7 Reasons to Incorporate Movement, Songs, and Stories into Teaching
Several years ago Steve Reifman started reading about the results of recent brain research and its implications for student learning. The more books he read, the more his interest in this topic grew. Before long he came across a wide variety of recommended teaching practices, and eagerly incorporated them into his classroom instruction. Without fail, three types of effective, brain-friendly strategies consistently stood out as unusually engaging and powerful - those involving movement, songs, and stories.
Children simply reacted differently to lessons and activities that included elements of movement, songs, and stories. In fact, the entire classroom environment became transformed and the learning gains immediately evident. Because of his belief in the promise of movement, songs, and stories as learning catalysts, he began a quest to find, adapt, and create as many activities as possible that incorporated these elements. In this article he describes seven reasons why these types of activities have such a strong impact on both student learning and the classroom environment.
Children simply reacted differently to lessons and activities that included elements of movement, songs, and stories. In fact, the entire classroom environment became transformed and the learning gains immediately evident. Because of his belief in the promise of movement, songs, and stories as learning catalysts, he began a quest to find, adapt, and create as many activities as possible that incorporated these elements. In this article he describes seven reasons why these types of activities have such a strong impact on both student learning and the classroom environment.
- Forges an Emotional Connection
Educator Jeff Haebig explains that emotions drive attention and attention drives learning. Activities that include movement, songs, and stories resonate with children on an emotional level, engage them deeply, and enable them to make a personal connection with academic content. As a result, they pay closer attention and remember more. - Builds Self-Esteem
Students who tend to experience difficulty with more traditional forms of learning usually find greater success with activities that incorporate movement, songs, and stories. With this greater success comes greater confidence and improved self-esteem. We, as teachers, can capitalize on these moments of success to create a carry-over effect to other parts of the school day.
Improves Team Bonding
Many kids are fortunate enough to experience the happiness and satisfaction that come from being a valued member of a successful team - playing Little League baseball, performing in a youth orchestra, or acting in a school play. Our classrooms can provide the same kind of bonding experience with the addition of activities that incorporate movement, songs, and stories. Students feel a greater sense of “connectedness” to the class and to one another.- Adds Novelty
As adults, we appreciate a clever turn of phrase on a billboard or a unique combination of ingredients on a restaurant menu. The same holds true with children and their classroom learning. Activities that include movement, songs, and stories score high on novelty value, and kids love it when their teachers present information in a way that is a bit out of the ordinary or off the wall. - Involves Multiple Learning Modalities
Typical paper-and-pencil schoolwork addresses only two of the “intelligences” popularized by Howard Gardner, the linguistic and logical-mathematical. Movement, songs, and stories also address these intelligences and bring into play the bodily-kinesthetic, musical, and spatial, among others. The more modalities we reach, the more successful students will be. We hit the “Teaching Grand Slam” when children participate in activities, such as “Place Value Jumping Jacks,” in which they see, say, hear, and move through the content at the same time. - Creates Memorable Experiences
Educator Dave Burgess says, “Lessons are quickly forgotten; experiences are remembered forever.” Infusing classroom activities with movement, songs, and stories turns potentially dry academic lessons into engaging, multi-modal experiences that kids will remember and talk about with their family and friends. For example, my students’ ability to locate ordered pairs on a coordinate grid increased dramatically when I stopped providing mere explanations and started taking the class on a “virtual field trip” to the local farmer’s market where they could walk through an actual grid and select fruits and vegetables of their own. - Increases Enthusiasm for Learning
In addition to all the other academic and social-emotional benefits I have described, these activities are an absolute blast. Playing active games, singing songs, and sharing stories puts smiles on children’s faces, enriches their days with excitement and joy, and helps make school a happy place for them.
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