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Theory

A Learning Laboratory

With increasing national interest in the impact of music on children's capacity and readiness to learn, the CLCS is a special place where curriculum, best instructional practices, and assessment tools are being developed and implemented over time. A continual process of professional development involving teachers and outside specialists has resulted in the expansion of these materials while simultaneously evaluating student performance. The CLCS is in a unique position to use the results of this ground-breaking work to build a new model for reforming public schools. This is especially critical as we examine ways of closing the achievement gap typical of minority and impoverished children in inner-city schools.

Now in our tenth year as a music-based charter public school, our goal is to continue refining the Learning Through Music curriculum model in order to enhance learning across academic disciplines. As an overview, the Learning Through Music model is based on three overarching principles:

  • Five processes are intrinsic to learning music-listening, questioning, creating, performing and reflecting. These are applied across the school as a fundamental way for children to approach all learning. The five processes require use of kinesthetic, auditory, and visual modalities of learning. Thus, every child's preferred learning style is accessed while the weaker modalities are strengthened.
  • Shared fundamental concepts-the natural, authentic, and meaningful ideas that music and academic subjects share-create connections for teachers and students to explore with the goal of strengthening and enhancing student achievement. These shared concepts form the links enabling the integration of music into academic subjects.
  • Multiple literacies reinforce one another: learning another form of symbolic decoding-sight singing and writing music notation-helps give fluency to language literacy and numeracy. Research indicates there is a strong correlation between music literacy and improved reading and mathematic achievement.