A Let­ter From Us

By Dr. Isa­iah Jack­son, BA, MA, MS, DMA
Pres­i­dent of Rhythm, Rhyme, Results

As par­ents we are famil­iar with the hunger that stu­dents feel in want­ing to be a part of their class­room com­mu­nity and to be com­fort­able and accepted by their peers. We know as edu­ca­tors the intense desire ded­i­cated teach­ers feel to con­nect with stu­dents, and to impart and share impor­tant infor­ma­tion that they are pas­sion­ate about and that is cru­cial to a student’s edu­ca­tional growth. As for­mer stu­dents we real­ize the impor­tance of under­stand­ing basic math, sci­ence and writ­ing con­cepts from our early years that formed the solid knowl­edge base on which be built our edu­ca­tional devel­op­ment through­out school and col­lege years, and beyond.

There is no sub­sti­tute for learn­ing basic infor­ma­tion dur­ing those early years. And there is no “catch up” for years lost in the learn­ing process.

Our mis­sion at RRR is to address a very impor­tant period in a stu­dents’ life, the mid­dle school years. The mid­dle school years when sci­en­tific, math­e­matic, and lit­er­ary under­stand­ing that bear fruit in later years of study are laid down, and func­tion­ing lit­er­acy in those same areas of study begin to sep­a­rate stu­dents into cat­e­gories of per­ceived abil­i­ties that can label a stu­dent for years to come.

Whether a des­ig­na­tion of “below” or “above” aver­age is assigned to a student’s achieve­ment, we feel it is incum­bent on edu­ca­tors and pur­vey­ors of edu­ca­tional prod­ucts alike to ensure that all stu­dents have access to basic build­ing blocks of knowl­edge.

Stud­ies indi­cate that this is best done by using a vari­ety of deliv­ery mech­a­nisms and for­mats. Every child has a learn­ing style and a modal­ity in which they receive and process infor­ma­tion. Com­monly researched and iden­ti­fied con­duits of learn­ing include audi­tory, visual, and kines­thetic modal­i­ties.

RRR’s goal in cre­at­ing music to sup­ple­ment learn­ing is to pro­vide teach­ers, par­ents, and stu­dents another way of access­ing infor­ma­tion. It is not the only way, and cer­tainly not a “sil­ver bul­let” for all, but it is a cul­tur­ally rel­e­vant, acces­si­ble and afford­able edu­ca­tional tool which can be used in a vari­ety of ways to help stu­dents learn.

Along with many edu­ca­tors and ded­i­cated pro­fes­sion­als, we, too, have searched for the best way to present infor­ma­tion and have accessed the finest musi­cians to help us cre­ate a path to learn­ing for many stu­dents who stum­ble with text-based infor­ma­tion, or who lack con­fi­dence or suf­fi­cient skills to express them­selves solely through writ­ten proof of com­pre­hen­sion.

Our intent is not to replace a teacher, a fine text, or other forms of aca­d­e­mic inter­ven­tion, but only to help make the process eas­ier, more acces­si­ble, and more engag­ing. We seek to help build a bridge so that ded­i­cated teach­ers can find the path to help all stu­dents in their class­room learn. And if we can also make that jour­ney a lit­tle more fun and put a smile on faces… we feel that per­haps we’ve made the con­tri­bu­tion to edu­ca­tion that we want to.

We are so very for­tu­nate to live in a coun­try that per­mits a vari­ety of edu­ca­tional tools to be in our schools, and cher­ishes the right of all chil­dren to pur­sue an edu­ca­tion.

At RRR we stand in awe of those orga­ni­za­tions, edu­ca­tional mate­ri­als providers, and edu­ca­tors who dare to try new things, who reach out to the most dis­en­fran­chised stu­dent and the poor­est school, and who offer their ser­vices, prod­ucts, exper­tise and pas­sion to truly equal­ize the oppor­tu­ni­ties in our nation’s class­rooms. It is to this end that RRR serves all stu­dents who want to learn.

- Dr. Jack­son and the RRR Team

What Edu­ca­tors and Researchers Say

Kelli Paque­tte and Susan Rieg, from the Col­lege of Edu­ca­tion and Edu­ca­tion Tech­nol­ogy, Indi­ana Uni­ver­sity of Penn­syl­va­nia, Indi­ana, PA, have writ­ten an arti­cle which appeared in Early Child­hood Edu­ca­tion Jour­nal 36, August 2008,(3) pages 227–232, cit­ing the use of music to sup­port the lit­er­acy devel­op­ment of young Eng­lish lan­guage learn­ers. Accord­ing to Paque­tte and Rieg, music can be used to effec­tively sup­port ELL with vocab­u­lary acqui­si­tion because songs are an effec­tive way of not only help­ing ELL acquire new vocab­u­lary, but also teach­ing the pro­nun­ci­a­tion of those words.

“Regard­less of the musi­cal form and despite a teacher’s level of musi­cal train­ing, the value of …enhanc­ing lit­er­ary instruc­tion through music is vital in today’s class­room. This is par­tic­u­larly true for ELL…”

Pro­lific authors and respected edu­ca­tion pro­fes­sion­als and researchers Richard D. Kel­lough and Noreen G. Kel­lough have noted repeat­edly in their writ­ings that “using pro­grams and approaches that appeal to mul­ti­ple stu­dent learn­ing modal­i­ties and intel­li­gences will help all stu­dents per­form well.” They encour­age teach­ers to take an eclec­tic approach to teach­ing, and actively engage ado­les­cents in learn­ing and give every stu­dent an equal chance to par­tic­i­pate, learn, grow, and suc­ceed.

Taken from his arti­cle, “Less than equal: A for­mer urban school teacher exam­ines the causes of edu­ca­tional dis­ad­van­tage”, Urban Review, 33 (2) 10–129, G.J. Fritzberg, 2001., describes non-mainstream stu­dents that often feel that sub­jects they study are cul­tur­ally for­eign to them. He con­tin­ues to say that ideas and con­cepts that stu­dents are intro­duced to must be both rel­e­vant and famil­iar enough that they are able to make essen­tial con­nec­tions. Grow­ing cul­tural diver­sity in today’s class­rooms demand that teach­ers be knowl­edge­able, respon­sive, and well-prepared to work with a diverse stu­dent pop­u­la­tion. The use of hip-hop music to present impor­tant aca­d­e­mic con­cepts and ideas sup­ports the needs of cul­tur­ally diverse stu­dents with dif­fer­ent learn­ing modal­i­ties and styles.

Excerpts from an arti­cle appear­ing in the ASCD online pub­li­ca­tion, Edu­ca­tional Lead­er­ship, enti­tled “Aca­d­e­mics and the Arts” Pages 80–81 Feb­ru­ary 2007 | Vol­ume 64 | Num­ber 5, Dou­glas Reeves, Founder and Pres­i­dent of the Lead­er­ship and Learn­ing Cen­ter, a pro­fes­sional devel­op­ment cen­ter for edu­ca­tors and school lead­ers, states as fol­lows:

Lead­ers set pri­or­i­ties. With mul­ti­ple demands on lim­ited school resources and class­room time, an essen­tial job of every school leader is allo­cat­ing resources to pro­duce the great­est stu­dent success…In the cur­rent edu­ca­tion cli­mate, stan­dard­ized test scores in lit­er­acy and math are impor­tant to both schools and indi­vid­ual stu­dents. The chal­lenge for school lead­ers is to offer every stu­dent a rich expe­ri­ence with the arts with­out sac­ri­fic­ing the aca­d­e­mic oppor­tu­ni­ties stu­dents need. Here are three guide­lines to con­sider.

First, call a truce. Estab­lish a norm that there is no such thing as a “nonaca­d­e­mic” class in school and that every sub­ject, includ­ing the arts, is wor­thy of the thought and dis­ci­pline that we asso­ciate with aca­d­e­mic study. Just as we expect all teach­ers, includ­ing those focused on the arts, to teach hon­esty, self-discipline, and orga­ni­za­tion, we can also rea­son­ably expect all teach­ers to regard lit­er­acy not as a diver­sion from their pri­mary sub­jects, but as a use­ful way of help­ing stu­dents think about their sub­jects. We write in music and art class because those sub­jects are worth writ­ing about.

Sec­ond, make it a two-way street. Although it is increas­ingly com­mon to expect music and art teach­ers to inte­grate lit­er­acy into their lessons, we also need to encour­age content-area teach­ers to inte­grate the arts into their classes. Wise teach­ers of his­tory, Eng­lish, sci­ence, and math know that music, art, and dance can form pow­er­ful visual, audi­tory, and kines­thetic asso­ci­a­tions that help stu­dents learn essen­tial con­tent and con­cepts. [empha­sis added]

Third, refuse to set­tle for a lim­ited cur­ricu­lum for any stu­dent. If you were the head­mas­ter of an elite pri­vate school and some stu­dents were behind in read­ing and math, par­ents would expect you to pro­vide nec­es­sary aca­d­e­mic inter­ven­tions and also deliver a rich and engag­ing arts cur­ricu­lum. Per­haps you would pro­vide extra lit­er­acy instruc­tion for all stu­dents, from those who are strug­gling to those who are advanced. You cer­tainly would ensure that every stu­dent received oppor­tu­ni­ties to excel not only aca­d­e­m­i­cally, but also in the arts, tech­nol­ogy, and ath­let­ics. As you reflect on the chal­lenge of allo­cat­ing lim­ited resources and time, ask your­self, does any pub­lic school stu­dent deserve less?”

Fur­ther Read­ing and Research

Gard­ner, Howard, (1983). Frames of mind: The the­ory of mul­ti­ple intel­li­gences. New York: Basic Books. A sem­i­nal work on the mul­ti­ple ways we learn and process infor­ma­tion.