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Harmonizing Learning: Integrating Music in the Classroom

Karen Scheaffer, James Doyle, Rachelle Johnson | Published: May 15th, 2025 by K20 Center

Summary

This professional development session focuses on insights and strategies for using music in the classroom to promote student engagement. Participants will be asked to examine the importance of music in everyday life, assess their current use of music in lessons, and develop ideas and strategies to use music in the classroom. To conclude the lesson, participants will reflect on how music can enhance their teaching and engage students.

Essential Questions

How can teachers use music in the classroom to promote student engagement and emotional regulation?

Snapshot

Engage

Participants discuss the use of music in everyday life and how and why people choose and use music. Participants then engage with a musical activity that could be used as a class callback.

Explore

Participants consider how music can change the meaning of visual media. Participants listen to a variety of musical extracts and discuss how music can impact emotions.

Explain

Participants read and discuss a variety of research abstracts about music listening for emotional regulation.

Extend

Participants listen to a piece of music and discuss how it could be used as a springboard for a lesson on a topic in any discipline. Participants then work in curriculum groups to design activities for their classrooms using music.

Evaluate

Participants reflect on ways they can use music to engage students and the positive impact music can have.

Materials List

  • Presentation Slides (attached)

  • Note Catcher handout (attached; one per participant)

  • Impacts of Music handout (attached; one per participant)

  • Cognitive Comics handout (attached; one per participant)

  • Large poster papers (one per group)

  • Blank paper (one per participant)

  • Sticky notes (one per participant)

  • Markers (one set per group)

Session Objectives

  • Increase student engagement through realizing the benefits of using music in education.

  • Explore practical ways to integrate music across different subjects.

  • Develop strategies to enhance student engagement and retention through musical activities.

Session Preparation

Printing

Print the attached Impacts of Music handout on five different colors of paper in order to divide teachers into groups later in the session.

Survey Setup

Create a copy of the Music Survey to share with your participants. Consider making a QR code or short URL to allow participants easy access to the survey, and add your link and QR code to slide 2. Once all participants have responded to the survey, copy the chart from the “Responses” summary tab and add the chart to slide 5.

Padlet Setup

  1. Go to padlet.com and create a Padlet.

  2. Add the question, “How could you use music extracts in your classroom or for other school activities?” to your Padlet.

  3. Once you have made all of your selections and set up your Padlet, click the “Open share settings” arrow.

  4. Select “Get QR code,” and either copy the image of the QR code or click “DOWNLOAD.”

  5. Add your QR code to slide 16.

  6. Consider creating a shortened URL link to the Padlet and adding that link to the slide.

Engage

10 Minute(s)

As participants enter the room, give each participant one copy of the Impacts of Music handout and one copy of the Note Catcher handout.

Use the attached Presentation Slides to facilitate this professional learning session. Display slide 2 and present instructions for the survey and “Mix Tape” section of the Impacts of Music handout. Introduce participants to the idea of a “walk-up” song by telling them that a “walk-up” song is a piece of music that represents them, motivates them, or makes them feel confident.

Clap a four-beat rhythm and wait until you have participants’ attention. Continue to do this until participants either stop talking or working and give you their attention, or until they echo the four-beat rhythm you clapped. Once you have their attention, display slide 3 and explain the purpose of the game “Poison Rhythm,” also known as “Don’t Clap This One Back.” Play a round of “Poison Rhythm” and use the rhythms to get participants’ attention. Discuss how participants can use the “Poison Rhythm” game in the classroom or as a callback to get students’ attention.

Move to slide 4 and introduce the session and presenters.

Display slides 5–6 and review the music survey questions listed below:

  • Have you ever…

    • Listened to music on the way to work?

    • Sung the National Anthem?

    • Sung in the shower?

    • Listened to music on Spotify, iTunes, or YouTube?

    • Played a musical instrument?

    • Spoken to a friend about a cool (or terrible) song you heard?

    • Been to a live music concert?

    • Listened to music while exercising?

    • Used music to help you calm down or make you feel better in some way?

    • Become aware of and commented on the music in a film, on TV, or in a public space?

Display slide 7 and display the results of the Music Survey. Facilitate a discussion about the results.

Show slide 6 and have participants find an Elbow Partner. Have participants scan the QR code on the slide or navigate to the web address. Have participants type “4” in the blank box then press the dice to determine which question they will answer. Have each participant share their response with their Elbow Partner. Have them repeat this process until each person has answered all the questions, or until time is called.

Use slides 7–8 to share the essential question and session objectives.

Explore

30 Minute(s)

Display slide 9 and direct participants’ attention to the “Music and Mood” section of their Impacts of Music handouts. Instruct participants to record one word in each section of the table as they hear different examples of music during the following video.

Display slide 10 and play the video How Music Affects Film #17: The Lion King.

Move to slide 11 and facilitate a discussion about how the use of different music changed participants’ feelings while watching the video. Invite participants to respond to the questions on the slide or share out responses from their handouts.

Show slide 12 and introduce the Stand Up, Sit Down instructional strategy. Pose the questions on the slides to the participants and have them sit down as they share.

Distribute one copy of the Cognitive Comics handout to each participant. Move to slide 14 and introduce the Cognitive Comics instructional strategy. Select the Music Extracts link on the cassette tape to open the Harmonizing Learning YouTube playlist.

Play each piece of music on the playlist. Be aware that ads may play between songs. Have participants listen to each excerpt and draw, doodle, or write about the effect the music has on them. Participants will listen to the following pieces on the playlist:

  1. Countdown Timer from Channel 4’s “Countdown”

  2. The Hours by Philip Glass

  3. Short Ride in a Fast Machine by John Adams

  4. Three Fingers of Love by The Art of Noise

  5. Adagio for Strings by Samuel Barber

  6. Theme from The Pink Panther by Henry Mancini

Display slide 15 and have participants navigate to the Padlet on the slide. Have them respond to the questions on the slide using the Collective Brain Dump instructional strategy. Display the Padlet as participants respond. Draw attention to any particular ideas that stand out.

Move to slide 16 and reflect on the instructional strategies used during the first portion of the session. Have participants fill in their Note Catchers with information about these strategies.

Explain

20 Minute(s)

Transition to slide 17 and introduce participants to the GramIt instructional strategy. Direct participants’ attention to the color of their Impacts of Music handouts. Have them form groups with other participants who have handouts of the same color.

Have participants access the Music Abstracts Wakelet using the link or QR code on the slide. Assign each group of participants one of the five articles in the Wakelet and have each group read only the abstract of their assigned article.

Explain that participants should discuss their assigned abstract then choose how to represent it visually. Have them use their large poster paper to create a representation of their paper. Have them summarize their representation by creating a 1–3 word summary of the abstract in the form of a hashtag (#).

Move to slide 18 and introduce the Commit and Toss instructional strategy. Have participants listen to the song Waterloo Sunset by Def Leppard and think about how they could use music as a tool to start discussions. Have them record their thoughts on a sheet of paper, then crumple the paper and toss it across the room. Participants will then find a different paper and share what that paper’s author wrote.

Have participants then find one of the crumpled papers, not their own, and share out what is written on the paper.

Display slide 19 and discuss how Waterloo Sunset could provide multiple starting points for class discussions.

Extend

30 Minute(s)

Transition to slide 20 and share music-related lessons from different content areas and music-related instructional strategies from LEARN.

Show slide 21 and provide participants with examples of the instructional strategy Chant It, Sing It, Rap It from math and science. Play the videos of The Quadratic Formula Song and the Classification Rap.

Reorganize participants into groups according to content area. Move to slide 22 and explain to participants that they should now work together in their subject-area groups to design an activity that incorporates music. Have participants share their final creations or lesson plans with the whole group, and discuss how their activities could be adapted for different grade levels and subjects.

Evaluate

10 Minute(s)

Pass out one sticky note to each participant. Transition to slide 23 and introduce participants to the How Am I Feeling? What Am I Thinking? instructional strategy. Have participants respond to the questions on the slide using their sticky note as they watch the following video. Display slide 24 and play the video Educating Yorkshire: Musharaf.

Display slide 25 and have participants reflect on the remaining instructional strategies from the session. Have participants complete their Note Catcher handouts with the final instructional strategies.

Research Rationale

Research demonstrates that people of all ages incorporate music listening into their daily lives to stimulate positive emotions, improve their quality of life, and promote well-being (DeNora, 1999; Williamson, 2014). Listening to music can influence the emotional state of the listener, promoting positive psychological well-being (Saarikallio et al., 2020; Schäfer et al., 2020), and resulting in short-term improvements in cognitive performance (Groarke & Hogan, 2016; Orpella et al., 2025). Consequently, music can be used in everyday life to influence emotions and increase preparedness for a specific activity (De Nora, 1999; Orpella et al., 2025). 

Since the COVID-19 pandemic, children's anxiety has increased, with the link between home isolation and future mental health challenges becoming clearer (Loades et al., 2020). Research indicates that during this period of social isolation, while learning at home, music played a vital role for school-age children, helping to enhance feelings of connectedness and support emotional well-being (Cabedo-Mas et al., 2020; Chiu, 2020; Cho & Ilari, 2021; Daubney & Fautley, 2020). Upon students’ return to in-person schooling, teachers reported a positive impact on the classroom environment as listening to music promoted calmness and increased student focus and concentration (Zanchi, 2021). Findings from such studies suggest that the careful use of music in the classroom to prepare for and accompany activities could aid students in their academic pursuits and help regulate mood at sensitive times of the day (Liddiard & Rose, 2021; Orpella et al., 2025).

Resources

Publisher

K20 Center

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Downloads

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Standards

InTASC Model Core Teaching Standards (K-12th)
1: The teacher understands how learners grow and develop, recognizing that patterns of learning and development vary individually within and across the cognitive, linguistic, social, emotional, and physical areas, and designs and implements developmentally appropriate and challenging learning experiences.
5: The teacher understands how to connect concepts and use differing perspectives to engage learners in critical thinking, creativity, and collaborative problem solving related to authentic local and global issues.
7: The teacher plans instruction that supports every student in meeting rigorous learning goals by drawing upon knowledge of content areas, curriculum, cross-disciplinary skills, and pedagogy, as well as knowledge of learners and the community context. 
8: The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage learners to develop deep understanding of content areas and their connections, and to build skills to apply knowledge in meaningful ways.

Facilitator Resources

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  • Presentation Slides—Harmonizing Learning

Learner Handouts

Click on a file type icon to download an attachment.

  • Cognitive Comics—Harmonizing Learning
  • Impacts of Music—Harmonizing Learning
  • Note Catcher—Harmonizing Learning

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