Christian Educators Journal: October 2024

Christian Educators Journal October 2024 Vol. 64 No. 1

Music Storytelling at Rehoboth Christian School Let Music Be Music Teaching John Lennon in a Christian School Using Music to Build Early Literacy Skills The Middle C of Teaching Music Singing with Jesus Creating Beauty through Music Music in the Elementary Classroom

Contents

3 Editorial 4 Storytelling Concerts

at Rehoboth Christian School DAN MEESTER

8 Let Music Be Music: An Educator’s Journey CHRIS STEENHOF

13 “We’re More Popular Than Jesus”:

Teaching John Lennon’s Body of Work in a Christian School ANTHONY BIGORNIA

18 Sound Foundations: Using Music to Build Early Literacy Skills SAMANTHA CAESAR

24 The Middle C of Teaching Music REBECCA VISSER

29 Singing with Jesus: Embracing an

Ancient Musical Form of Psalm-­Singing in the Classroom KEN MICHELL

33 Restoring God’s World by

Creating Beauty through Music DARRYL DEBOER, CARI LOCKEN, AND EMMELINE MAHON

39 Integrating Music into the

Elementary Classroom Culture SUSAN DYKSHOORN

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Christian Educators Journal Vol. 64 No. 1, October 2024 cejonline.com Editor Abby Zwart cejeditor@gmail.com The Christian Educators Journal (CEJ) encourages letters to the editor in response to articles presented in the CEJ. Letters must be accompanied by the author’s name and email address. The CEJ reserves the right to edit letters for length and clarity. Where a letter addresses issues raised by the author of an article, the CEJ reserves the right to invite the article author to respond to the letter.

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Scripture All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

Statement of Purpose The Christian Educators Journal Association publishes the Journal as a channel of communication for all educators committed to the idea of Christian day school at the elementary, secondary, and college levels. The views expressed are those of the writers and not necessarily those of the association.

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Editor Abby Zwart Copyeditor Bethany Murphy Design Editor Klaas Wolterstorff Business Manager Klaas Wolterstorff Web Shepherd Heather Altena Board of Trustees Dr. Henry Algera Heather Birch Justin Cook Sara Leo Albert Kok (Chair) Gayle Monsma Ed Noot Jim Rooks Sean Schat Christine Scholma (Secretary) Tricia Stobbe Edith van der Boom Heather VanDyke Christine Webb Supporting Institutions Calvin University Edvance Christian Schools Association The King’s University Redeemer University Trinity Christian College Tyndale University Subscribing Organizations Christian Educators Association Christian Educators of British Columbia Prairie Centre for Christian Education Printed back issues (if available) can be purchased for $7.50 per copy (cost of shipping to be added to total).

Some back issues may be available in digital format.

Editorial

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ostalgia. A mood boost. Cultural identity. Expression of faith. Indicator of age. Hint at personality. Connection to friends and family. Workout motivation.

What if I told you there was one secret ingredient that could provide all these services and more? Impossible, right? You’d pay the big bucks if you could have it, right? What if I told you this thing can actually be found in your pocket right now?

Okay, okay—I’ll cut the corny salesperson schtick. The secret ingredient is music, and it’s the topic of this month’s issue. Whether you’ve been singing in the church choir since grade school or you can’t carry a tune in a bucket, it’s likely that music plays an important role in your life. We pick songs for big things like getting married or buried, professing our faith, or dedicating a child. We pick songs for smaller things like road trips, kitchen dance parties, or post-breakup wallow fests.

We also pick songs for our schools. A peppy pop beat can add energy to a sleepy class. A 1930s playlist can transport history scholars to a different era. Playing five seconds of a Taylor Swift song will elicit immediate cheers from half your students and eye rolls from the rest. Lyrics can be studied as poetry. A powerful worship song while the lights are dimmed can create an atmosphere where students are open to new ideas about God. And of course, some of us are tasked with teaching students how to create their own music.

In this issue, you’ll find stories about and strategies for incorporating music into your practice as a Christian teacher. How can we use music performances to further God’s kingdom? Can music really help us learn to read?

What role can Scripture’s music—the Psalms—play in our twenty-first century classrooms?

So queue up your favorite playlist and dive into this issue full of strategies, personal reflections, and some really good songs. I’ll start you off with a selection of five songs I often use in my high school creative writing class. I play a song at the beginning of each period, projecting the lyrics on the board and asking students to free write for the length of the song. What lyrics stick out? What instruments do they hear? Where would they choose to play this song? How does the song make them feel? What if the song is about God? Abby’s Creative Writing Playlist 1. “Call Me Al” by Paul Simon 2. “Godspeed” by Frank Ocean 3. “Dreams” by The Cranberries

4. “Rise” by Eddie Vedder 5. “Cool About It” by boygenius — Abby Zwart

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Storytelling Concerts at Rehoboth Christian School DAN MEESTER

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Just as God is the Creator, we too are creators—of poetry, art, architecture, dance, and music.

hen Karl Paulnack addressed the parents of the incoming freshman class at Boston Conservatory in 2003, he shared some profound thoughts about the power and purpose of music: “Music is one of the ways we make sense of our lives, one of the ways in which we express feelings when we have no words, a way for us to understand things with our hearts when we can’t with our minds” (2). While this may be true of many of the arts in general, music does find a way into our souls with uncanny speed and accuracy—even if we don’t consider ourselves “musical.” At Rehoboth Christian School, we believe the reason for that connection is the image of God that we bear as people. His characteristics and qualities are woven into the fabric of what it means for us to be human, and just as God is the Creator, we too are creators—of poetry, art, architecture, dance, and music. Therefore, when we see the joy on the faces of performers or feel meaning stirring in our souls, it’s because in those very moments, we are living out exactly who we were made to be.

And that’s glorious.

Spend any amount of time on Dinétah (the Navajo Nation) or Halona: Idiwan’a (the Zuni Pueblo), and you’ll soon learn the power and ubiquitous presence of music in the lives of the indigenous peoples of the American Southwest. These are the students that Rehoboth serves, so it makes sense for music to feature prominently in their educational experiences.

Of course, that includes learning about half notes and eighth notes, about treble clefs and bass clefs, about musical dynamics and proper breathing techniques—but from an even larger perspective, it’s about teaching students what it means to be fully human in the way that Paulnack describes.

Choir and Curriculum

Bob Ippel realized that concerts contained opportunities for something more participatory and experiential for the audiences.

Today’s educational best practices see many schools featuring student work in some public display or evening event that invites a wider audience to experience what children have learned, but for band and choir directors, this has been baked into their teaching all along. Young musicians perform multiple concerts each year for eager parents, grandparents, siblings, and the larger school community; in those times, the work of the teacher and students is on full display. When he first came to Rehoboth thirty years ago, Bob Ippel realized that concerts contained opportunities for something more participatory and experiential for the audiences. “It just made so much sense to connect to the thematic units we were studying in the middle school,” says Ippel, who was teaching English at the time. “Whether it was 4

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our African-­American history unit, New Mexico history, or our World War II unit, I wanted to bring music into the same mix as literature and social studies.”

There really wasn’t a vocal music program at that time, so Ippel’s efforts got students singing together in class. Over the next few years, that developed into more formal choir opportunities for both middle school and high school students, and Ippel teamed up with Gail DeYoung to lead the program for decades. Concerts became a normal experience for the Rehoboth community, and the school began to send students out on tours around the country to tell the Rehoboth story. From this perspective, choir concerts become an opportunity to share the gospel in captivating, relevant ways. “We were performing in the Calvin College chapel during a tour to West Michigan, and our concert was all about celebrating diverse cultures and the richness of God’s creation. Students were so excited to wear their traditional clothing and sing in the Navajo language, using traditional instruments,” Ippel recalls. “It was such a powerful and sensory way to reflect on the beauty of our differences instead of the barriers they can create.”

A couple of more recent concerts also exemplify the spirit of storytelling. During a middle school history unit on slavery, Rehoboth students used the book So Tall Within, by Gary D. Schmidt, which is a picture-­driven biography of Sojourner Truth. The concert included spirituals and other songs that captured the way hope can still spring up from the bonds of oppression. Schmidt flew to Rehoboth for that week of school to interact with a variety of history and language arts classes, and he served as the narrator for the concert—reading the story between songs as the pictures from the book served as backdrops for each piece. Students also shared spoken word poems they had created out of inspiration from Schmidt’s work.

The high school choir’s Christmas concert of 2019 in the historic Sacred Heart Cathedral of Gallup, New Mexico, was another powerful example of story-­based performance. Titled Dispel the Darkness of the Night, the concert featured three scripted movements with related songs: “The Tragedies,” “The Light,” and “The Hope.” Before each song, a short narration explained the circumstances that birthed the piece and connected its real-­world message to the anticipation of Advent. During the opening movement, the concert took on the pain of alcoholism, suicide, and unresolved missing-persons cases that impact an unfairly large percentage of Native Americans. “Sweetest Gift” by John Schmidt of the Piano Guys and “Please Stay” by Jake Runestad captured the difficulty of the Christmas season for people who have lost family members to tragic circumstances. During interludes within these songs, choir members read diary entries and personal reflections from teens and adults who have wrestled with depression and thoughts of suicide.

The audience was riveted.

“Even if someone hasn’t experienced identical circumstances, everyone has a memory triggered when they hear someone else’s story,” says Ippel.

That’s one way music helps us share in our humanity, and it has become an integral part of the choir program at Rehoboth. We also use these events to share the broader story of Rehoboth and the specific cultures of Navajo and Zuni peoples. It’s not uncommon to see touring groups incorporating a loom or a cradle board into a concert as an object lesson developed out of its meaning in Native culture. In addition, instruments like the native flute and drum bring immediacy and impact as they accompany singers.

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Choir concerts become an opportunity to share the gospel in captivating, relevant ways.

During the opening movement, the concert took on the pain of alcoholism, suicide, and unresolved missing-­ persons cases that impact an unfairly large percentage of Native Americans.

Instruments like the native flute and drum bring immediacy and impact as they accompany singers.

Stories without Words: Bring On the Band

Tying concerts and tours to the school’s annual theme works well.

Placing yourself in that story—whether playing or hearing the song— brings new meaning to the notes and elicits the kind of heart response that propels us to serve God powerfully.

But storytelling isn’t limited to vocal music. Middle school and high school band director Kevin Zwiers believes it’s a powerful part of an instrumental concert too. As the son of a band director, Zwiers remembers listening to his father, Ron, take time to talk about each piece during a concert so that the audience would understand it better. “That could be about the form of the music, the composers who created it, or the context that brought it out,” remembers Zwiers. “It was always his hope to teach people something, even if they were only hearing the piece for the first time.”

By the time Kevin and his wife, Anna, arrived at Rehoboth to teach music, tours and story-­driven concerts were already underway. “When you’re out on tour, you have to remember that people have a lot of commitments to their own children, schools, and churches. What’s going to make our concert stand out as worth attending?” Zwiers says. “I think the story we weave through our work can help portray something special and also what’s unique about Rehoboth.” He sees major parallels between the Rehoboth students coming from such a wide variety of backgrounds and life experiences to form a beautiful and cohesive body and the way individual instruments unite into sections and ultimately into one body of a band bent on glorifying God. For the Rehoboth band program, tying concerts and tours to the school’s annual theme works well. During the fall of a tour year, Zwiers will meet with a team of adults to talk about a script for the tour program, the feeling the songs are trying to convey, and the kinds of visuals that would make for a great impact during performances. “I feel like we have really hit our stride in how everything comes together for these theme-­based tour concerts.”

The last three tours—Come to the Water, Trust God’s Story, and Amazed—have all left indelible impressions on their audiences, but Zwiers doesn’t want the impact on the performers to be lost either.

“These themes and the biblical stories that go with them become a part of the musicians, even if they don’t realize it. When you tell the story and are invested in it, your engagement and understanding goes up dramatically—like when you have to teach something in class.” The 2024 Amazed tour kicked off each concert with a piece called “Emblazoned,” and the musicians and audience members were asked to contemplate the construction and decoration of the tabernacle in preparation for listening to or playing the song. The final chapter of Exodus notes that the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle when it was finished. What might the Israelites have heard or smelled that day? What sensory details would they have noticed? Placing yourself in that story—whether playing or hearing the song—brings new meaning to the notes and elicits the kind of heart response that propels us to serve God powerfully.

Zwiers loves to include an interactive component in his tour concerts as well. Coming back from intermission, he invites the students to go out into the audience and meet people—sharing their stories and often discovering connections they never knew existed. “It’s my favorite part of every tour concert,” he says. “You literally see walls coming down during those conversations. I know they leave a lasting impression on our kids, and I’d like to think that they dispel some misconceptions or ignorance among the audience too.”

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Where Do We Go from Here?

Although its demographics make Rehoboth unique as far as Christian schools go, the opportunity to connect musical performances with course content or use concerts to tell the story of school and student identity is not unique. Well over one hundred schools now use Teaching for Transformation as an approach to integrating faith and learning. That system comes chock full of Deep Hopes and Storylines for individual teachers and their classrooms. Whole schools are challenged to create ten “throughlines” that weave their way through the curriculum at every turn. Each of those elements is brimming with connection points to exciting stories that will bring the gospel to life and challenge students and educators to pour themselves into their work with passion.

You have a story about why you are a teacher, and your school has a narrative about why it does its work. What would be the swelling background score playing as you told those stories? What music connects and pierces the heart, begging to be experienced alongside the knowledge, values, and actions you seek to see your community embody? Tackling these questions can breathe new life into the way your school engages music.

Toward the end of that speech to those Boston Conservatory freshman parents, Karl Paulnack captured the importance of musical education.

If we were a medical school, and you were here as a med student practicing appendectomies, you’d take your work very seriously because you would imagine that some night at 2 a.m., someone is going to waltz into your emergency room, and you’re going to have to save their life. Well, my friends, someday at 8 p.m., someone is going to walk into your concert hall and bring you a mind that is confused, a heart that is overwhelmed, a soul that is weary. Whether they go out whole again will depend partly on how well you do your craft. (4)

Let us all dedicate ourselves to telling the stories that will serve our souls!

Work Cited Paulnack, Karl. “Welcome Address Given to Freshman Parents at Boston Conservatory.” Boston College, August 28, 2003, www.bc.edu/content/ dam/files/centers/boisi/pdf/s091/Welcome_address_to_fresh​man_at_ Boston_Conservatory.pdf.

Dan Meester is the executive director of Rehoboth Christian School in Gallup, New Mexico. His thirty years in Christian education have included teaching high school English and Bible, college counseling, and serving as an administrator in a variety of settings.

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You have a story about why you are a teacher, and your school has a narrative about why it does its work. What would be the swelling background score playing as you told those stories?

Let Music Be Music: An Educator’s Journey CHRIS STEENHOF

A Teacher’s Example

Through Mr. Weedmark’s careful instruction and obvious appreciation of music of all kinds, we were given a love of music and an understanding of its power and influence that has profoundly informed my life.

My love of music began rather unexpectedly in grade eight when I met Mr. Weedmark. I entered his classroom with much trepidation after a disastrous experience in grade seven, mainly due to an overly intimidating teacher who had caused me to shrink into a self-­conscious shell. I noticed right away that this teacher was different. From the very first day of class, Mr. Weedmark introduced us to the power of music and story, informing us that we would be engaging in a year-­long study of La Traviata, an opera by Verdi, concluding with watching a professional performance at the Royal Alexander Theatre in Toronto. At first we were not impressed, but through Mr. Weedmark’s careful instruction and obvious appreciation of music of all kinds, we were given a love of music and an understanding of its power and influence that has profoundly informed my life, including my perspective and practices as a Christian educator, first as a teacher and then as a principal.

While I came from an extremely musical family, Mr. Weedmark awakened in me a connection to music I had yet to experience in any meaningful way and has served as a source of inspiration for my lifelong journey exploring the world of music.

Let Music Be Music

Music integration has been shown to enhance positive school experiences for students at all levels, improve school culture, and positively impact student mental health.

Much has been written about music having a positive impact on both individual students and school culture. Research demonstrates that incorporating music into a school’s program has a significant impact on brain development, the ability to memorize, and the stimulation of creativity and imagination, among many other benefits (Ahmed). Music integration has been shown to enhance positive school experiences for students at all levels, improve school culture, and positively impact student mental health (Eerola and Eerola 98).

However, reducing the rationale for studying music or integrating music into classrooms to simply utilitarian criteria does not do justice to the larger theological understanding of the role music plays as an integral part of God’s creation. In Christian schools, curricular and pedagogical choices should be guided by the centrality of God’s sovereignty over his creation and thus should inform our approach to music education. We sing folk songs, play various instruments, explore digital music, and listen to the harmonies and rhythms of Hamilton because music helps us fully experience God and his creation—all other benefits are secondary.

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Studying music provides the opportunity for students to understand God, his creation, and themselves in a manner not possible in other areas of the curriculum. Music allows students to connect deeply: to themselves, to their Creator, to each other, and to the world around them.

Music allows students to connect deeply: to themselves, to their Creator, to each other, and to the world around them.

The Opportunity A recent study suggests that the average person spends over twenty hours a week listening to music, an upward trend impacted by increased access to streaming services and a wider variety of music (IFPI). This trend should be seen as an opportunity for Christian schools to either continue or to develop music programs and to integrate music throughout the curriculum. Music is an integral part of students’ lives, providing an opportunity for all teachers to connect with their students, no matter the grade level or subject area. As an English teacher, I presented students with the idea that contemporary music was a form of poetry and provided opportunities for them to analyze, critique, and understand the music on their playlists. I helped students appreciate the often intricate connection between the music and the lyrics and to critically examine the themes and implicit worldviews in their music from a faith perspective, and students helped me better appreciate their musical tastes. These classes led me to an appreciation of genres such as rap, hip-­hop, and country—genres I had not previously enjoyed.

Music is also inherently community oriented, and coming out of the pandemic, where music education was difficult—and sometimes impossible—experiencing the communal nature of music is essential. In our individualistic, compartmentalized culture, music is one of the few things we do communally and often collaboratively. We sing the national anthem at sporting events, go to concerts, sing worship songs and hymns in church, and share playlists. As a principal, music has been important in how my staff functions communally. One particular choral version of Psalm 23 guided us through a very difficult year when a senior student who was a staff member’s child was diagnosed with cancer for a second time. We have had groups of staff members sing together at school concerts, teachers play roles in school musicals, and a staff member take a student through a year-­long project on writing and performing a song using digital resources. Music helps us laugh, cry, and worship together.

Studying and incorporating music into our practice must be connected to the concept of excellence. Admittedly, this is a problematic concept in a world where taste and preference is the ultimate standard, where individual truths have replaced universal truth, and where dialogue about beauty, truth, and excellence in the arts is almost impossible. This is another opportunity for Christian schools to be counter cultural and to help students question the accepted elements of our society’s worldview. We do this with humility and an acknowledgement that we engage in this process imperfectly, but as followers of Christ we have been encouraged to seek what is true, noble, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and excellent (Phil. 4:8). In my own experience, the most effective manner in accomplishing this is to simply expose students to examples of music excellence, perhaps helping students understand the merit and qualities of the particular work. I’ve done this in Christian Educators Journal

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I helped students appreciate the often intricate connection between the music and the lyrics and to critically examine the themes and implicit worldviews in their music from a faith perspective.

As followers of Christ we have been encouraged to seek what is true, noble, honorable, just, pure, lovely, and excellent.

a musical appreciation unit where I had various staff members and community musicians introduce selections they viewed as excellent. One parent introduced the sometimes controversial music of Bruce Cockburn, another musician helped students appreciate the use of counter-­melody by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, and a staff member introduced students to the brilliance of Lin Manuel-­Miranda, the musical creator of Hamilton and other musicals. There are multiple ways in which this can be accomplished, but it is important to explore excellence in music from a wide-­range of musical genres, including music from other cultures and countries.

The Challenges

Our curricular choices should include a wide variety of music and not simply “songs about Jesus.”

If our vision as Christian educators positions music as an essential part of God’s creation as much as math and science, we must face these barriers with creativity and tenacity.

Rooting our rationale for engaging with music in the concept of the goodness of God’s creation is not an easy task. We are surrounded by a culture that embraces utilitarianism, individualism, and consumerism. Centering our curricular and pedagogical choices in an often counter-­cultural ethos will take a strong sense of commitment and a willingness to engage other stakeholders in our school communities.

A utilitarian approach is sometimes given a Christian veneer, which we must also reject. This means challenging the secular/spiritual dichotomy that sometimes dominates discussions around music, literature, and other art forms in Christian circles. Our curricular choices should include a wide variety of music and not simply “songs about Jesus.” For some schools, this issue comes to the forefront when choosing performance material, including school musical selections. When our school performed Pirates of Penzance, Guys and Dolls, and Bye, Bye Birdie, we reminded our community that our school’s vision embraced these musicals because of the humor, the relatable characters, and the innovative music that were all gifts from God to be celebrated.

Another significant challenge in incorporating music into the curricular and pedagogical practices of a school are structural in nature. Some jurisdictions in North America are experiencing significant teacher shortages, funding challenges, and other realities that present barriers to keeping music education a central part of the school’s program. If our vision as Christian educators positions music as an essential part of God’s creation as much as math and science, we must face these barriers with creativity and tenacity. When we were unable to find a music teacher recently due to a significant teacher shortage in our province, we revamped our entire schedule and brought a future music teacher still in university at the end of her school year to lead an intensive two-­month program culminating in a full-­school performance. Other schools have found creative ways by using parent and community expertise or sharing resources with their local public districts to keep music alive. Providing resources and professional development is essential if schools need to use non-­trained teachers to provide music education.

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Three Further Thoughts Incorporating music into classrooms and curriculum requires a vulnerability that may be difficult for some students and some educators. Educators need to walk this journey with students by carefully challenging students to engage in musical activities and even in discussing or sharing music.

Apathy can be combated by sharing a vision and rationale, especially with high school students. When we brought in the student teacher to our school as I described above, we explained our plan to our students who went from a place of hesitancy to taking the initiative to learn new songs on their own and memorize all their pieces by the end of the year. Studies demonstrate that engaging with music has positive impacts on student emotional development and builds resilience and self confidence, but it is important to proceed carefully (Blasco-­Magraner et al. 25).

Music can and should have a place in every subject and every grade level. There are multiple resources available online to guide this practice.

Some preliminary suggestions include using music to help with transitions in elementary classrooms, employing music to help students memorize math facts or concepts, studying the music of different historical time periods in social studies, and researching the concept of frequency and sound waves in science class.

When I need to really focus on a task, I shut my office door, put up my “Do Not Disturb” sign, and play a specific Spotify playlist on my speakers.

Research demonstrates that under certain conditions and for certain activities, listening to music allows students to function more effectively in the classroom. With a teacher’s careful guidance, music can be used by students both collectively in the classroom and individually on their devices to set a particular tone, to positively impact student behavior, or to allow students to focus on a particular task.

The Power of Music All graduating students in my province are required to complete a capstone project in their final year. This year, Shameer, a student who had fled religious persecution to come to Canada when he was twelve, decided to build a guitar for his project. He worked at first with a staff member who eventually guided him to a member of our school community who had significant woodworking experience. Together over the year, they built a beautiful guitar that included an emblem that symbolized Shameer’s deep faith and his incredible journey. During the year-­end presentation, Shameer shared his journey and then played a worship song on the guitar with his mentor.

As those who supported Shameer on his journey—his parents and brother, staff members, friends, and community members—gathered around him, many in tears, I was drawn back to the example of Mr. Weedmark and the incredible transformational power of music.

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Together over the year, Shameer and his mentor built a beautiful guitar that included an emblem that symbolized Shameer’s deep faith and his incredible journey.

Works Cited Ahmed, Kamran. “The Importance of Music in School: Why Music Education Matters.” Stage Music Centre, 15 September 2022, stagemu​ siccenter.com/music-­school-­blog-­winchester-­acton-­ma/2022/8/7/ the-­importance-­of-­music-­in-­school-­why-­music-­education-­matters.

Blasco-­Magraner, José Salvador, et al. “Effects of the Educational Use of Music on 3-­ to 12-­Year-­Old Children’s Emotional Development: A Systematic Review.” International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, vol. 18,no. 7, 2021, p. 3668, doi:10.3390/ijerph18073668.

Eerola, Päivi-­Sisko, and Tuomas Eerola. “Extended Music Education Enhances the Quality of School Life.” Music Education Research, vol. 16, pp.

88–104, doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2013.829428.

IFPI (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry). “Engaging with Music.” 2023, www.ifpi.org/wp-­content/​­uploads/2023/12/IFPI​ -­Engaging-­With-­Music-­2023_full-­report.pdf.

Chris Steenhof is the principal of Bulkley Valley Christian School in Smithers, BC. He loves to fish, golf, coach and officiate basketball, and spend time in the outdoors with his wife and his children and grandchildren.

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“We’re More Popular Than Jesus”: Teaching John Lennon’s Body of Work in a Christian School ANTHONY BIGORNIA

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lmost six decades ago, in an article for The London Standard, Maureen Cleave, a journalist and friend of the Beatles, wrote an article that shared a glimpse of life behind the scenes of the members of the Fab Four.

It was in this article that the famous oft-­misquoted quip by a twenty-­five-­ year-­old Lennon—“we’re more popular than Jesus”—was published. In its entirety, Lennon stated, “We’re more popular than Jesus now; I don’t know which will go first—rock ‘n’ roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It’s them twisting it that ruins it for me” (Cleave). In Lennon’s defense, there is validity to his claim that it’s the disciples’ “twisting” of Jesus that ruins religion for him. It’s also a sentiment that most people today hold. Despite this, his words at the time of publishing were met with widespread outrage and public criticism, particularly among evangelical Americans who publicly burned memorabilia associated with Beatlemania.

Nevertheless, Lennon and the Beatles continued on, releasing critically and commercially acclaimed hits that resonated with the audience of their time period. While many of the songs in the Beatles catalog were co-­written

by Lennon and Paul McCartney, there are distinctive themes of idealism and iconoclasm as well as activism and absurdity that permeate Lennon’s lyrics.

To this day, the complex and fascinating cultural legacy that Lennon left behind draws in the younger generation. As educators, we often tend to lean toward texts that we are familiar with, and for me, that was the music of the Beatles—both my dad and my guitar teacher introduced me to them. It may be ironic given Lennon’s stance toward religion, but as an educator in a Christian school setting, I now find myself working with Lennon’s body of work as a poetry unit just like we study Eliot or Tennyson. Every time I tell students we’re doing a unit on John Lennon, they are intrigued because of the pop-­cultural relevance he holds, and many are excited because they are fans and music lovers like myself. As much as I love the other songs written by the other Beatles members (in particular, “Yellow Submarine” and “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”), this unit focuses on songs where John Lennon was the primary songwriter.

Despite his complex legacy and controversy in Christian circles, this article will present what makes John Lennon’s lyrics a compelling and literary-­rich body of work to explore in a contemporary Christian high school senior English setting. From his passion for advocacy to penchant for absurdity, Lennon’s lyrics make for a great high school English language and literature unit. I will also comment on some of the difficult questions that his body of work presents, in particular, his iconoclastic attitudes toward religion and the personal tragedies that he experienced. Ultimately, Lennon Christian Educators Journal

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To this day, the complex and fascinating cultural legacy that Lennon left behind draws in the younger generation.

From his passion for advocacy to penchant for absurdity, Lennon’s lyrics make for a great high school English language and literature unit.

is a pop-­culture icon that many are familiar with, and his lyricism and legacy serve well to prompt thoughtful discussion in the language and literature classroom. At the end of this article, I will share a short curated list of different songs that I’ve used in my unit that have worked well in prompting rich discussion and thoughtful student essays and commentaries.

Activism, Absurdity, and Attitudes toward Religion

John Lennon presented himself as a dreamer, an idealist, and an advocate, admirable qualities that students with an inclination toward social justice will resonate with.

In recent years, we’ve explored speeches and writings by Martin Luther King Jr. and Angela Davis as a way to draw comparisons and parallels to the respective writers’ approach to peace, equality, and equity.

In his famous bed-­in honeymoon protest with Yoko Ono (1969), the couple sang and chanted, “All we are saying is give peace a chance” with a group of friends as a way to use their heightened celebrity platform to protest the Vietnam War. John Lennon presented himself as a dreamer, an idealist, and an advocate, admirable qualities that students with an inclination toward social justice will resonate with. His more politically charged songs such as “Revolution” (1968) and “Happy Xmas (War Is Over)” (1971) present various juxtapositions meant to challenge listeners about holding on to what Lennon would deem as violent ideologies. In “Revolution,” he simultaneously challenges extremists on both sides of the political system as well as expresses a general dissatisfaction with the political system itself. In the alternate music video for “Happy Xmas (War Is Over), wartime images are shown over the Harlem’s Children Choir singing the chorus of “War is over / if you want it.”

This has the intended effect of jarring the viewers. Given the politically charged climate of today, there are opportunities for the lyrics of the sixties to still speak to contemporary issues that students may be interested in.

In order to teach John Lennon well, the cultural context that needs to be discussed includes the Civil Rights era, the Vietnam War, and the counterculture movement of the 1960s. There is a possibility here for cross-­ curricular connections with history class. Studying Lennon also leads to opportunities to explore approaches to peace and activism by other writers in that time. In recent years, we’ve explored speeches and writings by Martin Luther King Jr. and Angela Davis as a way to draw comparisons and parallels to the respective writers’ approach to peace, equality, and equity.

Another quality of John Lennon’s lyricism that students are drawn to is the absurdity of his lyrics—we have great discussions about whether his lyrics are “deep or dumb.” Are they deep because literary meaning begs to be found under layers of symbolism? Or are they dumb, existing just for the sake of being goofy and entertaining? Lennon himself was amused to hear that at his old school, “senior English students were . . . made to dissect and analyze the lyrics of ‘Strawberry Fields Forever’ and ‘Tomorrow Never Knows,’ just as [he himself ] once had analyzed the poems of Wordsworth and Shelley” (Norman). This prompted him to write a song simply to throw off the teachers and the students. He came up with “I Am the Walrus,” a song that is a cacophonic blend of misunderstood allusions to Lewis Carroll’s poetry, disdain for established authority figures, and the drug culture of the 1960s. In exploring this song with students, they find it both equally stupefying and hilarious, especially when framed with the question “Is this song deep or dumb?” Often, the class comes to the conclusion that it’s fine to appreciate something for the sake of it, even if it makes no sense.

Finally, what makes for interesting conversation, especially in a 14

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faith-­based school, is the exploration of Lennon’s attitudes toward religion.

In a nutshell, Lennon holds a complex, angry, and agnostic view toward institutional religion. Consider the iconic line in “Imagine” that has prompted many evangelicals to dismiss Lennon: “Imagine there’s no heaven / it’s easy if you try / no hell below us / above us only sky.” The entirety of the song “Imagine” is iconoclastic at its core, but ironically, it’s accepted in the mainstream today, sometimes sung alongside national anthems. Lennon himself is said to have pointed out that the song “is anti-­religious, anti-­ nationalistic, anti-­conventional, anti-­capitalistic . . . but because it is sugar-­ coated, it is accepted.” At the same time, Lennon is drawn to the spiritual practices that some of the Eastern religions offer as evidenced by the influx of Indian instrumentation and Sanskrit mantras in the album Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Later on in his solo career, Lennon distances himself from believing in anything, bluntly singing in the song “God” that he doesn’t believe in “Bible,” “tarot,” “Hitler,” “Jesus,” “Kennedy,” or “Buddha” among a number of many other things, all in the same verse.

However, it’s also clear that Lennon is someone who is looking for truth, something he shouts repeatedly in “Just Gimme Some Truth.” Throughout his career, Lennon demonstrates a complicated and at times contradictory view toward religion. For Lennon, religion is very closely tied to authority, which he holds a rebellious attitude toward. While most Christians would largely not agree with or share Lennon’s disposition toward religion, Lennon’s questions and attacks on religion as an institution are likely similar to what our students today may grapple with. In approaching John Lennon’s lyrics, Christian educators have an opportunity to untangle Lennon’s lyrics with students and understand why someone might hold an antagonistic view toward institutional religion.

The Myth of John Lennon Part of the fun in teaching Lennon to high school students is the ease of being able to bring in contemporary celebrity examples. In many ways, Lennon was the original blueprint for celebrity activism for peace and using a platform to spread awareness. This brings up the topic of the impact of activism, which students seem keen on discussing. Does celebrity activism really work in spreading awareness? How can you distinguish when a prominent influencer is genuine about a cause they are supporting versus using it to promote their own platform? There are also questions about how celebrities should conduct themselves in relation to approaching conflicting attitudes toward religion.

There are a lot of different ways to portray John Lennon—from his early heartthrob Beatlemania days; to the outspoken activist; to the angry, anti-­establishment rebellious bad ­boy; to the wizened sage calling for world peace. In many ways he has been mythicized. Yet, despite his efforts in advocating for peace, his personal life was marred by cycles of abuse and anger.

In his formative years, Lennon was separated from his parents, who were in a turbulent relationship themselves. During the Fab Four’s breakup, Lennon penned an explosive letter to songwriting partner Paul McCarthy, angrily pointing fingers at Paul about money deals that had been made regarding royalty rights. It’s been well-­documented that behind the scenes, Lennon Christian Educators Journal

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What makes for interesting conversation, especially in a faith-­based school, is the exploration of Lennon’s attitudes toward religion.

Lennon’s questions and attacks on religion as an institution are likely similar to what our students today grapple with.

A study into the artist’s biography also brings up an interesting question: should we consider the moral integrity of the artist in our consumption of their music?

Regardless of his attitudes, Lennon through his lyrics is attempting to be honest with himself and how he feels about the state of the world, whether good or bad.

abused substances to cope with the intense pressures of fame as well as the passing of the Beatles’ manager, Brian Epstein, who kept the egos of the Fab Four in check. Moreover, he would abuse those closest to him, in particular his first wife, Cynthia, and their children. Lennon himself admits in an interview about the song “Getting Better” that he “was cruel to [his] woman, and physically. . . . I was a hitter. I couldn’t express myself and I hit. I fought men, and I hit women. That is why I am always on about peace” (Sheff).

In doing a Lennon unit well, teachers not only need to bring in the cultural context but intentionally incorporate biographical aspects that can be gleaned from the various interviews and letters that have been made accessible to the public. A study into the artist’s biography also brings up an interesting question: should we consider the moral integrity of the artist in our consumption of their music? This question itself becomes even more relevant to students as they then start to consider the ethics of the media influencers they follow.

John Lennon is a complicated figure: he’s dismissive of institutional religion and shows a track record of having a problematic history that contradicts the views that he espouses. But he’s a compelling figure, a multi-­ layered poet whose lyrics resonate with the general public at large. Decades after his passing, he maintains a mythicized aura that Gen Z and Alpha students are drawn to. In approaching a Lennon unit, Christian high school educators can approach the controversies and contradictions meaningfully by remembering that he is a flawed human. Lennon affirmed this in an interview with Rolling Stone later in his life, saying: “I’m not claiming divinity.

I’ve never claimed purity of soul. I’ve never claimed to have the answers to life. I only put out songs and answer questions as honestly as I can, but only as honestly as I can—no more, no less” (Cott). Regardless of his attitudes, Lennon through his lyrics is attempting to be honest with himself and how he feels about the state of the world, whether good or bad. Ultimately, within these conflicting and contradictory admissions through Lennon’s lyrics and interviews, fruitful and meaningful discussion can be had with high school students about peace, activism, and the role of religion and spirituality in our lives.

Here is a non-­exhaustive list of recommended John Lennon songs for incorporating into an English classroom. Be aware that some songs contain mature content or expletives and should be previewed to determine whether they are appropriate for your students.

• A Hard Day’s Night (1964) • Help! (1965) • In My Life (1965) • Nowhere Man (1965) • Norwegian Wood (1965) • A Day in the Life (1967) • I Am the Walrus (1967) • Revolution (1968) • Give Peace a Chance (1969) • Come Together (1969) • Working Class Hero (1970) • Across the Universe (1970) 16

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• Jealous Guy (1971) • Imagine (1971) • Just Gimme Some Truth (1971) • Happy Xmas (War Is Over) (1972) • (Just Like) Starting Over (1988)

Works Cited Cleave, Maureen. “How Does a Beatle Live?” The London Standard, 4 Mar. 1966. johnlennon. “HAPPY XMAS (WAR IS OVER) (Ultimate Mix, 2020) John & Yoko Plastic Ono Band + Harlem Community Choir.” YouTube, 10 Aug. 2010, www.youtube.com/watch?v=yN4Uu0OlmTg. Lennon, John. The John Lennon Collection. Parlophone, 1982.

Lennon, John. “John Lennon: The Last Interview.” Interview by Jonathan Cott. Rolling Stone, 23 Dec. 2010, www.rollingstone.com/feature/ john-­lennon-­the-­last-­interview-­179443/.

Lennon, John. “Playboy Interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono.” Interview by David Sheff. Playboy Press, Sept. 1981.

Magical Mystery Tour. Directed by The Beatles, performances by The Beatles, BBC1, 1967.

Norman, Philipp. John Lennon: The Life. Harper Collins, 2009.

Anthony is a teacher and the student life coordinator at White Rock Christian Academy in Surrey, BC, who currently teaches IB DP Language & Literature 11 and 12. Writing for the CEJ keeps him sharp as a teacher working in Christian education. When he is not teaching, he can be found playing lead electric guitar for church or spinning party tunes as a DJ for the occasional event. IG: @aye.bigs.

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Sound Foundations: Using Music to Build Early Literacy Skills SAMANTHA CAESAR

P

Phonemic awareness is an auditory skill and involves the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words.

Music can be an effective tool for teaching phono­ logical and phonemic awareness due to its inherent rhythms, melodies, and rhymes.

honological awareness, identified by the Early Literacy Panel (2008) as a predictor of later reading success, refers to a child’s ability to recognize and manipulate the different units of oral language. ​​Children who develop phonological awareness during their early years are on the right path to becoming proficient readers. Being phonologically aware means that children understand the various components of spoken language, such as words, syllables, onsets, and rimes, and can playfully manipulate these components. This skill is crucial for building a strong foundation for early literacy development.

Phonological awareness is an umbrella term that includes all units of spoken language. Included under this umbrella is phonemic awareness.

Phonemic awareness is an auditory skill and involves the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds in spoken words. Children must understand that a phoneme is the smallest unit of sound. The English language has approximately forty-four phonemes. Some words have one phoneme, while others have more than one. For example, the word we has two phonemes (/w/ /e/); sheep has three phonemes (/sh/ /ē/ /p/), and stop has four phonemes (/s/ /t/ /ŏ/ /p/). As part of phonemic awareness instruction, children are asked to work with phonemes in various capacities. This can include identifying phonemes, blending them to form words, segmenting words into phonemes, and deleting, adding, or substituting phonemes to make new words. Asking children to change the /m/ sound in the word mat to a /c/ sound is an example of substituting phonemes to make the new word cat.

Instruction in phonological awareness can begin as early as pre-­ kindergarten and should continue through second grade. Students who are experiencing reading difficulties in later grades may benefit from instruction in this domain. For pre-K and kindergarten, instruction should primarily focus on developing phonological sensitivity (Brady, 2020). Phonological sensitivity includes the ability to recognize and manipulate larger units of spoken language. This lays a strong foundation for phonemic awareness.

An ideal time to begin phonemic awareness instruction is the middle of Kindergarten (Brady). According to the National Reading Panel, phonemic awareness instruction should not exceed twenty hours over the course of the school year, with each lesson or session lasting no more than thirty minutes.

Music can be an effective tool for teaching phonological and phonemic awareness due to its inherent rhythms, melodies, and rhymes. Songs with repetitive patterns and rhyming words help children recognize and predict structures of oral language. This helps young children as they begin to 18

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develop their understanding of how sounds fit together to form words. The playful nature of music makes learning these skills enjoyable and engaging.

Words The largest level of spoken language is the word level. Phonological awareness includes the recognition of words. Asking children to identify when two words are the same or different demonstrates an understanding of this initial level of spoken language. Incorporating music into a child’s daily routine can positively impact this early stage of phonological development.

By simply exposing children to songs and musical activities, children are introduced to new words and phrases in a fun and engaging way, making it easier for them to absorb and retain language. When children sing songs, they practice articulating words clearly, which supports the development of spoken language. Including music in a child’s environment (e.g., home, school, church) not only brings the joy of music to young learners but also significantly contributes to their understanding and mastery of word-­level spoken language skills.

When children sing songs, they practice articulating words clearly, which supports the development of spoken language.

Rhyming Rhyming is a fundamental component of phonological awareness, and songs with rhyming lyrics can significantly support students in recognizing and producing rhyming words. Teachers can support this learning experience by encouraging students to identify the rhyming words within these songs and further create new verses incorporating their own rhymes.

For instance, a teacher might encourage a sing along using a nursery rhyme, pausing at the end of a line to ask students to predict the rhyming word, and then challenge students to come up with additional words that rhyme with the target words. This interactive approach not only reinforces phonological awareness but also fosters creativity and engagement among students.

Syllables Syllables play an important role in phonological awareness, as they represent an intermediate level of sound structure between whole words and phonemes. A syllable is a word part that has one vowel in it. The word doorbell has two syllables, door and bell. The word elbow also has two syllables, el and bow. Recognizing and segmenting syllables in words helps children break down spoken language into more manageable parts. Teaching children to break up words into syllables out loud will make it easier for them to hold on to chunks of words when they attempt to sound out words in print.

A simple yet effective way to use music to help students recognize and segment syllables is through the use of familiar songs where each beat corresponds to a syllable. By doing this, teachers can help students to internalize the rhythm of language and understand how words are segmented by Christian Educators Journal

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A simple yet effective way to use music to help students recognize and segment syllables is through the use of familiar songs where each beat corresponds to a syllable.

syllables. The well-­known lullaby “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” is a great song for an activity like this.

Songs that involve clapping or tapping out syllables can also reinforce syllable segmentation skills. Once again, teachers should select songs where each beat corresponds to a syllable. An activity to use in the classroom might include singing a familiar song and instructing students to clap for each syllable, such as hel-­lo (clap, clap) or bas-­ket (clap, clap). This practice not only makes syllable segmentation interactive but also helps students develop a sense of rhythm and timing in language.

Onsets and Rimes

Songs like “Willoughby Wallaby Woo,” which involve changing the initial sounds of names, provide children with opportunities to play with onsets and rimes.

After mastering the syllable level of spoken language, children progress to understanding onsets and rimes. An onset is the beginning sound in a word or the part that comes before the vowel. A rime is the vowel and everything that follows the beginning sound. In the word sing, s is the onset and ing is the rime, and in the word bring, br is the onset and ing is the rime.

Onset and rime activities can be effectively integrated into early literacy instruction through the use of songs. For instance, songs like “Willoughby Wallaby Woo,” which involve changing the initial sounds of names, provide children with opportunities to play with onsets and rimes. In the set of lyrics below, the last word of each line demonstrates the onset changing but the rime staying the same. The onset w in the word wonny, is changed to b, to make the new word Bonny. The onset w in the word wennis, changes to D, to make the new word Dennis.

Willoughby wallaby wonny An elephant sat on Bonny Willoughby wallaby wennis An elephant sat on Dennis

Teachers can also customize the lyrics to match the names of students in the class. Playful and interactive musical exercises like “Willoughby Wallaby Woo” help children develop a stronger grasp of how onsets and rimes function. It also helps children understand how different sounds can be combined to form words, as well as strengthens their ability to manipulate sounds within words. These skills are crucial to support a child’s phonological sensitivity development, which lays the groundwork for phonemic awareness development.

Blending and Segmenting Phonemes A child that is phonemically aware can successfully complete tasks such as identifying phonemes, blending them to form words, segmenting words into individual phonemes, and deleting, adding, or substituting phonemes to make new words. According to the findings of the National Reading Panel, blending and segmenting phonemes are the two phonemic awareness 20

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activities that should be emphasized since they are most closely related to later reading and spelling skills.

Using musical instruments can make the process of segmenting sounds more interactive and engaging for students. Teachers can provide simple percussion instruments like tambourines, maracas, or drums, allowing students to tap out individual sounds in words. For example, when the teacher says a word slowly, emphasizing each phoneme (e.g., “c-­a-­t”), students can tap their instruments for each sound they hear. This is an example of the skill of segmenting phonemes. Immediately afterward or during a later lesson, the teacher can ask students to combine the sounds back together and say the word in its entirety. This is an example of the skill of blending phonemes. This approach not only reinforces phoneme segmenting and blending, two critical components of phonemic awareness development, but also adds an element of musical exploration by using various instruments as instructional tools.

Through the influential reports of the National Early Literacy Panel (2008) and the Report of the National Reading Panel (2000), phonological awareness and phonemic awareness have both been identified as significant markers in a child’s path to proficient reading. Music can be an effective tool for teaching these critical domains of early literacy development. Songs with repetitive patterns and rhyming words help children recognize and predict the structures of oral language. This is helpful in facilitating a young child’s understanding of how sounds fit together to form words. The playful nature of music makes learning these skills enjoyable and engaging, allowing students to develop phonological and phonemic awareness.

Works Cited Brady, Susan. “A 2020 Perspective on Research Findings on Alphabetics (Phonemic Awareness and Phonics) Implications for Instruction.” The Reading League Journal, vol. 1, no. 3, pp. 20–28.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, DHHS. Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read: Reports of the Subgroups (00-­4754). U.S. Government Printing Office, 2000.

National Early Literacy Panel. Developing Early Literacy: A Scientific Synthesis of Early Literacy Development and Implications for Intervention. National Institute for Literacy, 2008.

Dr. Samantha Lazich Caesar is an associate professor of reading/literacy at Concordia University Chicago. She also serves as a consultant for schools, where she provides professional development and coaching to teachers and school leaders.

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Teachers can provide simple percussion instruments like tambourines, maracas, or drums, allowing students to tap out individual sounds in words.

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The Middle C of Teaching Music REBECCA VISSER

We cannot all speak together, but we can all sing together. . . . For music provides us with a regular pulse or beat, ensuring that we keep in time with each other. And even should we get a note wrong or mispronounce a word, we will soon rejoin the chorus of other people’s voices. And because of this facility which singing offers, songs have for long been the means whereby people created or celebrated their identity. (Bell 17)

M Before I can expect students to trust me and learn with me, they need to feel safe.

usic helps me connect with students and helps them discover more about who they are as individuals and as a class community. Music is one way we worship and know God. I am in a unique and wonderful position as a music specialist to observe how learning and connecting take place in different ways than they do in other spaces around the school. I cherish the opportunities to build relationships with students as we listen, sing, explore, and create together.

Before I can expect students to trust me and learn with me, they need to feel safe. They need to be heard. At the beginning of every music class, I give students the opportunity to participate in a gathering activity. By the second or third class, almost everyone wants to participate, even if it involves singing a solo. As a grade 2 student is singing a question to our class mascot, Melody, we are building connections, learning to take risks, and claiming our voices. Plus, we have covered some of the British Columbia Curricular Competencies in the first few minutes of music class!

In primary music classes, we play, move, sing, and make mistakes together in all kinds of musical (and not so musical) ways. We learn about symbols and sounds and patterns. We tune in to listening. We explore certain aspects of God’s vast creation. I invite students into a relationship with that creation, with the music, and with me. Connections.

Connecting: The Middle C I have come to realize that very little of my formal education prepared me to connect with students.

I have come to realize that very little of my formal education prepared me to connect with students. My courses were focused on lesson plans, Christian perspective, music theory, and performance. However, music education can also lead to closer relationships and connections with students in beautiful ways that I had not realized when I began my teaching career. God has been using music and mentors to lead me toward more meaningful connections with my students and having lots of fun in the process.

Our school community has become more aware of the vital role of 24

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attachment in learning and developing. During recent professional development days, Hannah Beach (Neufeld Institute) reminded us that children and youth cannot learn unless they feel safe and comfortable with a leader.

They learn best when they feel their teacher likes them, and adults need to “connect before we direct.” She emphasised that we must lead with direction and assertiveness and be willing and able to pivot at a moment’s notice.

Therefore, in an effort to build relationships and connect with students, I try to plan highly choreographed music classes while always being ready to improvise.

Through some of the following examples, I try to let students know they are loved, they are known, and each one is a child of God. Perhaps one of my questions or a knowing smile or graciously letting them out of “music jail” at the end of a game will help them to know and trust me as they get to experience the deep love and grace God has for them. (Students end up in jail when they get “out” during a music game and they go to the music carpet which has five lines like jail bars of the treble clef staff.)

Students know the routines and rules in the music room. They also know it is a safe place to be creative and share their ideas. I strive to be one of the people in their village who cares about them, wants to know them, appreciates their gifts, and gives them age-­appropriate boundaries so they can learn and grow. Music lends itself so beautifully to this as we sing together, make mistakes together, try new ideas, improvise on the Orff instruments, take turns listening and performing, and play games. The activities I select, as well as the ways I lead and respond to students, show a lot about who I am and what it is like to be a valued member of our music classroom. Following are some of the activities I use to build connections.

I try to let students know they are loved, they are known, and each one is a child of God.

Gathering Activities (Music Mascots) Routine is important for elementary students. At the beginning of every music class, students stay in their line up order and stand around the music carpets. I look into their eyes as they enter so each person feels seen, and then they have a turn (individually or as a group) to be heard. Connections.

Beat Bear comes out only for kindergarten students. He doesn’t see very well, but he hears everything! His favourite activity is the Beat Bear game, which is how we start every class for the first term. Throughout the term, each student shows different ways to keep the beat and leads the activity.

Beat Bear also whispers compliments in my ear during class and students are excited to see what he has to say to them.

Melody is the grade 1 bumblebee. She can sing but doesn’t sting. When a student uses a singing voice to ask her a question, it is amazing what she can do: she can fly out the window, she can tickle your hand, and she can even write her name in handwriting on the chalkboard! If you ask Melody a question with a talking voice, however, she doesn’t respond. It is absolutely amazing how many reluctant singers emerge in grade 1 because they want to see what Melody can do. Her favorite song in term 1 is “Hickety-­tickety bumblebee, can you sing your name for me?”

BoBo loves it when students in grade 2 copy him. The inspiration for BoBo comes from Denise Gagne at MusicPlay.ca. BoBo has a big mouth that opens when he sings. He moves up and down to the contour of the melody.

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It is absolutely amazing how many reluctant singers emerge in grade 1 because they want to see what Melody can do.

Melody, Beat Bear, and BoBo in the music room

He shows up with a warm scarf or an umbrella, depending on the weather.

With grade 2 and 3 students, he sings four or eight beat questions and the students sing their answers. BoBo has had some cousins join him in the music room, and he has more accessories than he could ever wear since students love to bring gifts to add to his collection.

SQUILT (Super Quiet UnInterrupted Listening Time) Many of my students have programmed activities and lessons outside of school. Sadly, they do not have many opportunities for free play or being bored. One of the gifts I can give them is the opportunity to take a deep breath and quietly listen to music for three to five minutes. Students may sit or lie down, eyes open or closed, keep the beat silently, or conduct. They may not talk or touch others. Students daydream or tune in to a variety of new or familiar music. Our playlist includes carefully selected pieces from 26

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Beethoven, Jeremy Benjamin Zeyl, Pachelbel, TobyMac, Holst, Chris Hadfield, the Beatles, the Wailin’ Jennys, Keith and Kristyn Getty, Raffi, Lang Lang, and many others.

If the lights are off when students enter the music room, they know that it is time for SQUILT. Some days I may say a few words about the music selection or the composer, but most of the time we simply absorb the sounds and enjoy the change of pace from our highly structured, noisy days.

Art is ultimately not “useful.” It serves no practical function. This is why it is indispensable, especially in the modern age. . . . Arts are not a luxury but a path to educate the whole individual toward thriving. (Fujimura 81)

Some days I may say a few words about the music selection or the composer, but most of the time we simply absorb the sounds and enjoy the change of pace from our highly structured, noisy days.

Share Your Music Days Twice a year, students are invited to share a musical offering with their class. Often it is a piano piece from a recent recital or a competition piece on violin. Sometimes it is a version of “Chopsticks” or the chorus from a song they sing at church. I emphasize appropriate and respectful audience behavior, and it is a highlight for many students as they listen and/or perform. It is a safe space for students to share and shine.

Each year I try to share something new: one year I played a song with the only three guitar chords I knew, and they were a gracious audience.

This year I played “The Heavens Declare Your Glory” from the blue psalter hymnal and shared how that was the first song I learned with pedals on my grandparents’ electric organ. Once I took song requests and tried my best to play them on my soprano recorder. Last year I told a few music jokes. If I expect students to take risks and make mistakes, this is one way I can lead by example. Connections.

Song Writing I am always trying to source meaningful, high quality songs for our Christmas programs that align with our school mission and vision. For the last few years, that has included original compositions by our grade 3 classes. It is a delight to hear them sharing ideas about the Christmas story—what it may have been like from Mary’s perspective, or what some of their family traditions are. We work with a local singer-­songwriter who facilitates the three-­week process of generating ideas, selecting the musical style, deciding on the structure/form, writing lyrics, and proudly performing the world premieres for our audience.

Getting Outside It is hard to connect with 372 students when I only see them twice a week in the music room. As much as I resent having recess, lunch, and traffic duties some days on the “wet coast,” I have come to appreciate how I can connect with students (and parents) outdoors. As I hold up a stop sign to help them cross the driveway or when I get a wave from a parent or when I Christian Educators Journal

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We work with a local singer-­songwriter who facilitates the three-­ week process.

I often take a long skipping rope so students have an opportunity to get some exercise and jump to the beat.

hear a kindergarten student calling my name from across the road, I play a small part in helping them feel safe and welcome at our school. Connections.

Our campus is in the middle of an urban neighborhood, and we have very limited play space with no grass. When I go out for lunch (driveway) duty, I often take a long skipping rope so students have an opportunity to get some exercise and jump to the beat. There is a core group of students who come and go for “Teddy Bear Teddy Bear Turn Around,” “Bluebells Cockle Shells,” or singles/doubles jumping competitions. Sometimes I turn the rope and share my jumping tips, and other days the students take over.

Many days students will ask me to jump along or share something personal with me. Connections.

I am a learner and a child of God who needs and wants a safe and creative space to work and learn. My young students need the same. I pray often that my students will feel that from me as I work to gain their trust and build connections. And when some of them don’t connect with me or the activity, I pray they have meaningful connections and safe spaces with other significant adults in their lives.

I want students to know that they belong and that I care about them.

When people ask me what I teach, I usually say that I teach elementary music, but perhaps I should tell them that I teach people—little people, special people, image bearers of God, people with a variety of gifts and anxieties.

We are learning about life through the language of music and by engaging the middle C: connections.

Works Cited Beach, Hannah. “Creating a Conscious Invitation into Relationship.” Hannah Beach, 13 Feb. 2020, hannahbeach.ca/creating-​a​-c­ onscious-­invita​ tion-­into-­relationship/.

Bell, John. The Singing Thing: A Case for Congregational Song. GIA Publications, 2000.

Fujimura, Makoto. Culture Care: Reconnecting with Beauty for Our Common Life. InterVarsity, 2017.

Rebecca Visser has been getting paid to sing, dance, play, and write report cards since 1997. She has degrees from Dordt College and Simon Fraser University, and she currently teaches primary music at John Knox Christian School in Burnaby, BC. She has been married to Mitchell for twenty-five years, and she is thankful that at least one of her three children loves to sing. She regularly plays piano with the worship team at church and enjoys reading, gardening, cooking, cycling, and paddleboarding.

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Singing with Jesus: Embracing an Ancient Musical Form of Psalm-­Singing in the Classroom KEN MICHELL

Worship Education through Music For many students, worship is more caught than taught both in the church context and the classroom setting. Worship music plays an increasingly prominent role in educating worshipers of all ages. The music we perform and the songs we sing in church and in the classroom are formative as they instruct a community in the ways of worship.

I grew up in a church that loved to sing, and I attended a Christian high school that regularly gathered for worship in chapel. The songs of my church and Christian school shaped my understanding of a self-­giving God who calls us to self-­giving (Rom. 12:1). My worship education through music taught me that God poured out his love for me and called me to pour out my love for him. In my experience, worship music embodied joyful celebration, thankful praise, and hopeful expectation. Music in the church gave me language to express positive emotions of heartfelt gratitude and devotion but had very little content that addressed negative emotions. I had a limited vocabulary for dealing with grief, brokenness, lament, or injustice. I was ill-­equipped for facing adversity and the challenges of life because I had not practiced that repertoire. That repertoire is well represented in the Psalms.

Music in the church gave me language to express positive emotions of heartfelt gratitude and devotion but had very little content that addressed negative emotions.

The Psalms The Psalms explore all aspects of human experience and emotion and bring them all into worship, surrendered in God’s presence. The early church apologist Athanasius wrote that “the whole of human existence, both the dispositions of the soul and the movements of the thoughts, have been measured out and encompassed in those very words of the Psalter” (126). At the very least, our musical participation in the church and in the classroom should emulate the breadth of emotion and expression found in God’s Word. In this way, we incorporate speech habits through song and music that align with our internal dispositions in a way that promotes honesty and growth (Witvliet 8–9).

Constance Cherry contends that worship music functions best when it serves the dialogue of encounter between God and his people (177). The rhythm of worship begins with God who makes himself known and calls us to respond faithfully. To the extent that music frames our participation, the music we make and the songs we sing are part of the story we tell and the story in which we dwell. That we may offer a breadth of emotion and expression in worship is an essential human response that corresponds to God Christian Educators Journal

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Worship music functions best when it serves the dialogue of encounter between God and his people.

When we sing the Psalms, we do not just sing to or about Jesus— we sing with Jesus.

who has made us in his image. In this way, we acknowledge our relationship to God, our Creator, who calls us to put our faith in him.

The Psalms are uniquely positioned in Scripture to be received as God speaking to us and to be spoken, prayed, and sung as we speak to God. They possess the “double character of word of God and prayer of the community” (Gelineau 68). As such, they speak to us and for us. The Psalms, unlike noncanonical worship material, are authored by God and established by the authority of the king (1 Chron. 25). Jesus, our King, leads the church’s worship (Hebrews 2; Ps. 22:22) in the words of the Psalms as “mediated praises in which Jesus is present singing with us” (Lefebvre 63). When we sing the Psalms, we do not just sing to or about Jesus—we sing with Jesus.

The Responsorial Psalm

Students are taught a short refrain or chorus that focuses on a key idea in the psalm.

In the fourth century (the time of Athanasius), the early church developed a responsorial pattern of psalm-­singing to teach the many new converts to Christian faith how to sing with Jesus (White 70). The responsorial psalm guided congregants in worship while safeguarding orthodox Christian worship principles. By engaging with the entirety of the Psalms, the early church created space for people to bring their full selves to God in worship.

A responsorial psalm is part of the call and response tradition—a methodology for teaching complex musical patterns. The responsorial element refers to a consistently repeated refrain by the congregation (Westermeyer 18). Translating this practice to the classroom setting, students are taught a short refrain or chorus that focuses on a key idea in the psalm. Very often, this is directly taken from one of the verses in the psalm itself. For example, in Psalm 71, the writer reflects on how his past experience of God’s faithfulness gives him hope in his present challenging circumstances and fuels his hope for the future. He links his experience of hope with his participation in worship, acknowledging that while hope leads to praise, praise also leads to hope. In the responsorial rhythm, the repeated refrain might therefore focus on the summary declaration of verse 14: “As for me, I will always have hope; I will praise you more and more.”

After leading the sung refrain, the teacher reads the opening verses from the psalm aloud before the class returns to the refrain. The teacher continues with the next section of verses and the students respond once again with the same refrain. This is repeated back and forth until the entire psalm has been alternately read and sung together. The class is encouraged to read the verses aloud with the teacher, placing the words of Scripture on their lips in a corporate act of worship. Speaking the words together further engages musical principles like cadence, melody, and rhythm (Westermeyer 20).

Some psalms have a built-­in responsorial structure. Psalm 136 repeats the refrain “his love endures forever” after every line. Psalms 42 and 43 are connected with the repeated question and answer “Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (Ps. 42:5, 11; Ps. 43:5). Psalm 80 returns to a variation of the phrase “Restore us, O God; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved” in verses 3, 7, and 19. Further, a number of psalms have inclusios, where the first and last verses are repeated, forming a bracket 30

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around the psalm content. Psalm 8 begins and ends with the inclusio “Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth,” while Psalms 145–150 all begin and end with the call to “praise the Lord.”

Responsorial Psalms in the Classroom Incorporating a form of psalm-­singing in the classroom encourages students to engage with psalms in their entirety. While it is not uncommon to sing worship material that is inspired from the Psalms, in most cases, only a portion of the psalm is included. Historically, although new songs have always been added to worship repertoire, they were intended to supplement rather than supplant the Psalms (Lefebvre 20). When we embrace an entire psalm, we have a fuller context in which to understand the richness of particular verses. Further, we are exposed to a wider range of emotion and experience that may be offered within a worship setting.

Acknowledging the breadth of emotional content in the Psalms should impact the musical choices that frame our worship participation. The music we include in the classroom (and the church) reflects the emotional range of what we deem acceptable in corporate worship. By extension, what we don’t include may reflect the limits we place on ourselves, each other, and God. Musically, we can incorporate material that reflects this breadth of emotion, inviting us to offer praise and joy along with sorrow and lament. In the classroom, this is an opportunity to encourage creativity. Sung refrains may be borrowed from existing material. Singing the chorus of “10,000 Reasons (Bless the Lord)” by Matt Redman and Jonas Myrin is a natural refrain for Psalm 103. While the song they wrote picks up on some of the themes present in the psalm, large portions are not represented. Psalm 22 may be paired with Keith Getty and Stuart Townend’s chorus from “The Power of the Cross” as the psalm prophetically articulates Jesus’s willingness to die for our sin.

In classrooms where there is more room for application, the teacher and students may compose short musical settings for the sung refrain. This provides an opportunity to study the psalm and explore a range of musical genres that effectively express the ethos therein. For example, a study in blues music may yield a refrain that pairs well with a lament psalm like Psalm 130: “Out of the depths I cry to you, Lord; Lord, hear my voice. Let your ears be attentive to my cry for mercy.” Learning about musical theatre lends itself to more dramatic musical moments that could reflect the wide contrasts found in Psalm 95—the depths of the earth and the heights of the mountain peaks, the sea and the dry land, the greatness of God (the great King above all gods) and his people who bow and kneel before him (vv. 3–6).

For the last four years, I have included a form of psalm-­singing regularly in my classroom. Where appropriate, I have assigned music students the task of writing and composing short refrains that encourage them to spend time in the Scripture and consider musical styles that effectively portray the psalm’s emotional character. Students have routinely expressed their appreciation for including this practice as a way of singing Scripture and embracing a bigger understanding of God and themselves.

Some church traditions have a long history of incorporating a form of psalm-­singing in their worship practices. For others, while this is not a new Christian Educators Journal

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When we embrace an entire psalm, we have a fuller context in which to understand the richness of particular verses.

I have assigned music students the task of writing and composing short refrains that encourage them to spend time in the Scripture and consider musical styles that effectively portray the psalm’s emotional character.

idea, it may be a good one to recover. The Psalms are the very worship words God has given us, and they are designed to be sung. The original music has not been preserved, which opens the door to creative musical expression in the classroom. God invites us to bring our entire selves to him in worship and sing with Jesus who leads our song.

Works Cited Athanasius. The Life of Antony and The Letter to Marcellinus. Translated by Robert C. Gregg, Paulist, 1980.

Cherry, Constance M. The Worship Architect: A Blueprint for Designing Culturally Relevant and Biblically Faithful Services. Baker Academic, 2021.

Gelineau, Joseph. Voices and Instruments in Christian Worship. Liturgical, 1964.

Lefebvre, Michael. Singing the Songs of Jesus: Revisiting the Psalms. Christian Focus, 2010.

Westermeyer, Paul. Te Deum: The Church and Music. Augsburg Fortress, 1998.

White, James F. A Brief History of Christian Worship. Abingdon, 1993.

Witvliet, John. “Words to Grow Into: The Psalms as Formative Speech.” Forgotten Songs: Reclaiming the Psalms for Christian Worship, edited by C. Richard Wells and Ray Van Neste, B&H Publishing, 2012, pp. 7–16.

Dr. Ken Michell is assistant professor of Music and Worship Arts and the Music Department Chair at Tyndale University in Toronto, Ontario. Over the last four years, he has written responsorial settings for more than fifty psalms for personal and corporate worship participation.

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Restoring God’s World by Creating Beauty through Music DARRYL DEBOER, CARI LOCKEN, AND EMMELINE MAHON

A

s Surrey Christian School (SCS) spans grades pre-K–12 over multiple campuses with multiple music teachers, it has been an intentional journey to orient the music program toward a shared vision. Drawing on the practices of Teaching for Transformation (www.teachingfortransformation. org), the music teachers crafted a collective Deep Hope that provides both the launching point and destination for pre-K–­12 music at SCS: It is our Deep Hope that the musicians of Surrey Christian School embody wonder, creativity, craftsmanship, and humility while sharing beauty through music and restoring God’s world.

The Deep Hope clarifies, grounds, and shapes all students at each stage of K–­12 music learning through Orff, Modern Band, Concert Band, Marimba Ensemble, Jazz Band, Choir, and musical presentations.

Further, this Deep Hope informs assessment (how do we know that our musicians are growing in craftsmanship and creativity?) pedagogy (what does it look like to design learning in which students practice humility and wonder?), and presentations/celebrations of learning (how will we participate in the restoration of God’s world by sharing beauty through music?).

The aim of this article is to share learning experiences from our intermediate (grades 4 through 7) music program that embody our program’s Deep Hope—stories that provide opportunities for students to embody wonder, creativity, craftsmanship, and humility while sharing beauty through music and restoring God’s world. These are opportunities for the SCS musicians to be shaped and to shape as they explore what it means to play their part in God’s story.

The grade 7 musicians

Wonder: Memories through Song

designed and created

We connected with our grand-friends at Elim Village retirement home near our school. Our Deep Hope was to bring joy and create beauty for the residents of Elim Village, learning and sharing their beautiful memories through song.

Long-term learning target: We can bring joy and create beauty for the residents of Elim Village, learning and sharing their beautiful memories through song.

The grade 7 musicians designed and created posters and invitations for the residents, explaining that we hoped to share their memories through song and that we would be visiting with them to learn if they had any special song requests associated with memories from their past.

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posters and invitations for the residents, explaining that we hoped to share their memories through song and that we would be visiting with them to learn if they had any special song requests associated with memories from their past.

As we arrived at Elim, we were surprised by the large crowd that showed up to share their memories, and upon our return to SCS, we set to work researching the songs, listening to them, finding chord progressions and creating our own arrangements using Modern Band instruments: vocals, keyboard, guitar, ukulele, bass guitar, and drums, as well as our marimbas.

Each grade 4 through 7 class was responsible for two songs, and small groups of musicians from each class volunteered to learn the extra songs.

We presented the beautiful program “Memories through Song” in a live, outdoor presentation at Elim Village. It was a day-­long song festival where we shared thirty-­six songs as well as creating and providing lyric song books for those who wanted to sing along. It was here that we were reminded how beauty causes wonder, welcoming and inviting us to worship.

As one student shared afterward: “I felt so in awe of God when I saw how touched our Elim grand-friends were when they heard their memories through song.”

Creativity: Repairing Broken Walls, Restoring Streets with Dwellings Music can address the mess of brokenness in our community and is a unique language for restoring beauty and belonging.

Isaiah 58:6–12 directed and shaped our music learning for this year-­long Formational Learning Experience—specifically verse 12: “You will be called repairer of broken walls, restorer of streets with dwellings.”

Our Deep Hope was that we would participate with God to be repairers and restorers of beauty where there is brokenness in our community, focusing on the big idea that music can address the mess of brokenness in our community and is a unique language for restoring beauty and belonging.

Long term learning target: We can participate with God to be repairers and restorers of beauty where there is brokenness in our community.

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After identifying their “streets with dwellings” and organizations who were already repairing and restoring beauty in our community, the grades 4 through 7 musicians hosted a Christmas singalong for our school community, highlighting the restorative work of these community organizations.

As we deepened our relationship with the organizations Backpack Buddies and Mackie’s Place, we learned about the origins and growth of the organizations, their existing needs, and how they are impacting lives. This inspired our musicians to tell the stories of these organizations through music.

We created themed sections of each story, with carefully selected songs to represent the themes and arranged the songs using Modern Band instruments.

While arranging and refining the songs, we partnered with a local artist, designing and creating two pieces of artwork incorporating the songs we had chosen. We shared the stories with our school community and the founders, leaders, recipients, and sponsors of the organizations through two musical presentations where we gifted the founders with the artwork.

Looking back on the experience, one student reflected: “Repairing and restoring is hard work, and I like how it can be beautiful even when the work isn’t finished. Choosing a song to tell someone else’s story is important, because music is memorable, and if it helps others to remember how Mackie’s Place is helping vulnerable youth in our community, then others can also be invited to be ‘repairers of broken walls, restorers of streets with dwellings,’ just like us.”

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While arranging and refining the songs, we partnered with a local artist, designing and creating two pieces of artwork incorporating the songs we had chosen.

Craftsmanship: Reflection Celebration and Lamentation through Music and Song When students learned that their campus would soon be closing, they expressed a deep desire to share their years of school memories with family and friends through a musical celebration.

Our Deep Hope was to share our school memories in a musical way that brings joy to others and honors God for his faithfulness to us throughout our elementary school years.

Long term learning target: I can be an instrument of change when I share about God’s goodness and faithfulness in my life during my years here at SCS. After listening to and learning about the structure of songs, students reflected on their time at their campus collecting meaningful memories.

After listening to and learning about the structure of songs, students reflected on their time at their campus collecting meaningful memories.

Choosing popular songs, the grades 4 through 6 musicians rewrote­ ­lyrics that shared their school experience and collaborated to transcribe the original arrangement onto Modern Band instruments.

The grade 7 musicians crafted and created an original song. Working in small groups, they created chord progressions and a melody with lyrics which they played on ukulele, keyboard, bass guitar, and drums. Following the group work, the class collaborated on choosing a melody and chords they felt best represented their lyrics.

The classes proudly shared their completed compositions with family and friends in a celebratory outdoor presentation in the school parking lot on a magical sunny day.

Students were able to identify the significance of creating music that empowered them to both celebrate and lament: “I enjoyed creating lyrics that described our school experiences even though it was difficult and challenging at times. I was excited to share our song with everyone, and I felt God was with us as we shared his goodness.”

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Humility: Away in a Shopping Cart For our annual Christmas celebration, our Deep Hope was to participate with God in our role as beauty creators and to address the brokenness in our community at Christmas by bringing everyone together to reflect on and celebrate the birth of Jesus through sharing our music.

Long term learning target: I can reimagine the story of Jesus’s birth in a different way to help us see the needs around us and to see the humble, servant way of Jesus.

In this modern context, we imagined that Jesus may be born on the streets.

Who would be the first people to see him? We connected with two people who previously identified as being homeless. Learning about their need to be seen rather than having their physical needs met was most humbling for us all. So, for our presentation, we identified characters who saw Jesus, and we shared the story of his birth through ten prayers and musical offerings.

Rather than a traditional manger, musicians created a shopping cart graffiti art manger by weaving descriptive words graffitied on cardboard about God’s character and how he sees us through the shopping cart, creating a beautiful and powerful reminder of who God is and his love for us.

Phillipians 2:3–4 inspired us to record our chosen songs outside in the school’s covered parkade and to collect donations for the Union Gospel Mission.

As one student shared afterward: “Learning what it is like to live on the streets changed the way I view those who identify as homeless. I learned that we all simply want to be seen and loved like everybody else, and I haven’t done a very good job of that yet. Recording our songs in the parkade helped me feel connected to our brothers and sisters living on the street.”

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Rather than a traditional manger, musicians created a shopping cart graffiti art manger by weaving descriptive words graffitied on cardboard about God’s character and how he sees us through the shopping cart.

Now What?

Our K–­12 Deep Hope for music ensures that our program, our musicians, our performances, and our learning align and embody our school’s purpose and vision for our students.

We are excited to continue to design learning experiences for our students to have opportunities to embody wonder, creativity, craftsmanship, and humility. These ways of being and playing are providing a collective direction for our music teachers as we deepen our desire and ability to work as a K–­12 team spread over different campuses. As we create opportunities for our own students to grow, we are also being shaped as we learn with our students.

Surrey Christian’s mission statement is educating for wholeness by engaging God’s world in the servant way of Jesus. Our K–­12 Deep Hope for music ensures that our program, our musicians, our performances, and our learning align and embody our school’s purpose and vision for our students. Our common vision both roots and directs us as we play our part in God’s story by creating beauty through music.

Darryl DeBoer serves as both the director of education at Surrey Christian School and the director of Teaching for Transformation at the Center for Advancement of Christian Education (CACE).

Cari Locken had been teaching primary and intermediate music at the Surrey Christian Cloverdale campus for seven years. This year she has transitioned to the primary music program at the Surrey Christian Fleetwood campus.

Emmeline Mahon enjoyed teaching a variety of K–­12 music positions in the UK, Uganda, and the Lower Mainland in British Columbia before teaching grades 4 through 7 music at the Surrey Christian Fleetwood campus the past fourteen years.

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Integrating Music into the Elementary Classroom Culture SUSAN DYKSHOORN

I

didn’t major in music, and I don’t carry a guitar into my classroom each morning. I doubt anyone will ask me to be part of the praise team, and I’m sure my band teacher breathed a sigh of relief when I stopped taking her courses in high school. I don’t recall being required to take a curriculum and pedagogy course in music for my bachelor’s degree or education certification. Yet somehow, in my journey as an elementary teacher, music has found its way into my classroom practices and continues to be an imperative part of the school day.

In today’s schools, where academic achievement and success on standardized tests are made a high priority, music is a component of education that is often overlooked but should be prioritized for its positive impact on students’ self-­ esteem, self-­confidence, empathy, and creative and critical thinking skills (Rizzuto et al. 150–51). In addition, while recognized as a crucial subject in and of itself, arts education provides an opportunity to develop cognitive, social, emotional, and physical competencies (Borowski 157). With its impressive ability to stir up emotion, communicate, and provide an avenue for learning, exploration, and creativity, music plays a prominent role in children’s personal and academic development in schools (Alexander and Saavedra).

As Christian educators, we have the immense responsibility of leading students to a greater understanding of who God is, his creation, and the interaction between heart, mind, body, and soul. Ephesians 5:19 discusses how music and worship can focus our hearts on God and build community with others. The many references to musical instruments, singing, and praise in the Psalms display a human connection to the sounds, rhythms, and creativity that music provides. Not only did David write many of the psalms, play music as a lonely shepherd, express his feelings and frustrations as future king on the run, and articulate his deep gratitude and joy for God’s provisions in his life, but he also used his lyre to minister to King Saul, calming Saul when in a rage from an evil spirit (1 Sam. 16:14–23). All of these examples demonstrate the breadth and depth of music’s dynamic capabilities and the many connections God intended in its intricate design for his children.

Integrating music into the classroom can impact how information is processed and how humans respond to learning (Alexander and Saavedra; Gonser). Wired to remember and perceive language better when multiple modes of learning are utilized repeatedly and simultaneously, the brain’s exposure to music and its numerous effects builds connections by touching on multiple intelligences and alerting the various preferences for learning among students (Beaver et al. 5, 9–13; Gonser). When integrated into classroom learning, music has the power to influence emotions, motivation, and attitudes, and it touches the heart as described in Psalm 77:6. Music is also a form of language and communication (Beaver et al. 137). A child’s involvement can include Christian Educators Journal

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Music is a component of education that is often overlooked but should be prioritized for its positive impact on students’ self-­esteem, self-­ confidence, empathy, and creative and critical thinking skills.

The brain’s exposure to music and its numerous effects builds connections by touching on multiple intelligences.

listening, singing, engaging in creative activities, movement, play, creation, and examination, all of which can help them to become more aware of themselves, the people around them, and the world they live in.

Whether in a public or Christian setting, how can we include this unique and powerful musical component in our classroom practice? How is this best done in the context of the regular classroom routines and requirements?

Academic Learning A favorite activity of mine for the primary grades is to take a song like Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” and have students make a class book after listening to the song and sounding out the words of the lyrics.

There are many exciting possibilities for teachers wanting to integrate music into classroom learning. This can range from exploring historical events and periods in which genres of music were written to focusing on the poetic elements in song lyrics (Gonser). Teachers can connect songs and the emotions elicited from them to lessons to help students think deeply about the content, such as when participating in book studies or reflecting on current events in the world. A favorite activity of mine for the primary grades is to take a song like Louis Armstrong’s “What a Wonderful World” and have students make a class book after listening to the song and sounding out the words of the lyrics, relating it to Adrienne Gear’s “reading powers” of visualization and making connections. The use of music can aid in memorization and the development of skills, often used within the math and science context to remember key facts, formulas, and processes. While I can’t remember the exact lessons and teaching sequence used to learn the order of operations, a simple musical chant from many years ago runs through my head each time I need to teach this concept to students. Assigning students to create a song or dance to demonstrate knowledge of key vocabulary and science processes serves the purpose of creatively communicating science knowledge in an accessible way.

A simple search of YouTube, streaming services, and the work of creative teachers can provide a host of song options to support just about any unit of study, and they make for great supplemental teaching and time fillers, allowing educators to make the most of every educational minute.

Classroom Management

This shift from repeated oral directions and constant talking in the classroom retains student attention, increases engagement, and encourages the joy and wonder of learning.

Classroom management continues to be at the forefront of creating positive learning environments for students. Integrating music into the components of classroom routines and procedures can change the atmosphere without a lot of work, but it requires intentional planning (Ferlazzo). For example, similar to the bells or chimes that sound in the school building to indicate a break, recess, or end of the day, songs played or sung during transition times can serve as an entertaining and uplifting way to encourage students to clean up, move to the next activity, or change thinking toward a different topic (Gonser). As a way to develop an awareness of time and build communication skills, primary teachers often will use clean-­up songs or goodbye songs (Ferlazzo). Using songs or music samples can also indicate to students the time remaining in an activity, providing them with a unique countdown for completing work. In an effort to create a musically vibrant learning space, Campbell et al. suggests using clapping rhythms that students copy to gain attention or giving brief directions through the use of simple melodies (5). This shift from repeated oral directions 40

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and constant talking in the classroom retains student attention, increases engagement, and encourages the joy and wonder of learning.

Social Emotional Learning Social and emotional learning (SEL) is defined as “the process through which children and adults understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions” (CASEL). SEL is an essential part of healthy human development and contributes to the academic success and overall well being of students. According to Rizzuto et al. (150–51), there is a strong connection between arts education and the development of SEL competencies, including developing identity and independence, communication skills, and regulation of emotions. Increased levels of overall student and staff well-being were found among teachers who did not have formal training in SEL or music but recognized the importance of building a positive classroom culture and developing an appreciation of the arts in others. Ferlazzo recognizes the incorporation of lyric-­free music in the classroom to decrease anxiety and increase focus during work time. Calm music can be effective to gently redirect students with high-­energy, and high-­intensity beats can be used for movement breaks to expend the extra wiggles or re-­engage tired learners (Ferlazzo; Gonser). If you have ever attended a Kim Sutton mathematics workshop, she advocates for the use of rhythms, music, and songs, not only to pace activities and provide students with timing sequences, but to celebrate student accomplishments. Songs like “Celebration” by Kool and the Gang, “Happy”

by Pharrell Williams, and the “thinking music” theme from Jeopardy! are all part of the Spotify playlist “Kim Sutton’s Elementary Playlist for Classroom” for teachers to use to acknowledge triumphs in learning and enhance the classroom learning context (Larrabee). For students who need to practice self-­ regulation in a more secluded setting, many calm-­down corners or areas of the school are equipped with dim lighting, fidget toys, and the option to listen to carefully selected calming or empowering music using headphones.

There is a strong connection between arts education and the development of SEL competencies, including developing identity and independence, communication skills, and regulation of emotions.

Calm music can be effective to gently redirect students with high-­energy, and high-­ intensity beats can be used for movement breaks to expend the extra wiggles or re-­engage

Looking Ahead

tired learners.

While not every teacher will have a musical background that naturally produces teaching activities that hone in on the positive aspects of seamlessly integrating music into the learning experience of today’s children, educators need to recognize the important role music can play in the educational experience of our young students (Beaver et al. 137, 141). Teaching and learning encompass so much more than knowledge and skills limited to isolated subject areas. To engage students in quality learning, meet their varying needs, and retain a sense of joy, wonder, and excitement in the educational experience, integrating components of music into various aspects of their journey can provide significant benefits for students. Taking small steps toward incorporating musical components and sharing successful strategies with colleagues can support educators in leading their students toward academic, behavioral, social, and emotional development and success in school (Rizzuto et al. 160– 61). As Christian teachers, we know that this life will include mountaintop Christian Educators Journal

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Drawing students into music at a young age can encourage them to focus on the One who created music and its dynamic components.

highs and stormy seas (Tomlin et al.). Drawing students into music at a young age can encourage them to focus on the One who created music and its dynamic components. Based on Psalm 30:12, in which the psalmist refuses to be silent about the praise God deserves, Chris Tomlin’s “How Can I Keep from Singing” is a guide in leading young students to follow God. Through our teaching and guidance, we need to share the “endless song” God placed in our hearts with others, “shouting Your name” because of the hope to which we cling: that we are “loved by the King, and it makes my heart want to sing.”

Works Cited Alexander, Henry, and Elena Saavedra. “How Can Integrating Music into Your Classroom Benefit Student Learning and Development?” National Center on Safe Supportive Learning Environments, 2015/2022, safesupportivelearning.ed.gov/voices-­field/how​-­does-­music-­benefit-­your-­class​ room​-o ­ r-­school-­community-­most.

Armstrong, Louis. “What a Wonderful World.” ABC, 1967.

Beaver, Nancy, Susan Wyatt, and Hilda Jackman. Early Education Curriculum: A Child’s Connection to the World. 7th edition, Centage, 2017.

Borowski, Teresa G. “How Dance Promotes the Development of Social and Emotional Competence.” Arts Education Policy Review, vol. 124, no. 3, 2023, pp. 157–70.

Campbell, Patricia Shehan, Carol Scott-­Kassner, and Kirk Kassner. Music for Elementary Classroom Teachers. Norton, 2017.

CASEL. “Fundamentals of SEL.” Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, 2024, casel.org/fundamentals-­of-­sel/.

Ferlazzo, Larry. “Strategies for Using Music in ALL Subjects.” Education Weekly, 10 July 2020, www.edweek.org/teaching-­l earning/ opinion-­strategies-­for-­using-­music-­in-­all-­subjects/2020/07.

Gear, Adrienne. “About Reading Power.” Adrienne Gear, 2023, adri​enne​gear​ .com/books/reading-­power/.

Gonser, Sarah. “Six Smart Ways to Bring the Power of Music in Your Classroom.” Edutopia, 31 July 2020, www.edutopia.org/article/​6-­smart-­ways -­bring-­power-­music-­your-­classroom.

Larrabee, Ryan. Kim Sutton’s Elementary Playlist for Classroom. Spotify, 2020, open.spotify.com/playlist/0bNltaWt2LzBbC5m8c3259.

Rizzuto, Thomas, Kelley Cordeiro, and Allison Roda. “The Lost Art: Teachers’ Perceptions of the Connections between the Arts and Social-­Emotional Learning.” Arts Education Policy Review, vol. 125, no. 3, 2024, pp. 150–62.

Sutton, Kim. “Got the Basic Fact Blues.” Abbotsford Christian School, 20 October 2023, Abbotsford Christian Secondary School, Abbotsford, BC. Tomlin, Chris, Ed Cash, and Matt Redman. “How Can I Keep From Singing.”

See the Morning. Capitol CMG Publishing, Reservoir Media Management, Inc. Song/ATV Music Publishing LLC, Universal Music Group, 2006.

Susan Dykshoorn is a faculty associate and course instructor at Trinity Western University in the Professional Year Program and a grade 1 teacher at Abbotsford Christian School in British Columbia. She enjoys supporting others in integrating quality teaching with student-­centered, hands-­on learning approaches.

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October 2024

Christian Educators Journal

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Future Issues December 2024—Classroom Management We’ve all had that class. The one that can’t sit still after lunch. The one that can’t stop talking. The one where a single student can derail an entire lesson. Classroom management can make or break a teacher’s school year, but sometimes it feels like an x-factor—you either have it or you don’t. In this issue, we’ll especially rely on veteran teachers and those with strong management skills to let us know what’s working right now. What strategies do you employ? How do you create mutual respect in your classroom? What do you do when a student is damaging the learning environment? Has your management changed as you work with Generations Z and Alpha, who were particularly affected by the COVID interruption? Does your school have a building-wide behavior management system?

Are there technology tools that can help? How do you celebrate good behavior?

How do you build relationships with students? As the second half of the school year approaches, we’re looking for ways to reset our classroom expectations and create spaces where all students can learn—and teachers can hear ourselves think.

This issue is no longer accepting submissions.

February 2025— Field Trips and Travel Experiences outside of the classroom often create some of our students’ strongest memories. As adults, we may even remember an elementary school field trip to a local farm or an overnight senior trip to another city. What are your school’s traditions surrounding field trips or more extensive travel with students? Where do you go and why? What connections have you made with local organizations or businesses? How do you recruit additional chaperones? Who handles transportation? Is there a budget for these trips, or are students asked to contribute? Does Christian school travel look different than that of public schools? What service opportunities do you build into trips? How do you make field trips accessible for all students? In this issue, we look forward to hearing about the ways you make great learning happen outside the walls of a classroom.

Proposals due October 18, 2024 (informal—just send us an email explaining your idea).

Articles due November 18, 2024.

April 2025—Resource Review Each year we highlight the best books, films, websites, teaching tools, and other resources for Christian school teachers. We publish reviews of student-facing material (like which books to stock in your classroom library) as well as materials relevant to school staff (like curricula or books about teaching). Articles may focus on one text or may be written in a list style featuring multiple texts around a particular theme.

Proposals due December 13, 2024 (informal—just send us an email explaining your idea).

Articles due January 20, 2025.