Music & Dance
Overview
Connecting information to music and dance can support Short-term and Long-term Memory by engaging auditory processes, Emotions, and physical activity. When students create their own songs and corresponding dance moves, they are using creative cognitive processes that encourage them to reflect on how to represent what they are learning. As music has been shown to be a large part of adolescent culture and identity, infusing it into lessons can increase student engagement and provide opportunities to enhance Sense of Belonging and Critical Literacy.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Watch how this science teacher uses hip hop as the foundation of his pedagogical model. As an outlet that his students connect with, through hip hop, they learn and remember the content as they rhyme, make connections, and present their learnings to others.
Design It into Your Product
Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.
Learn how Incredibox allows learners to create instrumental songs, add vocals, and remix music to aid in learning. Through this engaging and fun activity, learners can interpret content in new ways which can support their understanding and Long-term Memory. Students can share their creations with classmates and teachers and work collaboratively during the process, which may increase Motivation.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Multisensory Supports Strategies
Audiobooks allow students to hear fluent reading and to experience books that may be above their reading skills.
Communication boards are displays of graphics (e.g., pictures, symbols, illustrations) and/or words where learners can gesture or point to the displays to extend their expressive language potential.
Dictation, also referred to as speech-to-text, an assistive communication technology that translates voice dictation to digital text, provides students with transcription difficulties the opportunity to participate in the writing process by allowing them to use their voice to generate and record ideas.
Dictionaries and thesauruses can serve as resources for students to expand their Vocabulary knowledge, as they provide easy access to definitions and similar words to help students remember words and meanings more readily.
Adding gestures and motions to complement learning activates more cognitive processes for recall and understanding, particularly within content area instruction.
Short breaks that include mindfulness quiet the brain to allow for improved thinking and emotional regulation.
Brain breaks that include movement allow learners to refresh their thinking and focus on learning new information.
Using earplugs or headphones can increase focus and comfort.
Transforming written text into audio supports learning by activating different parts of a learner's brain for comprehension.
Visual supports, like text magnification, colored overlays, and text manipulation, help students focus and properly track as they read.
Research has shown that students write longer pieces with stronger quality when they use word processing software.
Word sorts are multisensory activities that help learners identify patterns and group words based on different categories while promoting Vocabulary development.
