Music and Phonological Awareness LPA Training 2018/19 Ailsa Ramage gw16ramageailsa@glow.ea.glasgow.sch.uk

Aims To increase understanding of skills progression in music at Early Level To raise awareness of the wider benefits of music in Early Years To increase understanding of links between music and early literacy development To explore practical activities for developing music skills at Early Level To explore approaches to developing literacy through music To increase staff confidence in the delivery of music in Early Years establishments

Why teach music?

Principles and Practice - Key aims of learning in the Expressive Arts Learning in, through and about the expressive arts enables children and young to: Be creative and express themselves in different ways Experience enjoyment and contribute to other people’s enjoyment through creative and expressive performance and presentation Develop important skills, both those specific to the expressive arts and those which are transferable Develop an appreciation of aesthetic values, identities and ideas and, for some, prepare for advanced learning in future careers by building foundations for excellence in the expressive arts. (CfE Building the Curriculum 1)

What skills should we teach in music?

Elements of Music Pulse/beat: the ‘heart beat’ of a piece of music; a regular unit of time. Rhythm: a pattern of sounds in time which can be long or short or of equal duration. Pitch: the degree of highness or lowness of a sound, i.e. higher or lower notes in a melody. Dynamics: the loud or soft passages in a piece of music. Tempo: the speed of a piece of music. Timbre: the tone quality of a voice or an instrument. Es & Os don’t clearly identify the elements at each level. Elements relate to the 3 activities listening – identify and comment on these elements, perf. – demonstrate these using voice/instrument, composition – experiment with these elements in different ways to create something new. YMI Music Tutors in all schools working with P1-4. Performance Listening Composition

Glasgow Music Skills Progression – Early Level

“Music is a more potent instrument than any other for education” What are the wider benefits of teaching music? “Music is a more potent instrument than any other for education” - Plato Music and the Brain

The wider benefits of music “The research shows there is compelling evidence for the benefits of music education on a wide range of skills including: listening skills which support the development of language skills, awareness of phonics and enhanced literacy; spatial reasoning which supports the development of some mathematical skills; and where musical activities involve working in groups a wide range of personal and social skills which also serve to enhance overall academic attainment even when measures of intelligence are taken into account.” Susan Hallam – Professor of Education and Music Psychology

Participation in musical activities can promote skills required for literacy development: Vocabulary Speech Conversation – call and response Auditory memory and Internalising Sound-symbol association Concepts of print Listening Auditory discrimination and Phonological Awareness Maria Kay (2013) Sound Before Symbol: Developing Literacy Through Music

Teaching Music to Improve Phonological Awareness “Children’s level of phonemic awareness on entering school may be the single most powerful determinant of the success he or she will experience in learning to read.” Adams (1990) “Phonological awareness instruction involves no print…Though phonological awareness is an essential foundation for reading, it is a listening skill, not a reading skill.” Hougen (2016) “Phonological awareness is the ability to hear and play with or manipulate the sounds of spoken language.” Kay (2016)

Music and Phonological Awareness: Research Evidence Research studies have found strong correlations between: Musical instruction and the ability of the brain to distinguish between rapidly changing sounds. (Gaab, 2005) Pitch discrimination and phonemic awareness. (Lamb & Gregory, 2003) Music perception, phonological awareness and early reading development. (Anvari, 2002) Rhythm skills and phonological segmentation skills (Moritz et al., 2013) The ability to recognise rhythms aurally, as well as associate rhythms with visual symbols, and improved phonemic awareness. (Gromko, 2005) Children who demonstrate language impairments and difficulties in processing rhythm and beat in music. (Goswami, 2016)

CfE Benchmarks - Expressive Arts (Early Level)

CfE Benchmarks – Literacy and English (Early Level)

Glasgow Nursery Evaluation Project In partnership with Psychological Services and West of Scotland University Aim: To measure the impact of music skills on phonological awareness in the pre-school year CREATE Early Years Music Programme 350 pre-school children Youth Music Initiative Tutor CPD for Child Development Officers Skills Progression and Lesson Plans Group Music Making Activities: Songs and rhymes, listening, creating, instruments Develop Musical Skills: Beat, Rhythm, Pitch, Dynamics, Tempo, Timbre

Impact Assessments Observations Surveys SIMD 1 & 2 – Syllable segmentation, rhyme awareness, phoneme isolation Musical skills Participation and engagement Listening and following instructions Language and vocabulary development

Impact EAL Teacher Comments High level of engagement, listening to instructions, turn taking, actively listening to the new language. Children were clearly focussed especially as programme developed and they knew what was expected of them. Children at early stages of acquiring English listened actively and began repeating familiar words/phrases as the weeks progressed. …children could be seen progressing through early stages of phonological development i.e. listening to modelled language/words/word order/ phrases/ short sentences (in the songs), keeping the steady beat. They followed the prompt cards and benefitted from repetition in the songs/activities.

Impact Staff Surveys: Increased practitioner knowledge, skills and confidence It's had a great impact. Before, I didn't have any musical training and now I have a good understanding of beat, rhythm, syllabification and how to teach these skills through music. An increase in confidence and understanding of how to deliver music in a more educational way and better ways to assess which particular skills were gained by the children. There has been a real sense of fun and joy in the delivery of the programme. Staff were committed to the programme and really enjoyed the peer support. Staff confidence has soared.

Music and Phonological Awareness Musical Skills Phonological Awareness Skills Keep a beat Tap/clap a rhythm Pitch discrimination Identify instrument sounds Respond to tempo and dynamics Listening Rhyme Awareness Syllabic Awareness Initial Sound Awareness

Resources and Further Reading Glasgow CREATE Music Skills Development Programme Singing Games and Rhymes for Tiny Tots (National Youth Choir of Scotland) Singing Games and Rhymes for Early Years (National Youth Choir of Scotland) Sound Before Symbol: Developing Literacy through Music (Maria Kay, 2013) Singing Phonics Book 1 & 2 (H. MacGregor & C.Birt) Jolly Music Big Book (C. Rowsell & D. Vinden) The Power of Music (Hallam, 2015) Relations among musical skills, phonological processing, and early reading ability in preschool children (Anvari, 2002) Links between early rhythm skills, musical training, and phonological awareness (Moritz, 2013) gw16ramageailsa@glow.ea.glasgow.sch.uk