All students have experienced classes and subjects they don’t find interesting. When this happens, it becomes increasingly difficult to pay attention during class. It doesn’t help when the class is run the same way every day, often with the teacher continuously going through what can seem like a never-ending lecture. However, a Georgia teacher has come up with a way to help his students overcome this problem.
David Yancey teaches social studies at Edwards Middle School in Conyers, Georgia. At the end of each unit, he creates a parody to a popular song, often raps, to review the information before the test. Yancey told NBC News, “I have found doing raps as a culminating activity has had an immediate impact on engagement. Students who will already be successful enjoy the expressions as much as those students who use it to connect the dots.”
The results to these songs have been overwhelmingly positive. They have helped students stay motivated, and Yancey’s relationships with the students have improved as well. Students find it a helpful way to recap what they learned throughout the unit before being tested on it, but it also improves long term learning.
Many students have a tendency to learn material for a test and then forget it as soon as the exam is over. However, Yancey has found that students continue to remember the lyrics and therefore the information, long after they leave his classroom.
“When I hear that students I taught three years ago are still singing them or that they are helping them in US History at the high school then I am fully satisfied as a teacher,” Yancey told NBC News.
Melissa Lechtenberg is a French teacher at Pleasant Valley and a favorite among many of her students. Similar to Yancey, she uses simple songs to help students remember terms and concepts in French. She said, “I’ve found over the years that if you can put simple concepts to music, student mastery increases greatly.”
While music is not the only way to help students learn, it has proven to be a very successful method, especially in the long term. Lecturing, one of the most common teaching styles, often does not result in students actually learning anything; they simply memorize facts for a test and forget them soon after. Teachers should use more creative tactics, similar to those used by Yancey and Lechtenberg, to help their students want to learn and commit the information to memory. Things learned in school should last longer than a semester.
