Inspiring Students in Music Through Children's Books - Shawna Longo

One way to keep our students at the forefront of our teaching while still meeting the requirements of various schoolbased or district-wide initiatives is through finding commonalities across initiatives. These commonalities can then be aligned to who, what, why and how you teach music. I have found an intersection between initiatives and artistic processes through children’s books.

Children’s books are at the heart of teaching in K-5 and they often pair seamlessly with music concepts and artistic processes. Through their beautiful illustrations and meaningful, authentic messages, we can deepen our connection with and understanding of our students all while preparing them for their future.

There are a few initiatives that are at the forefront of education right now: 1) Social Emotional Learning (SEL) 2) Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) 3) Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, Access (IDEA).

Let’s first lay a foundation for each of these initiatives.

SEL - As defined by CASEL, “Social Emotional Learning is an integral part of education and human development. SEL is the process through which all young people and adults acquire and apply the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions.”

CRT - Brown University states, “Culture is central to learning. It plays a role not only in communicating and receiving information, but also in shaping the thinking process of groups and individuals. A pedagogy that acknowledges, responds to, and celebrates fundamental cultures offers full, equitable access to education for students from all cultures. Culturally Responsive Teaching is a pedagogy that recognizes the importance of including students' cultural references in all aspects of learning (Ladson-Billings,1994).” IDEA - “Teaching for diversity refers to acknowledging a range of differences in the classroom. Teaching for inclusion signifies embracing difference. Teaching for equity allows the differences to transform the way we think, teach, learn and act such that all experiences and ways of being are handled with fairness and justice.” (University of Delaware) IDEA is an acronym for Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Access. IDEA highlights efforts toward underserved communities by addressing structural inequities. IDEA assists in fostering cultures that minimize bias and recognize and address systemic inequities, which, if unaddressed, create disadvantage for certain individuals or groups. • “Inclusion: All feel welcomed and valued Inclusion is the act of creating environments in which any individual or group can be and feel welcomed, respected, represented, supported, and valued to fully participate. • Diversity: All the ways we differ Diversity includes all of the ways in which people differ, encompassing the different characteristics that make one individual or group different from another. While diversity is often used in reference to race, ethnicity, and gender, we embrace a broader definition that also includes age, national origin, religion, disability, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, education, marital status, language, physical appearance, geography, and any other identifiers that make one individual or group different from another. • Equity: All having the opportunity to fully participate Equity encompasses the policies and practices used to ensure the fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all people, while at the same time trying to identify and eliminate barriers that have historically prevented the full participation of some individuals or groups. • Access: Of any and all abilities Access refers to the commitment for everyone to be included in all programs and activities.” (Indiana Arts Commission)

The commonalities that exist between SEL, CRT, and IDEA assist in fostering an intentionally embedded and sustained teaching practice that values all students. Through this

intersection with children’s books we can promote a growth mindset through music, while cultivating creativity and inspiring our students to value themselves and better understand the world around them.

In K-5 general music classes, these can be accomplished while teaching the artistic processes and music concepts that fill our curriculums. It is a synergistic pairing that can greatly impact your students as you instill a deeper understanding and passion for music. This can occur during a discussion or analysis of protest songs or while teaching simple rhythmic patterns or melody. The skys the limit in terms of how you choose to create your own intersection between music, SEL, CRT, and IDEA. Here are a few books that I love to use with my students.

Book Suggestions

I Am One: A Book of Action - By Susan Verde, Art by Peter H. Reynolds (Abrams Books for Young Readers, New York, 2020)

“Every movement and moment of change starts with purpose, with intention, with one.” (quote from book jacket) This is the same for composing music! Whether you use iconic notation, traditional notation, or technology (Chrome Music Lab, Garage Band, etc), every melody or song begins with one note. That note may be the start of a rhythmic phrase or a melody that floats in our heads. Regardless, it still starts with one - one person, one note, one idea. This book offers social emotional learning themes of perseverance, confidence, empathy, kindness, connection, and caring. And, it touches upon all five SEL competencies of: self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. It also ties in culturally responsive teaching through the theme of bridging physical (location and self) and cultural differences. Playing from the Heart - By Peter H. Reynolds (Scholastic, 2016)

This inspirational book reminds us all that sometimes we just need to play from the heart. As music teachers, we all know how important it is to learn how to read music. It is a big part of many of our philosophies around teaching music. But, isn’t it just as, or more, important to feel a connection to the music. How does it make you feel? How can you turn your feelings into a song? How can you portray your feelings through music? These are all big questions that can have an even bigger impact on our students and their musical journeys. This book offers all five of the social emotional learning competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making.

The Word Collector - by Peter H. Reynolds (Scholastic, 2018)

Change Sings: A Children’s Anthem - Words by Amanda Gorman, Pictures by Loren Long (Viking, New York, 2021)

“I can hear change humming in its loudest, proudest song. I don’t fear change coming, and so I sing along.” (p2) This story begins with one child and her guitar. Throughout the book, more children join her song each with a different instrument, until the end where the girl invites the reader to join her in song. This book offers social emotional learning themes of tolerance, courage, confidence, empathy, connection, hope, JANUARY 2022 31strengths, weaknesses, and caring. And, it touches upon all five TEMPO

SEL competencies of: selfawareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision-making. It also ties in culturally responsive teaching through the theme of bridging physical (location and self) and cultural differences. It can also serve as a great resource for a lesson or unit on anthems focusing on social change, activism, and restoration through music. Although this book is all about words - words have many connections to teaching music. Multi-syllable words connect to rhythmic phrases and motifs. Words can be strung together as a poem to create the lyrics to a song. And, most importantly, words can move people and have an emotional impact - even more so when paired with music! This book offers a connection to all five social emotional learning competencies: self-awareness, self-management, social-awareness, relationship skills, and responsible decision making.

Two additional resources for children’s books and lesson ideas that you may consider using can be found through The Institute for Arts Integration & STEAM and The Immigrant History Initiative. These resources support the integration and fostering of IDEA, culturally responsive teaching, social emotional learning, and growth mindset into any music classroom.

The Institute for Arts Integration & STEAM:

IAS has an amazing resource that is great for ALL teachers, not just the arts! It’s called “CATCH a Spark.” In this series, author Holly Valentine, provides access in to big ideas - sparking creativity, imagination, and thinking in and through children’s book and the arts. She accomplishes this through the same 5 points for each featured book:

C - Context A - Arts T - Themes C - Create H - Heart Words

Each month she releases a new list of 6 books with teaching ideas following the CATCH acronym. As of the writing of this article, there are over 65 different books featured spanning K-8 grade levels. Use the link below to find all of the free “CATCH a Spark” postings! https://artsintegration.com/?s=catch+a+spark

The Immigrant History Initiative

The Immigrant History Initiative is developing K-5 resources to promote young children being able to see their own histories. They are creating read-aloud lesson plans for K-5 students that center Asian American (as well as other cultures) voices and stories, exploring diasporic family dynamics, intergenerational conflict & dialogue, and discrimination and stereotypes. Their first lesson plan is available and uses the picture book Binny’s Diwali to explore themes of belonging, cultural difference, and family. More books and corresponding lessons will be released in the coming months. You can find their first one focusing on Diwali using this web link: https://www.immigranthistory.org/k5.html#binny

Culturally Responsive Teaching. Brown University. https:// www.brown.edu/academics/education-alliance/teachingdiverse-learners/strategies-0/culturally-responsive-teaching0#ladson-billings

Fundamentals of SEL. CASEL. https://casel.org/fundamentals-of-sel/

Diversity and Inclusive Teaching. University of Delaware. https://ctal.udel.edu/resources-2/inclusive-teaching/

Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Access (IDEA). Indiana Arts Commission. https://www.in.gov/arts/programs-and-services/ resources/inclusion-diversity-equity-and-access-idea/

Shawna E. Longo is the General Music (Music Technology) teacher and Arts Integration Specialist at Durban Avenue School, Hopatcong, NJ. She is also a published author with her book, "Integrating STEM with Music," with Oxford University Press. Additionally, she serves as a Practice Advisory Board Member for The Center for Arts Education & Social Emotional Learning, K-12 Educational Technology & Innovation Through Music Chair for the NJMEA Board of Directors, Coach for The Institute for Arts Integration & STEAM; the Arts Integration & STEAM Specialist for TMI Education; Lead Consultant for Essential Elements Music Class (Hal Leonard); and an Ambassador/Consultant for The Rock and Roll Forever Foundation, Music First and Jamstik. She is an internationally recognized clinician and consultant for music education, music technology, social emotional learning, arts integration, and STEAM. She is also a recipient of the 2021-2022 Sussex County Teacher of the Year, 2021 New Jersey Arts Educator of the Year, 2021 Governor’s Educator of the Year for Durban Avenue School, 2019 Mike Kovins Ti:ME Music Technology Teacher of the Year, 2019 New Jersey Governor’s Award in Arts Education, 2019 Teach Rock Star Teacher Award from The Rock and Roll Forever Foundation, 2018 NJMEA Master Music Teacher Award, and 2016 Governor’s Educator of the Year for Hopatcong Middle School. Mrs. Longo also serves on the Morris Plains Board of Education.

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