Music and Study with LD students.

: The music that seems so loud to you may not seem loud to them. My own parents cringed at my Grateful Dead albums and Iron Butterfly drum solos and claimed it was loud but to me it sounded just fine. Does one style of music help us concentrate and others distract us? Are you really saying it would be ok for them to listen to their CDs if they were listening to a different kind of music? If so, say that. My own students like to play music during a “projects time” in our school day but I selfishly insist it be music we can all agree on. I like some rap, not all. I like techno. It’s a challenge finding music that we all agree on but it can be done and you can do that if you want to.But they’re listening to it on their CDs where you can’t hear it. It may not sound like loud music to them. Can we really judge how sounds fall on ears that are not our own?Observe the other classrooms where it is allowed? Do you see mass distraction? Are the students failing those classes and unable to learn with the music that you think pounding playing through their CDS?It seems an easy question to me. The proof should be in the pudding.And if the proof isn’t in the pudding of your own school, call up the Woodlynde School in Strafford, PA. A school which focuses on students with special learning needs, it allows personal CD players during all examinations as they find it helps the students to concentrate regardless of their taste in music. They feel strongly that test scores rise in response the wearing of the personal CDs.You could try that.I’m a Resource Specialist in a high school with a question for other
: teachers or professionals (I include parents in the professionals
: category). My students want to wear their personal CD players with
: headphones during their study time in my Resource classroom.
: Apparently this has been acceptable with teachers in the past,and
: some still allow it today. This includes regular education
: teachers. I’m of the opinion that with the heavy rock and rap
: styles of music they listen to they wouldn’t be able to
: concentrate on their work and therefore I haven’t allowed it.
: They, of course, think I’m being closed minded. My question is
: this, is there any research out there that validates allowing kids
: with LD and attention difficulites listening to loud rock and rap
: music? What do other people think of this. Am I being too
: restrictive or just sensible?

Thank you for your response albeit a bit cryptic. I’m really not the curmudgeon you might think me to be and in fact was a rock and roll musician for many years at night while teaching during the day. I have a varied interest in music that runs the gamut from punk to classical. When I refered to “loud” I meant I could hear it from 20 feet away through the bleedover of the headphones. That’s loud even by my own standards, and I like loud music. As for your comment about whether or not we can really judge how sound falls on ears not our own I hope this piece of information makes it clear that in this case we certainly can. Also, I’m not really “judging” anything here, but merely trying to find some research that supports or refutes my decision not to let students wear headphones during a study period. I am researching this because I care about my students learning and want to make sure that my decision is the correct one. If I’m wrong I want to know why I’m wrong.Interestingly I found an article elsewhere in the ldonline.org site. It is in the teachers section and is called,”Adjustments in Classroom Management”. Under the subheading of Controlling Distractions there is an article of how personal stereos and rock n’roll were effective with routine tasks, but drowned out his his inner processing during reading or tasks involving language. They finally found that a recording of the ocean helped him filter out room noise distractions and concentrate on his reading without further distraction. This seems to answer the question you posed of does one type of music help us concentrate and another distract us.I have written the school you referred me to and I thank you for that information. I hope to learn even more from them.

: You’re right. I did think you a curmudgeon.Is their music loud because it’s loud or loud because they have the volume turned up too high? I used headphones to help 8th graders take standardized tests. My 8th graders hate the taking of standardized tests and, in their defense, my school puts the results of the testing to no use. So they’re right. It’s a waste of time.Yet it’s a hoop they have to jump through here. To help them to make that possible for themselves and each other, after a visit to a school that allows headphones, I told my students they could bring in their Walkmans to use during the testing period. They had many different preferences in music but the rule was that no one’s music could be heard outside of the headphones. They could have piped in music but it had to pipe in to themself only. It worked beautifully. They all took the tests, allowed others to take them, could quietly sit until the test time was over even if they were finished, and most of their test scores were not different from the year before. The only pattern of improvment we could begin to isolate was the slower readers seemed to improve their scores but we attribute that to them for the first time being able to finish the test without distraction from those already done. No one’s scores were lower than before. My abseetee rate was better as usually during standardized test week in the 7th and 8th grade we have a high rate of absenteeism.Your point about ocean noise as a filter is well taken but that varies from individual to individual. Yes some sounds distract us but not all of us and some sounds soothe us but not all of us. I relax and filter out distraction with one kind of sound but it’s not ocean sounds. That ocean sounds work for one student don’t mean they’ll work for everybody. And I would maintain, although I think you do too, that hard rock, heavy metal are not inherently distracting.Maybe all they need to do is turn down the volume on whatever kind of music they’re listening to.Good luck with your project.Thank you for your response albeit a bit cryptic. I’m really not the
: curmudgeon you might think me to be and in fact was a rock and
: roll musician for many years at night while teaching during the
: day. I have a varied interest in music that runs the gamut from
: punk to classical. When I refered to “loud” I meant I
: could hear it from 20 feet away through the bleedover of the
: headphones. That’s loud even by my own standards, and I like loud
: music. As for your comment about whether or not we can really
: judge how sound falls on ears not our own I hope this piece of
: information makes it clear that in this case we certainly can.
: Also, I’m not really “judging” anything here, but merely
: trying to find some research that supports or refutes my decision
: not to let students wear headphones during a study period. I am
: researching this because I care about my students learning and
: want to make sure that my decision is the correct one. If I’m
: wrong I want to know why I’m wrong.: Interestingly I found an article elsewhere in the ldonline.org site.
: It is in the teachers section and is called,”Adjustments in
: Classroom Management”. Under the subheading of Controlling
: Distractions there is an article of how personal stereos and rock
: n’roll were effective with routine tasks, but drowned out his his
: inner processing during reading or tasks involving language. They
: finally found that a recording of the ocean helped him filter out
: room noise distractions and concentrate on his reading without
: further distraction. This seems to answer the question you posed
: of does one type of music help us concentrate and another distract
: us.: I have written the school you referred me to and I thank you for that
: information. I hope to learn even more from them.