by Cynthia L.

Wagoner

Integrating Literacy
within the Performance
Classroom
Abstract: Music teachers may be tasked with documenting ways in which broader literacy
skills have been embedded in music teaching. As a result, musical goals might seem to take a
secondary role in support of broader language-literacy skills. Enhancing music literacy should
be the goal of well-designed integration. The suggestions here provide music teachers with
short, targeted integration to more complex, multimodal approaches that connect assignments
with music-specific outcomes. Music teachers can add broader literacy goals to their peda-
gogical repertoire for the large-ensemble classroom.
Keywords: integration, literacy goals, multimodal approaches, music literacy, musical goals

D
aily life in music performance class-
Even in large rooms should be packed with a wide
ensembles, music variety of musically rich activities lead-
ing to a positive change in students’ thinking
teachers can and behaviors. In addition to creating, per-
enhance music forming, and responding musically, students
and teachers may be required to document
literacy for all ways in which broader literacy skills have
been embedded in music teaching. As a
students. result, music teachers may feel their musical
goals are co-opted into a secondary role of
support for tested subject areas. How might
music teachers in secondary ensemble-
performance classrooms prepare students
for music disciplinary literacy that includes
broader literacy skills? The answer lies in
using strategies that integrate language and Photo of Cynthia Wagoner Creative Services at East
music literacies in the classroom. Carolina University

Cynthia L. Wagoner is an associate professor and the chair of the department of music education and music therapy at East
Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. She can be contacted at wagoner@ecu.edu.

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DOI: 10.1177/0027432120917746 https://bit.ly/intLiteracy
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24 Music Educators Journal  June 2020

Language and Music Literacy FIGURE 1
Language literacy has traditionally been Music and Language Integration
thought of as reading and writing com-
prehension. More modern definitions
of language literacy have incorporated
21st-century skills to include oral com-
munication, collaboration, critical think-
ing, and the ability to learn as essential
to literacy.1 Similarly, definitions of music
literacy have moved beyond traditional
notation skills of tonal and rhythmic liter-
acy2 toward the broader components of
artistic process in the National Standards
of creating, performing, and respond-
ing (https://nafme.org/my-classroom/
standards/). Enhancing broad music
literacy skills should be the focus of
well-designed integration with language
literacy. This isn’t just important to music
teachers: Researchers in language literacy
highlight the significance of providing
students with opportunities to use writ-
ing skills to construct deeper personal
knowledge authentically within specific
content areas.3 Content area experts read
and comprehend language texts differ-
ently than basic language arts literacy
exercises provide.4 When students have
realistic opportunities to engage with lan-
guage literacy in music, we can deepen
musical learning while we strengthen the
linguistic skills of reading, writing, and
comprehension.5 Multimodal Literacy many modes, is a way of explaining
There are other benefits to hav- how our ideas are mediated and given
ing students write about their musical As performers, we often create multi- meaning using our senses. Each of our
experiences. The large ensemble setting faceted integrated projects that may uti- senses provides us with information that
is structured to eliminate extraneous lize language literacy but also integrate carries different intensity and meaning
conversation, and writing may increase other modes of literacy quite naturally. within a particular context.9 The “multi-
personal communication between the In recognizing the ways in which we sensory representations of the world”10
director and student. In turn, the addi- interpret the world through our senses, are integrated into our understanding,
tional communication may serve to we are assisting students in working knowledge, and expressions of identity.
deepen the sense of community stu- through larger, more complex concepts A good example of multimodality is hip-
dents’ experience.6 Furthermore, writ- and deepening their learning meaning- hop, where lyrics, music, gestures/move-
ing to learn can be a meaningful way fully. The term multimodality has been ment, clothing, and urban graffiti are
to document musical growth in large coined to describe literacy as “the read- integrated to express hip-hop culture.11
ensembles. 7 Literacy integration may ing and writing of digital text along Using multimodality as our literacy
be easily accomplished using short, tar- with representing meaning through focus, we might encourage our students
geted projects, collected across time as still image, video, audio, and gesture.”8 to take an original idea and rearticulate,
evidence of student learning. Examples When we move material from one mode redesign, or modify it to best represent
of music and language integration are (music/sound/aural sense) to another, their knowledge. As students engage
found in Figure 1. However, the large for example, to translate music into writ- with meaning-making utilizing different
performance classroom also lends itself ten or spoken language, we are inter- modes simultaneously, original ideas
to more complex integrated ideas such preting/expressing the original material may transform or shift, and a new idea
as multimodal literacy projects. in a new way. Multimodality, literally, begins to take shape. 12 For instance,

www.nafme.org 25
FIGURE 2
Multimodal Literacy through Traditional Disciplines
FIGURE 3
Integrating Literacy in the Performance Classroom
moving a poem to music without using
the words would be a translation that is
also referred to as transduction.13 Stu-
dents can experience the world using
all their senses at the same time, think-
ing across and between modes, also
called transmodal. Transmodal thinking
can help students become more literate
using linguistic, audio, visual, gestural,
and spatial contexts to express knowl-
edge.14 We might think of modes across
26
their pedagogical repertoire for the large
ensemble classroom. The suggestions
provided here (Figure 3) move from
short, targeted music and traditional
language literacy projects toward broad,
more extensive multimodal projects that
can be embedded within a semester or
across communities of learners.
Getting Started
Students can learn how and why musi-
cians choose to write about music. For
example, writing is a tool we can use
to explore, organize, and express what
we understand about music. Integra-
tion provides students with a context
for writing about music, with specific
purpose, audience, or format. Including
a simple discussion preceding a writ-
ing project might serve to have students
think more deeply about what skills
they need to develop, or as a means
to examine other musicians’ creative
processes before moving on to their
own musical applications through per-
formance and/or composition. Student
writing becomes a means to personal
growth of musical knowledge.
Language Literacy Examples
Quick Write
A quick write is a very short, targeted
way to ask students to take a moment
to stop and make connections through
writing. Quick writes can serve as a
unique, short assessment opportunity
to document student understanding and
knowledge attainment. Short moments
to write can encourage engagement with
musical vocabulary, including learn-
ing to define and spell musical terms
and encouraging students to describe
more traditional artistic forms, as shown
musical concepts. It allows teachers to
in Figure 2.
gauge how well students understand
Starting with language literacy inte-
new concepts and ideas while encour-
gration (Figure 1) and moving toward
aging active engagement in their own
more complex multimodal approaches
learning.
(Figure 2) allows us to identify curricular
areas that naturally lend themselves to Example 1. Goal: Checking for
teaching music literacy in deeper ways. understanding (National Standard
With careful planning to connect assign- Performing: Rehearse, Evaluate,
ments to music-specific outcomes, music Refine). Use a short prompt, such
teachers can add broad literacy goals to as “Yesterday, we talked about the
Music Educators Journal  June 2020
 difference between staccato and
legato. In your own words, describe
what the difference is, what it
sounds like, and what it feels like
to you when you perform legato
and staccato passages on your
instrument. Give an example of
where staccato or legato occurs in
the music we are performing.”
Example 2. Goal: Active listening
(National Standard Responding:
Interpret). Before rehearsal begins,
play a recording and ask, “When
you listen to the opening minute
of the first movement of Vivaldi’s
Gloria, what do you notice about
the orchestration and compositional
techniques of the introduction and the
subsequent entrance of the voices?”
Example 3. Goal: Summarizing
learning (National Standard
Performing: Rehearse, Evaluate,
Refine). At the end of the class
period, ask students to write out
three sentences to describe what
improvement they feel they need
to make on a particular piece or
section of the music for the next day.
Younger students might be asked
to write out a definition for a new
musical term learned during class in
their own words. Another prompt
might extend to personal knowledge
construction, such as “What one new
thing did you learn in class today?”
Use the student writing to tie into the
learning objective established during
that particular class period.
Think–Pair–Share
This activity involves a little more time
because as each student does his or her
own work before pairing up to compare
answers with their peers to craft a final
response and share with the class. Once
the responses are shared in the pair, stu-
dents should be encouraged to identify
similarities and differences in their indi-
vidual answers and develop a collab-
orative response to share in the larger
group setting. Writing is not the only lit-
eracy goal here, given that collaboration
www.nafme.org
requires communication skills for stu-
dents to provide a rationale for their
own musical ideas and then come to
a consensus. This writing exercise can
also incorporate problem-solving skills,
critical thinking, and transfer of knowl-
edge from one context to another. The
following examples can be used in a
think–pair–share exercise.
Example 1. Goal: Problem solving
(National Standard Performing:
Rehearse, Evaluate, Refine). Prompt:
You do not have a tuner available,
and you are performing in a trio. The
trio is not in tune throughout the
composition. Using what you have
learned about tuning and intonation,
how would you fix the problem?
Compare your answers with your
partner and come up with a plan.
Example 2. Goal: Critical
thinking and application of
knowledge (National Standard
Performing: Rehearse, Evaluate,
Refine). Prompt: After listening to
the performance recording from the
last rehearsal, identify one musical
concept/technique that was well
done. Explain specifically why the
group achieved success on the
identified concept or technique and
determine what steps you could use
to reproduce this success on the next
performance. Identify how building
on strengths might help improve
individual musicianship. Compile
a list with your partner and identify
where your ideas overlapped. Provide
an analysis to present to the group.
Example 3. Goal: Critical
listening and analysis of a
performance (National Standard
Responding: Evaluate). Prompt: Listen
to two different versions of J. S. Bach’s
Prelude and Fugue in D minor (organ
and orchestra transcription). Which
is your preferred version and why?
Use specific music terminology to
support your opinion. Once you have
written your persuasive paragraph,
collaborate with your partner to come
up with a persuasive argument for
one version or the other.
Reflections
Reflective writing is a powerful tool in
metacognition (thinking about one’s
own thinking) and is critical to the learn-
ing process.15 Reflecting assists students
in developing higher-order cognitive
skills as they take current knowledge
and integrate it with new knowledge,
moving across concrete and abstract
forms. They may also uncover strate-
gies to problem solve in new contexts
through reflection.16
Developmentally, children move into
abstract thinking gradually between the
ages of ten and fifteen.17 Therefore, the
younger the students, the more guid-
ance they will need to write reflectively.
Keep in mind that prompts need to be
designed for the specific age group,
so adapt the suggestions for your stu-
dents. These can also serve as a spring-
board into connections with students
in and out of the music classroom. For
example, use these ideas for an early
assignment with younger students to
encourage communication and trust and
increase self-awareness.
Example 1. Goal: Self-awareness
•• Prompt 1: Tell me why you
came to choose the instrument
you are playing.
•• Prompt 2: If you could be
a famous singer, what genre
would you choose to perform,
and why?
Example 2. Goal: Integrating
information with reflection
(National Standard Connecting).
Have students read an article on
careers in music and reflect on what
career path they are most interested
in pursuing and why. In the future,
include an interview project with a
musician on that career path.
Example 3. Goal: Personal skill
development (National Standard
Performing: Rehearse, Evaluate,
Refine). Because student practice is
not always consistent, encouraging
and teaching students how to
practice in a focused and effective
manner is a challenge. If practice
27
 logs are already utilized, guide
students to one concept or problem
for their weekly practice.
Rather than using time-stamped
practice logs, use personal skill devel-
opment to help students track their
own progress. As with reflections, the
younger or less experienced the stu-
dent, the more focus for practice should
be provided. Add prompts to include
specific, identified areas (even by
instrument part) for students to prac-
tice, rather than leaving it up to the stu-
dent to select. If practice logs have not
been used before, use the reflective log
for a shorter time frame. For example,
make a targeted practice assignment for
a two- to four-day period to complete
the practice assignment.
Integrated Projects
The following project suggestions are
outlines for more complex integrated
units of study that encourage a multi-
modal approach across musical con-
text to literacy as seen in Figure 2. In
examining the musical selections for
your performing groups, you may find
one or two ideas listed here could be
used to deepen your students’ musical
understanding as they prepare for a per-
formance. More importantly, integrated
projects help students construct their
identity through placing themselves in
the world using music as the primary
investigative tool.
Music and Language Arts
Example 1. Goal: Integration
of melody and poetry in
choral music (National Standard
Creating). Because choral literature
has lyrics integrated with melody,
start with pulling the lyrics out. Have
students examine the musical ways
the composer has interpreted the
words. What if the words changed?
Would the melodic material need to
be altered? What musical techniques
are employed in the composition?
Students could work in groups to
take a verse of a favorite or original
28
poem and use an application such
as Garage Band to create a melody
and accompaniment. They could
use a compositional technique from
the original and apply it to the new
composition. Adding movement/
dance or pictorial representations to
the creation takes this project further
into multimodality.
Example 2. Goal: Integration
of melody and poetry in
instrumental music (National
Standard Creating). Bands and
orchestras have often performed
musical compositions that have
lyrics, such as Beethoven’s Ninth
Symphony, fourth movement,
or based on folk songs, such as
Grainger’s “Ye Banks and Braes
o’ Bonnie Doon.” What melodic
material from a current composition
in your classroom might be paired
with poetry? Students could select
or create a poem to pair with
the melody or digitally alter the
melodic material using BandLab or
GarageBand. Adding the poetry/
dialogue creates a digital remix,
and additional movement/dance
or pictorial representations can
create further depth of sensory
information.
Example 3. Goal: Create a music
video (National Standard Creating/
Connecting). Given the ease of
digital applications, students can
take their performance audio and
remix it with images to create a
music video. Divide students into
working groups and have them
create storyboards and a written
plan for creating visual images.
Music across Curricula Areas
Multimedia combines images,
audio, and linguistics to create
powerful communication, blending
multimodality using technology.
Allow students to share their
favorite clips and encourage them
to be creative in what they select as
images. Once the storyboards with
the dialogue (if needed) have been
matched to the music, have students
pitch their ideas to the group.
Depending on the size of the class,
students can select the video(s) they
would like to create. Just remember
that copyright rules will still apply,
and creation of videos must be in
compliance with educational use.
Example 4. Goal: Synthesize
musical knowledge (National
Standard Connecting). Concert
program notes are one way to
engage students in both preparing
information about the music
literature they are performing and
public speaking. Ask students
to create program notes for
concert attendees to read, sharing
information about the ensembles,
musical compositions, or composers
being studied and performed. Allow
students to speak at public events,
introducing the ensemble and
compositions.
Example 5. Goal: Synthesize and
relate knowledge and personal
experiences about music
(National Standard Connecting).
Writing news articles for the school
or local paper is a way for students
to create informative or advocacy
pieces. Students could be assigned
to a topic area such as the first
concert of the year, welcoming new
ensemble members, community
performances, the importance of
the arts, or a critique of a popular
musical group. These could be
done at the beginning of each
grading period, allowing students to
determine what they would like to
write about within a topic area.
Example 1. Goal: Collaborate
performance projects between
classes (National Standard Creating/
Connecting). Collaborate with art,
speech, theatre, language arts,
and/or dance classes for your next
concert series. Using the musical
representations from a concert
list, have students collaborate to
use a multimodal approach to
take the musical representations
across different mediums. Make
Music Educators Journal  June 2020
 sure students have opportunities
within the concert setting to share
the approaches, explain how they
collaborated, and feature all student
work throughout the concert.
Example 2. Goal: Performance
projects across classes (National
Standard Creating/Connecting).
Design a variety showcase for fine
arts classes where students can
participate to go beyond the typical
performance setting. Allow all
students to compose, arrange, sing,
play, dance, write skits, and act.
Design the performance around a
theme, encouraging diversity and
creative work, bringing students’
musical lives outside the classroom
to their schoolwork.
Music in a Multimedia World
Because many of our students are
immersed in a multimedia world, moti-
vating them to understand how we are
influenced by our senses is important.
Because the larger projects previously
listed involve media, music teachers
might expand student work to pod-
casts or radio shows based on the con-
cert performances or musical studies.
For example, students might interview
composers or create music reviews that
might be distributed on a podcast or
blog or via a local radio station. His-
torical music reviews might be written
as mock Wikipedia entries, printed in
the program notes, blog, web page, or
podcast.
Other ideas might include creating
stories of school alumnae and com-
munity members who are in the music
profession. Using StoryCorps (story
corps.org) as a guide, build a registry
of stories gathered by your students.
Digital portfolios can contain individual
music performance files, full ensemble
recordings, multimedia projects, and
writing samples from the year. All of
these projects involve connecting musi-
cal knowledge across contexts and time
in rich and rewarding ways and utilizing
available technologies and multimodal
knowledge.
www.nafme.org
Resources and Partnerships
There are online resources for teachers
who are interested in expanding their
professional development in integration
of language/multimodal literacy in the
music classroom. The National Council
of Teachers of English offers classroom
resources and professional develop-
ment, including units and lessons for
grades K–12, including the arts (www
.ReadWriteThink.org). The national
standards contain many resources
and serve as great place to start plan-
ning (https://nafme.org/wp-content/
files/2014/11/2014-Music-Standards-
Ensemble-Strand.pdf).
Music literacy goals should always
be the primary focus of any language
literacy assignment in music classes.
Students may also be more respon-
sive to writing when they have some
choice or control of what they are able
to write. Collaborative partnerships
allow students to share their obser-
vations as they learn to reflect more
deeply. Expanding classroom projects
to include multimodal literacy opportu-
nities where students can plan, edit, and
share their work across multiple plat-
forms helps students transfer language
literacy to musical contexts, enriching
the ways in which we support musi-
cal learning and broader literacy goals.
Using any one of the techniques pre-
sented here, music teachers can increase
and document student engagement with
integrated literacy effectively within the
rehearsal and performance structure.
Notes
1. https://secure.ncte.org/library/NCTEFiles/
Press/Yancey_final.pdf
2. Thelma M. Volger, “An Investigation to
Determine Whether Learning Effects
Accrue from Immediate Sequential
Administration of the Six Levels of
the ‘Iowa Tests of Music Literacy’”
(Unpublished PhD diss., Graduate
College of the University of Iowa,
Iowa City, 1973), 42.
3. Jill V. Jeffrey and Kristen Wilcox,
“How Do I Do It if I Don’t Like Writing:
Adolescents’ Stances toward Writing
across Disciplines,” Reading & Writing
27 (2014): 1106.
4. Timothy Shanahan and Cynthia
Shanahan, “Teaching Disciplinary
Literacy to Adolescents: Rethinking
Content-Area Literacy,” Harvard
Educational Review 78, no.1
(2008): 44.
5. Mark McDermott, “More Than Writing to
Learn: Using Multimodal Writing Tasks
in Science Classrooms,” The Science
Teacher (January 2010): 47.
6. Mary L. Cohen, “Writing between
Rehearsals: A Tool for Assessment and
Building Camaraderie,” Music Educators
Journal 98, no. 3 (2012): 47.
7. Kristen Pelligrino, Colleen Conway,
and Joshua A. Russell, “Assessment in
Performance-Based Secondary Music
Classes,” Music Educators Journal 102,
no. 1 (2015): 53.
8. Patricia Thibaut and Jen Scott Curwood,
“Multiliteracies in Practice: Integrating
Multimodal Production across the
Curriculum,” Theory into Practice 57,
no. 1 (2018): 49.
9. Gunther Kress, Multimodality: A Social
Semiotic Approach to Contemporary
Communication (London: Routledge,
2010), 125.
10. Richard E. Cytowic, “Touching Tastes,
Seeing Smells, and Shaking Up Brain
Science,” Cerebrum 4, no. 3 (2002): 7.
11. Alastair Pennycook, “Language,
Localization, and the Real: Hip-Hop
and the Global Spread of Authenticity,”
Journal of Language, Identity &
Education 6, no. 2 (2007): 101.
12. Kress, Multimodality, 125.
13. Ibid, 43.
14. Ibid, 157.
15. Donald A. Schon, The Reflective
Practitioner (San Francisco, CA: Jossey-
Bass, 1991): 66.
16. Hae-Deok Song, Tiffany Koszalka,
and Barbara Grabowski, “Exploring
Instructional Design Factors Prompting
Reflective Thinking in Young
Adolescents,” Canadian Journal of
Learning and Technology/La revue
Canadienne de l’apprentissage et de la
technologie 31, no. 2 (2005): 2–3.
17. Karen J. Gilmore and Pamela Meersand,
Normal Child and Adolescent
Development: A Psychodynamic Primer
(Washington, DC: American Psychiatric
Association): 231.
29