Action Research Update

Just wanted to write a short update on the results I've discovered while compiling my data. It seems that while Classical music did bore the students, the writing scores were on par with the scores taken the days that no music was played. Piano music made the students appear sleepy and unmotivated, but the writing scores were once again on par with the Classical and no music scores. Pop music, while it did get the students moving and motivated, did produce noticeably lower scores (a little over a full point). Keeping this all in mind, it appears to me as if Pop music is great for informal writing assignments, such as journal prompts. This genre of music might be a little to upbeat for formal writing assignments, though, so I would avoid this in the future. Piano music, however, seems perfect for formal assignments. Students are on-task and working, and produce results that are similar to results taken when no music is played.

Action Research Music Day 6

This was the second day of Pop music and the final day that music will be played in the classroom. Once again, listening to their own music got students ready and motivated for the assignment; students started quickly and there was no complaining. I did see the same behavior from the previous day (hopping along with the music), as well.
This time I played a song that many students were very familiar with, but I cut out the lyrics to see how they might react to this. Students immediately perked up when they heard the beginning, but were upset when they discovered there were no lyrics to be included. I was interested to see what would happen if I did this since I included this question in my action research.

Action Research Music Day 5

Students LOVED the Pop music! Something that would seem obvious, of course, but it was great to see with my own eyes. Students took about a minute to get on-task, but this was mostly due to their excitement over getting to listen to their own music. Once started, students were on-task with their writing. However, I did notice that some students got a little too "into it," by mouthing the lyrics quietly and bopping/ hopping along to the music. While this did show that they were motivated, they were NOT writing at this time. Also, whenever a new song would begin to play, students would stop writing and try to listen to what new song was playing.
Something new I noticed and found very interesting, was the fact that some students who finished early with their writing actually picked it pack up after listening to the music. This was contrary to the other music genres, where students would finish and sit quietly, uninterested in continuing the assignment.