Listen to the Music: Using Music in the Social Studies ...



Listen to the Music: Using Music in the Social Studies Classroom

Introduction

On March 30, 2009, Wynton Marsalis, the preeminent jazz trumpeter of our time and the artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center, joined Americans for the Arts in Washington, D.C. to urge Congress to provide more support for the arts to help restore America’s integrity through its culture. In his speech, Marsalis eloquently proclaimed, “[Our] songs, dances, writings allow us to speak to one another across generations. They gave us an understanding of our commonality long before the DNA told us we are all part of one glorious procession” (McCarter, 14). Marsalis understands that our cultural heritage is more than pages in a book; it is a continually changing representation of who we are, both as individuals and as a collective of people from very diverse backgrounds; it records our beginnings and our endless journey and helps us make sense of our history; it gives us a unity on which we can build understanding, equity and social justice. While the arts are often the first subject to receive the budgeting axe, they can be kept alive, indirectly, and woven into the curriculum. Music, in particular, lends itself to instruction in the Social Studies classroom for the very reasons Marsalis identified within his speech, “At any point on the timeline of human history, there are tales to be told – of love and loss, glory and shame, profundity, and even profound stupidity, tales that deserve retelling, embellishing, and if need be, inventing from whole cloth. This is our story. This is our song. If well sung, it tells us who we are and where we belong” (McCarter, 15).

Methodologies and Themes

Much has been written about the use of music in the classroom. Research indicates that it engages students and improves their learning, as demonstrated through improved test scores. A number of studies have compared students’ growth in math and reading to the time spent in music studies and found that math and reading test scores improved significantly enough to merit further study. But music can also greatly affect a student’s social studies literacy. When used as an historical document in the social studies classroom, music can increase students’ historical literacy because it provides opportunities for teachers to expose students to the historical experiences and culture of the common man. Using music as a teaching tool allows teachers to capitalize on students’ familiarity with a particular song and guarantees an opening for engagement. Even when using music which is new and unfamiliar, we provide a context for students to embrace and engage with the curriculum because of our human propensity for the rhythms and melodies that make up our world.

Music as an Historical Document

A common theme in the pursuit of using music in the classroom is how we, as educators, can inform our lessons with musical experiences that will engage our students while fostering an understanding of the realities expressed within those pieces of music we use. Whether choosing to use authentic period pieces, such as “‘Feel Like I’m Fixing to Die Rag,” Joe MacDonald’s ode to the Vietnam War, or music inspired by an historical event, such as Bruce Springsteen’s anti-war anthem, “Born in the USA,” music woven within the curriculum can captivate and engage students and present a myriad of possibilities for instruction (Palmer & Burroughs, 73). Using music to study an era can be a most effective teaching strategy. Our library of music is incredibly rich and includes songs from every era of American history, from the Revolution through the Civil Rights movement and the Vietnam War (Palmer & Burroughs, 75).

In their article, “Integrating Children’s Literature and Song into the Social Studies,” J. Palmer and S. Burroughs present a Unit on the Civil War using slave songs and spirituals to inform the lessons. They point out that many historical events have been described through music and song; consequently the value of using lyrics to teach and learn about American culture and history is invaluable. They argue that the lyrics of songs are remnants of the past and as such, contain historic commentary. Understanding the music associated with an era or event is essential to understanding the historical significance of that era or event. Further, the use of music provides teachers with a powerful tool that will stimulate students’ interest and involve them in their learning (Palmer & Burroughs, 73). And of course, when students’ attention has been captivated and they are engaged, teachers have “vast possibilities for instruction” (Palmer & Burroughs, 73).

In his article, “Middle Schoolers and the Blues,” Renard B. Harris supports this contention, leading his students on an exploration of the blues to teach the African American experience during the Jim Crow era. He believes that “[With] the blues, educators can expose their students to a musical art form that not only influenced American culture, but also demonstrated the black people’s hopes, dreams, persistence and belief in humanity” (Harris, 197). Using authentic music, like the blues, gives students access to the ‘everyday guy’, the working man and woman, the housewife not able to pay the bills, the sharecropper who can’t pay his share to the land owner.

Traditionally, social studies classes expose students to the leaders, movers and shakers of history and their culture. Using the blues as a teaching tool helps students hear the history inherent in the African American story because it preserves elements of African sounds and rhythms within the music that blossomed in the cotton country of the American south. Further, with the blues, educators can teach about a marginal culture and its influences on mainstream America without being offensive or harmful to other cultures (Harris, 198). In other words, using authentic music to underscore an historic event helps students to gain a better understanding of the people and events they are studying. Focusing on a specific genre helps students recognize the interaction between the dominant culture and the marginalized voices that have been excluded from the mainstream texts. The blues help students recognize and (hopefully) understand music as a form of resistance and rebellion that gives strength and cohesiveness to historically disenfranchised populations.

According to the History-Social Science Framework for California Public Schools (2001), cultural literacy includes understanding “the music of a given culture” and the “development of a multicultural perspective that respects the dignity and worth of all people” (NCSSS 2001). In her study,” Global music making a difference: themes of exploration, action and justice,” Marsha Baxter grapples with those very ideas. She set out to create a curriculum that “fosters ideals of equity and social justice” through the study of music. “Studying the music of foreign culture[s] can be the start of learning all about those cultures” (Baxter, 267). Based on the premise that the arts are powerful agents for developing social imagination, the use of music in the classroom creates the ‘capacity to invent visions of what should be and what might be in our deficient society, on the streets where we live, and in our schools (Baxter, 268). Her study embraces the idea that “active, meaningful encounters with works of art counter the familiar, the habitual and move us to imagine a more humane society and world” (Baxter, 268).

A multicultural music education fosters empathy and values alternative perspectives. Within this paradigm, teachers and learners attempt to engage with music, to recreate sounds and patterns as cultural insiders do (Baxter, 268). As part of a World History or Global Studies curriculum, students will become enriched through their exposure to “how a West African drummer perceives time through playing the interlocking rhythmic patterns of the Agbadza drumming style; or how a Chinese dizi player expresses the philosophic principles of xu and shi in ornamenting the southern style composition” (Baxter, 268). By embracing an approach to education that includes culturally specific concepts, we give our students the access to new ways of knowing music.

Baxter’s study led to curricula units on oppression in Afghanistan, immigration, women in China and the Cuban Diaspora. Within each curriculum, students were invited to listen to music representative of the field of study, followed by discussions that focused on issues specific to the curriculum. For example, listening to performances of Atan-i-Mill, Afghanistan’s national dance, one recorded during the Taliban rule and the other, two years later, led to discussions of censorship and oppression of the arts by the government (Baxter, 273). By providing students with the before and after recordings of the national dance, they were able to hear, first hand, how oppression can affect the voices of a repressed society. The music brought to life the vast differences in Afghani society represented by the two pieces in ways that texts never could.

The History-Social Science Framework for California Public Schools (2001), also advocates for ‘Historical Literacy’ and believes that students must “use primary sources to reconstruct the past the actions and thoughts of a people (NCSSS 2001). When using period musical pieces as original documents, educators provide students with interactive primary sources that bring to life the lessons about historical events or time periods. In his article, “Using songs as original sources in history and government,” Jesse Palmer argues that lyrics to songs describe as much about different eras of history as do books and newspapers (Palmer, 221). He deconstructs the lyrics of Yankee Doodle to illustrate the increasingly strained relations between the American colonists and the British Crown. As they analyze the lyrics, the students develop a more clear understanding of the problems which led to the American Revolution. Using a period piece also introduces students to the language, colloquialisms and references of the time. A class discussion of Yankee Doodle opens the door for exploration of where the term Yankee Doodle came from, what it signifies and its use changed from a derogatory term to a representation of something truly American. Further, students can more readily participate in discussions because key concepts have become familiar as a result of the song that was used in the lesson (Palmer, 223). In closing, Palmer acknowledges that we are a culture bombarded by musical stimuli, but it is to our benefit as teachers to capitalize on music's numerous possibilities. According to Palmer, “the medium of music involves students on a new level and gives them a new perspective of social studies concepts” (Palmer, 225).

Music as an Instruction Tool

The thinking behind including music in the classroom has been fueled by current research on the brain and learning. Early interest was sparked by Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences, which described music, movement, and visual image as discrete and specific ways of knowing, equal to and unique from linguistic and mathematical understanding (Snyder, 32). In addition to the interest generated by Gardner's theory, research on the brain began to uncover more and more secrets of learning. Among the published findings that link learning to the use of music and the arts, Jane Healy’s Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think and What We Can Do about It, posits that music is essential for effective learning. Of course, many districts are facing budget shortfalls, which result in the elimination of most, if not all, of the elective offerings including music. As a result, many educators are looking at the integration of music as a teaching tool, into the remaining core subjects.

Connection, correlation, and integration are three meaningful ways to link disciplines or intelligences, including the linking of music with other disciplines. Unfortunately, most core subject educators don’t have the knowledge or resources to bring music into the classroom in a meaningful way. A connection is the most popular, most used, and least meaningful way of linking disciplines (Snyder, 37). In a connection, materials or concepts (usually materials) from one discipline are used to help teach or reinforce a concept in another curricular area. Another way to say this is that the children are learning through music, but not learning in or about music. As a music teacher, Ms. Snyder is concerned that we forego real music instruction for the band-aid approach of “add music and stir.” She argues for a more integrated curriculum that uses “broad themes across disciplines, so each content area or intelligence can explore the central idea in a meaningful way (Snyder, 38). Further, she identifies the successes inherent in a more integrated curriculum that include opportunities for “teachers to forge new relationships with students, other teachers, and the content of learning” (Snyder, 39).

The blues is not the only genre which can inform students about a particular people, time and place. In her article, “Yo! From Tupac to the Bard,” Mary Ellen Flannery describes how California teacher Alan Sitomer added a little “bumpin’ flava’” to his lessons by incorporating rap and using it to bridge his students to more difficult text (Flannery, 35). Sitomer, who is a former California State Teacher of the Year, recognizes that many kids don’t see their lives reflected in the standard texts and materials provided by the school district and believes that it is up to us, as educators to find ways to engage them (Flannery, 35). So Sitomer decided to “connect with his kids” and bring hip hop into the classroom. By pairing a hip-hop artist with a classic poet, he is able to teach a specific standard. “When I started this, I was vilified. 'That's not real teaching!'" Sitomer recalls. "But when you look at my scores, I have some of the highest California exit-exam scores in the state.” Ninety-eight percent of his kids passed, compared with the 57 percent his schools scored, overall (Flannery, 36). And as Sitomer says, his students are engaged in learning and once the students are engaged, you can go anywhere (Flannery, 36).

Many educators frown on the use of hip hop in the classroom for reasons ranging from its use of profanity and violence, to the argument that “it is our job as educators to expose our students to decent ideas and combat crass culture." Others believe that students need to learn about literature and we are doing them a huge disservice when we manipulate the curriculum just to make a connection (Flannery, 37).

Nevertheless, the use of hip hop as a teaching tool is taking root and in many cases, educators are developing hip-hop education products that ignore commercial artists altogether. One example of how pop culture is informing music is Brooklyn-based Flocabulary (), which started as an SAT preparation site, providing SAT words and definitions set to catchy raps. It has since expanded its offerings to include U.S. history, science, and math curricula. And Black Gold Edutainment wowed audiences at the 2008 NEA Representative Assembly with their web-site that offers parents and teachers hip-hop education tools for teaching a variety of topics from the 50 states and their capitals to basic math skills (Flannery, 37). According to Alex Rappaport, the founder of Flocabulary, "Kids know every rap song, right? But then they can't remember the definition of obsequiousness." He points to memory research that shows the brain is wired in a way that makes music helpful for memory recall.

Social studies curriculum encompasses many world cultures and civilizations, and, while many do not have recorded music representative of their traditions, there are many adaptations and arrangements that can be used to inform the curriculum (Rosenbloom, 41). We must be careful, however, to ensure that some element of the culture or event being studied is found within the music that is used. Research and verification that the melodies and rhythms were transcribed from authentic original source material and the text is representative of the original intents is crucial and provides opportunities for educators to engage students in more meaningful discussions of social and cultural history. Students, however, must understand the difference between authentic period music and music that was written at a later time but was inspired by a historical event. In that way, students may compare and contrast the authentic source music and a more modern representation of an historical event.

Rosenbloom presents examples of thematic references to given historical events that help students contextualize the curriculum and embrace the learning. One such example uses the work of Randall Thompson, the twentieth-century U.S. composer who, in 1943, wrote The Testament of Freedom. The text of The Testament of Freedom is based on the writings of Thomas Jefferson, who lived over 150 years earlier than Thompson. Yet Thompson's work also refers strongly to World War II. According to Rosenbloom, “in Thompson's work, we see the spirit of the times (here, 1943) physically embedded in the music. The work is a statement that certain freedoms are conceptually woven into the fabric of the American identity” (Rosenbloom, 45).

Rosenbloom argues that "musical experience is multidimensional; at its core, distinguishing it from other experiences, is its use of sounds to 'make special' in a way that only sounds can do” (Rosenbloom, 42). Finally, the musical experience supports students’ understanding the historical and cultural context from which the work originated.

Music can teach us a thing or two about our own history. In “Facing the Music,” Morris Dickstein, a professor of English and Theatre at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York, argues that 1930s pop culture can teach students a thing or two about the United States in the throes of the Great Depression. The music isn’t so much an historical document as it is a cultural blueprint of the American psyche. Dickstein argues that the use of music in the classroom “highlights the link between the morale-building efforts of the lively arts and those of the Roosevelt administration” (Dickstein, 92). In fact, he goes on to say, “apart from the New Deal, nothing in the 1930s served the purpose of lifting the nation's spirits better than the period's art and entertainment” (Dickstein, 92).

The use of music can help students understand the stresses and psychological issues that presented themselves during a given historical period. The music of the Depression had tremendous impact and students can hear the energy that stimulated the audiences of the 1930s. From the wildly crazy jazz that was sweeping the country to the folk songs of Woody Guthrie, students are exposed to the despair inherent in those dire, unprecedented social conditions (Dickstein, 94).

Perhaps just as importantly, however, exposure to music of an historical era also opens up discussions about the present. Quite often, there are relationships and overlaps between the music of the past and that of the present. Obvious in its comparison, students can listen to the folk songs of Woody Guthrie and then compare and contrast with the modern day working class songs of Bruce Springsteen, or the effect of racial segregation and the Depression on performers such as Billie Holiday contrasted against the nervous breakdown suffered by Susan Boyle of American Idol after her sudden rise to fame (Dickstein, 95). Our current economic downturn lends itself to many comparisons with the Great Depression of the 1930s and music plays a central role in both eras. What better way to help students make connections and engage in the curriculum?

In his article, “Music in the Meltdown,” David Hajdu continues the argument that music is a logical tool for making connections between past and present events. With a modern day list of music artists creating music for the meltdown, there is ample opportunity to examine the lyrics from the Great Depression and compare with the lyrics of today. The Great Depression anthem, "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime" has a multiplying brood of great-grandchildren according to Hajdu. Songs by “old rock-and-roll grousers such as Neil Young, quasi-political hip-hop artists such as Young Jeezy, less-reactionary country singers such as John Rich, and inveterately cranky indie-rock bands such as The Members and populating the airwaves (Hajdu, 28).

The similarities between the songs of the 1930s and today are remarkable and undeniable. In “Cough up the Bucks,” Neil Young sings, “Where did all the money go? Where did all the cash flow? Where did all the money go?” In 1929, Bessie Smith recorded, “Nobody Knows You When You're Down and Out," in which she sang:

Spending my money, I didn't care

I carried my friends out for a good time

Buying bootleg liquor,

Champagne and wine

Then I began to fall so low

I didn't have a friend and no place to go

When we use music as a teaching tool and ask students to compare and contrast the songs of today with the songs of yesterday, they have a better chance at understanding the economic hardships of the past because they become relevant.

In “Musical Meaning and Social Reproduction: A Case for Retrieving Autonomy,” Lucy Green states that some sociologists of music believe that to fully appreciate a particular piece of music, one must have some knowledge of the culture in which the music was originally produced (Green, 81). While some might disagree and have pointed to the capacity of music to carry across times and places, allowing enjoyment of music from one culture by another, both sides would agree the acquisition of knowledge about the social context in which the music was written is likely to enhance the listening experience (Green, 81).

Music is also a window into the past and a line to the future. We wait for the final chord or the next note after the pause and we expect the music to behave in certain ways, based on our music listening experience. But not only does music raise expectations for what might be going to happen next, it also causes us to make connections “between present and past events, so that the present makes the past meaningful; and the musical past colours the present just as much as the present raises expectations for the future” (Green, 80).

Music can also be identified with a particular social class, age group, ethnicity, religion, or any other grouping present in a given culture. Students will experience responses based on their relationship to the group that the music represents, which, in turn, informs their engagement and learning with the curriculum. At one extreme, they may have a positive response when they feel the music in some way expresses their feelings, or when they identify with the music because speaks to their ideologies. Perhaps it affirms their clothing or hair styles, their gender or ethnicity or a multitude of other factors. On the other hand, they may experience a negative response when the music identifies something they feel excluded from or don’t agree with or simply don’t understand (Green, 84).

To illustrate this point, Ms. Green presents an anecdote of a music student in a class on the twentieth-century composer Schönberg. After listening to the vocal and instrumental piece ‘Mondestruncken’ from Pierrot Lunaire, she declared she found the music impossible to understand, chaotic and random and compared listening to the piece to a form of slow torture. Unfamiliarity with Schönberg’s style of the music and the era in which he composed, had prevented her from noticing a high level of organization of the musical materials, including a distinctive seven-note motif which is repeated four times at the beginning and taken up in varied forms by other instruments throughout the piece. Consequently, she did not understand the music and had a negative response to it (Green, 85). The point of all of this is that, of course, music can cross boundaries and help students engage in their learning. However, we need to ensure that we give our students the knowledge necessary to make that leap across the boundary with their engagement intact. Simply putting on a piece of music for them to listen to isn’t the same thing as using a piece of music in the context of a lesson on a given time and place (Green, 90).

Conclusions

What people say about music, the uses to which they put it in their ordinary lives, and their music-making practices are all receiving interest from researchers and scholars, alongside questions about the structures and processes of the music within the context of education. Unfortunately, shrinking school budgets are forcing most districts to eliminate music and other art related classes.

Historically, in their attempt to understand the relationships between music and learning, researchers have focused on connections between music and the core subjects of math and English. As a result, the relationship between music and social studies has been understudied. Within the last decade, however, there has been interest in the use of music within other disciplines. Further, there has been considerable research conducted at the elementary level; the secondary environment, however, has been under-studied. Consequently, there is much room for research that looks at the use of music in secondary classrooms and the benefits to be gained from adding music to the social studies curriculum.

The use of music in the social studies classroom exposes students to primary documents that they can feel and hear at the same time. Music as an instructional tool builds on content knowledge and encourages students’ involvement in the curriculum in ways that texts, videos and written primary documents cannot. After all, music is a familiar medium to students; their earliest memories have been inscribed their mother’s heartbeat. Music is everywhere-we can’t escape its sound. It seems only natural to continue that exposure within the classroom.

REFERENCES

Baxter, M. (2007, July). Global music making a difference: themes of exploration, action and justice. Music Education Research, 9(2), 267-279. Retrieved April 19, 2009, doi:10.1080/14613800701384425

Dickstein, M. (2009). Facing the Music: What 1930s pop culture can teach us about our own hard times. American Scholar, 78(4), 91-95. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Flannery, Mary Ellen. (2008, November). YO! From Tupac to the Bard. NEA Today, 27(3), 35-37. Retrieved April 19, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

Giles, A., & Frego, R. (2004, Spring/Summer2004). An Inventory of Music Activities Used by Elementary Classroom Teachers: An Exploratory Study. UPDATE: Applications of Research in Music Education, 22(2), 13-22. Retrieved April 19, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

Green, L. (2005, February). Musical Meaning and Social Reproduction: A case for retrieving autonomy. Educational Philosophy & Theory, 37(1), 77-92. Retrieved April 19, 2009, doi:10.1111/j.1469-5812.2005.00099.x

Hajdu, D. (2009). Music in the Meltdown. New Republic, 240(9), 27-29. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Harris, R. (2004, September). Middle Schoolers and the Blues. Social Studies, 95(5), 197-200. Retrieved April 19, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

Healy, J. Endangered Minds: Why Children Don't Think and What We Can Do about It (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1990).

Heimonen, Maria. (2008, Spring). Nurturing Towards Wisdom: Justifying Music in the Curriculum. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 16(1), 61-78. Retrieved April 19, 2009, from Project Muse database.

History-Social Science Framework for California Public Schools; 2001 Updated Edition with Content Standards (2001). California Department of Education

McCarter, J. (2009, April 13). America in Harmony. Newsweek, 153(15), 14-14. Retrieved April 25, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

Palmer, J., & Burroughs, S. (2002, May). Integrating Children's Literature and Song into the Social Studies. Social Studies, 93(3), 73. Retrieved April 19, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

Palmer, J. (1998, March). Using songs as original sources in history and government... Clearing House, 71(4), 221. Retrieved April 19, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

Rosenbloom, A. (2004, January). High School Music Studies and Social Studies: An Interdisciplinary Approach. Music Educators Journal, 90(3), 41-45. Retrieved April 19, 2009, from Academic Search Premier database.

Snyder, S. (2001). Connection, Correlation, And Integration. Music Educators Journal, 87(5), 32. Retrieved from Academic Search Premier database.

Westerlund, Heidi. (2008, Spring). Justifying Music Education: A View from Here-and-Now Value Experience. Philosophy of Music Education Review, 16(1), 79-95. Retrieved April 19, 2009 from Project Muse Database

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