The Music–Writing Connection: Exploring a Rhythm-Based Framework in the Primary Writing Classroom

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop a framework for the teaching of writing in the primary English classroom with a rhythm–grammar focus based on musical and rhythmic processes featured in Orff-Schulwerk and Kodály music pedagogies. The framework uses five key principles: listening, interpreting, rehearsing, improvising, and composing (LIRIC). These principles also express concepts shared across the Australian Curriculum: Music and English. This multisite, design-based intervention was used to develop and refine a music-pedagogy-informed LIRIC framework for the teaching of writing, with attention given to a rhythm–grammar connection. The framework was refined through three iterations. It was first explored in a pilot study in my own classroom in two school contexts and was then further refined in another school setting where a music teacher and three generalist teachers used the framework to plan and deliver a series of writing lessons with a Year 1 cohort over a school term. Beginning with demonstration lessons and training with the researcher, the teachers took on the framework over a 6-week period. Through three iterative phases, the researcher collected teacher and student interviews, writing samples, teacher planning documents and filmed lessons. The LIRIC rhythmic pedagogy model was employed with an emphasis on student collaboration—through musical rhythm, movement, sound, and speech. It featured oral language activities and short writing experiments and demonstrated several key findings from an analysis of both teacher and student data: (a) the viability of a music–writing framework for teachers using a LIRIC model; (b) the critical place of improvisatory and experimental strategies for writing; and (c) that an aesthetic appreciation for musical rhythm, through sound and gesture, could be used to lift metalinguistic creativity and awareness. Overall, students demonstrated a more expressive personal writing style through their metalinguistic creativity. This was evident through enhanced and experimental sentence structure, punctuation, and literary features.