm by

what they hear and how they express that hearing into their own body movements.
Movement activities in the general music classroom 4

Dalcroze’s approach encourages children to develop and to be aware of the possible

expression of their own body. This approach helps children to use their bodies as easily

as their own voices.” (p. 32-33)

From the inception of the Dalcroze method in 1903, schools around the world have adopted the

principles of his approach (Mead, 1996, p. 39). More and more music teachers are seeing the

benefits of movement in the classroom. From watching my cooperating teacher, I saw that each

of his lessons had some aspects of movement throughout the lessons, so that students did not sit

in one spot during his class. According to Mueller,

“movement is a natural, inherent response that reflects and enhances a child’s enjoyment

of music, it offers another means of self-expression and artistic communication. These

types of movement instruction serve as useful strategies through which children’s

perceptual and conceptual learning in music can be enhanced. Movement can be

incorporated in a variety of listening settings. Integrated with listening skills, movement

can serve as a valuable means through which children’s cognitive, physical, emotional,

and musical realms can be enhanced and developed.”

During my research, I looked for studies that made me feel confident in the correlation

between movement and learning music education. In a study by Wang (2008), 1000 sixth grade

students were chosen to test the benefits of the Dalcroze method of music education. Half of the

students were taught rhythms using the Dalcroze method and half were taught using traditional

music singing instruction. Students were given the same pre and post assessment and were

evaluated on their ability to perform a steady beat, meter, rest, duration, and rhythmic patterns.

The Dalcroze group completed a number of activities such as clapping, rolling a ball, and

stomping on certain beats. At the end of the study, students did not only perform better overall,
Movement activities in the general music classroom 5

but also showed higher learning gains as the assessment continued. The study concludes by

suggesting that “constant music training with a series of rhythmic activities and locomotion in

the music class can help students’ better understanding of learning different rhythms and meters

efficiently.” (p. 38) Since rhythm is one of main building blocks in learning music, my students

need this solid foundation as they learn other music concepts I teach them.

Similarly, in a study done by Rohwer (1998), sixth grade students were tested on their

ability to perceive degrees of beat steadiness, synchronize to music, and perform steadily. They

were divided into two groups that were taught using different methods. “The treatment group

focused on more overt manifestations of steadiness with larger, fluid movements, whereas the

control group used more covert, cognitive processes and traditional small-movement

experiences.” (Rohwer, 1998, p. 33).

The control group was taught rhythm using methods traditionally found in the classroom.

The teacher used “rhythm syllables and vocalization techniques with students to reach the goal of

rhythmic fluency.” Students were encouraged to tap the steady beat with their feet during

listening activities. Meanwhile, the treatment group performed movement activities that

“included nonlocomotor body percussion activities (such as leg-patting, clapping, snapping, and

foot and heel movements), bean-bag tosses, conducting, rope pulls, and imaged movements, such

as weight lifting and basketball playing synchronized to musical examples of a variety of styles.”

(Rohwer, 1998, p. 417)

As the treatment group scored better on the post-assessment, Rohwer (1998) found that

“movement activities may develop psychomotor awareness and lead to more steady

performances.” (p. 422). Since music is a performance-based subject, where musicians are
Movement activities in the general music classroom 6

required to have exceptional fine motor skills, this development of psychomotor awareness is

vital to their development.

Given the results of these studies, it is shown that movement activities can be used to

enhance instruction. The reason I believe is because by adding kinesthetic activities to

instruction, all three learning modalities are used. Since music is an aural art form, students are

used to learning by listening. The traditional music teacher teaches many songs by rote, and

students use their ears to match pitch and echo the song back. The visual modality has also

traditionally been used to teach musical symbols and notation. But by adding kinesthetic

activities, teachers have a greater chance of reaching the diverse learners in the classroom. This

might be even more important for younger children since the majority of them are kinesthetic

learners by nature. (Campbell & Scott-Kassner, 2006, p. 29). For music teachers who want to

add movement activities in the classroom, as I try to, it is important to remember that it should be

just one piece of teaching music. Other traditional aural and visual activities have just as much

validity as kinesthetic ones. But when these three modalities are used successfully in

combination, students are given more opportunities to succeed and display their skills in the

classroom.

As I complete this research paper, I wish I had time to study the other benefits of

movement activities in the classroom. First of all, my initial motivation for using movement

activities was for students to be more engaged during non-movement activities such as singing or

discussions. I found that if I broke up the activities so they could be moving every few minutes,

students were more engaged throughout class time. I would have liked to study the psychology

as to why this is an effective classroom management technique. In addition, I found movement

activities to be a powerful tool for student assessment. My work sample included many informal
Movement activities in the general music classroom 7

assessments where the entire class had to be performing a movement triggered by a particular

stimulus. When I saw certain students not performing the movements correctly, it gave me an

idea as to their level of understanding about the principle concept being taught. As a result of this

paper, I am convinced that movement activities enhance learning in the elementary general

music classroom. I will strive to use kinesthetic activities in my classroom in conjunction with

aural and visual activities to give students the most well-rounded music education so that all

students, despite their educational strengths and weaknesses, can be successful.

References

Wang, D. P. C. (2008). The quantifying analysis of effectiveness of music learning through the

Dalcroze musical method. US-China Education Review, 5(9), 32-41

Mead, V. (1996). More than mere movement: Dalcroze eurythmics. Music Educators Journal,

82(4), 38-41

Rohwer, D. (1998). Effect of movement instruction on steady beat perception, synchronization,

and performance. Journal of Research in Music Education, 46(3), 414-424

Campbell, P. S., & Scott-Kassner C. (2006). Music in childhood: From preschool through the

elementary grades. Belmont, CA: Thompson Higher Education