Students Compose Music From Poetry

Noah Webster students compose music from poetry
From Daily Herald
Genelle Pugmire – CORRESPONDENT

Move over Mozart, the first- through sixth-grade students at Noah Webster Academy are composing music on a scale even Amadeus would be jealous of. The lyrics are provided by the school’s annual poetry contest winners from each grade.
The idea started last year when Racheal Routt, the school’s media specialist, and Ben Peterson, its music teacher, joined two projects into one great competition. According to Routt it begins with a celebration of poetry.

“April is National Poetry Month,” Routt said. “We go over different types of poems — similes, limericks, all different kinds. Then we help the children write their own freestyle poems.”

Nearly 60 children entered the poetry contest. First and second place winners are selected from each grade.

“After a panel of judges reads the poems, each votes on one or two from each grade,” Peterson said. “But the poetry contest comes after they have learned to build a musical composition.”

Earlier in the year, students in the music literacy classes learned the various aspects of music composition including meter, dynamics, rhythm, notes and more. The next step is for children to write the poems.

“It’s exciting for them to see their poems turned into lyrics,” Routt said.

Thanks to Sibelius, a music dictation software, the children can compose songs at will. Peterson says for the younger classes, he figures out the meter or rhythm of the poems and puts that on the Smart Board (a computer-integrated whiteboard). The children group together, and by unanimous vote, come up with the various notes, runs and keys.

“The children build the melody on the whiteboard,” Peterson said. “The computer-generated voice helps them hear the notes.”

The process is simple and gives all the children an opportunity to present an idea, hear the idea and then see if it works with the meter of the poem. With the smart board, the treble and bass clef are projected on the whiteboard. A child steps to the board and by simply putting his or her finger on a line can have the computer play back the sound. They can also put several fingers on the board and hear a variety of notes both moving and held.

“The kids brainstorm on what the story says — the feeling of the poem,” Peterson said. “They get a chance to have a say, directing, ‘I want an E or a G on the staff with the word.’”

The children are learning to love poetry and music in a way that they couldn’t before. Thanks to computer programs and innovative teachers, Noah Webster Academy students are taking music composition and poetry into their own hands and bringing music to life.

“Music should belong to everyone,” Peterson said. “The finer things in life should be available to everyone.”
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Tags: Composition in the Classroom, Music by Children, Music in the Classroom