July

Audio in the Classroom: Making Transitions Easier with Music Cues

Posted In: For Educators, Uncategorized by christinabutler

In a previous post, I discussed using recorded “read alouds” in the classroom to improve students’ reading comprehension. In today’s post, I’d like to share another use for audio in the classroom. This method will make your life MUCH easier and save your energy also! Think of all of the transitions that you use in your classroom on a daily basis. Your students come in the room and start working on seat work quietly. You then give instructions and they move to a different activity, maybe centers or group work. Then you need to get their attention to come back to their seats. This sounds good on paper, but it requires a lot of attention-getting by way of the teacher talking, clapping, hollerin’, etc. Imagine having students work through transitions with only the push of a button.

Musical cues are truly the way to go in a classroom. Students enter the room to a song that promotes working and calmness. As you introduce the lesson and give instructions, students hear upbeat music as they travel to their destination. As students hear another cue, upbeat but different than the first, they know to travel to the next center. Anytime they hear this cue, they travel to the next center. When students hear the next cue of a quieter song, they return to their seats. Each cue can be a different track on a CD. Most CD players now come with remote controls, so you can change to another song from anywhere in your classroom

Other than saving your voice and energy, the best part about musical cues is that you can be creative with your music choices. One of your cues could have tribal drum beats to get students eager for the upcoming unit on Africa. Your cues can sound like popular music that they are listening to currently. It only takes a few minutes to explain the cues to students and they will work for the whole year!

How do you go about making a cue CD? GarageBand is a popular music production software that comes pre-loaded on Apple computers. It is very easy to use and comes with lots of instrument loops and beats. For Windows users, Sony’s Acid Music Studio is a comparable program. Since there are legal issues with using commercial music, you can also contact local studios and have a custom CD made using royalty-free samplers. There are royalty-free music sites on the internet which offer free downloads that you can also try, but be careful as you want to be sure they are legit. Butler Productions offers a selection of royalty free music available for purchase and instant download. They also have produced a CD of transition music for the classroom.

I hope that you will try a musical cue CD in your classroom. After all, if it doesn’t work, you can go back to hollerin’!

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