"In every lesson I've observed, the children have been excited and enthusiastic about learning fractions," Cosgriff said. The school serves many students from low-income families, and 60 percent of students don't speak English as their first language. "Academic Music brings music into the classroom and gets children to learn math in a different way that's symbolic and not dependent on language," said Kit Cosgriff, principal at Allen Elementary School, who introduced the program to help the schools' diverse student body learn math in ways that are not language-based. The program has also proven itself at Allen Elementary School, a San Bruno public school - not included in the study - that has been using the Academic Music program since 2007. Students learn to add and subtract fractions by completing work sheets, in which they draw musical notes on sheet music, ensuring the notes add up to four beats in each bar or measure. By clapping and drumming rhythms and chanting each note's Kodaly names, students learn the time value of musical notes. The curriculum helps children connect the value of musical notes, such as half notes and eighth notes, to their equivalent fraction size. They borrowed aspects from the Kodaly method, a Hungarian approach to music education that incudes movement, songs and nicknames for musical notes, such as "ta-ah" for a half note. "Lower-performing students might find it hard to grasp the idea of fractions from a diagram or textbook, but when you add music and multiple ways of learning, fractions become second nature to them."Ĭourey devised Academic Music with music teacher Endre Balogh. "Students who started out with less fraction knowledge achieved final test scores similar to their higher-achieving peers," Courey said. The researchers compared the test scores of lower-performing students in both groups and found that those who were taught the experimental music curriculum scored 40 percent higher on the final fractions test compared to their lower performing peers in the regular math class. Significant gains were made by students who struggle with academics. Students in the music-based program scored 50 percent higher on a fraction test, taken at the end of the study, compared to students in the regular math class. Half the group participated in a six-week Academic Music curriculum and the rest received the school's regular math instruction. The program has shown tangible results at Hoover Elementary School in the San Francisco Bay Area, where Courey's study included 67 students. "We have designed a method that uses gestures and symbols to help children understand parts of a whole and learn the academic language of math." "If students don't understand fractions early on, they often struggle with algebra and mathematical reasoning later in their schooling," said Susan Courey, assistant professor of special education at San Francisco State University. The program, co-designed by San Francisco State University researchers, addresses one of the most difficult - and important - topics in the elementary mathematics curriculum. "Academic Music" is a hands-on curriculum that uses music notation, clapping, drumming and chanting to introduce third-grade students to fractions. An innovative curriculum uses rhythm to teach fractions at a California school where students in a music-based program scored significantly higher on math tests than their peers who received regular instruction. Tapping out a beat may help children learn difficult fraction concepts, according to new findings due to be published in the journal Educational Studies in Mathematics. view moreĬredit: Educational Studies in Mathematics The program was devised by San Francisco State University Professor Sue Courey and is the subject of a new study published in Educational Studies in Mathematics. Image: This is a worksheet from an innovative curriculum that uses musical notes and rhythm exercises to teach fractions to third-grade students.
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