The Use of Music to Teach Life Skills to Students with Emotional Disbilities in the Classroom

My paper reflects on the teaching of American youths with music, lyrics and cultural rhythms --- an instructional curriculum strategy to encourage positive participation, good behaviors and learning in the classroom. This is premised on the understanding of the student’s culture and using such background to educate them. Over the period of one school year, I worked with middle school students in an Emotional Challenged Program in Maryland, teaching Life and Job Skills, Reading, Writing, Math, etc. During the lessons, different hip-hop music/artists were profiled, their lyrics and messages examined and the class discussed the effect to the youths and the society. It turned out to be a bold approach to cognitive development theory of learning; Class participation increased while Functional Behavior Support was provided for the students with greater ease