How Can a High School Librarian Encourage Music Literacy?

Because I hope to use my degree from GSLIS to be a high school librarian, I thought about this week’s topic in terms of that future profession. How can a high school librarian encourage music literacy? I think a lot of high school librarians (and I certainly hope to) start book clubs within their schools, and book circle discussions are a great place to integrate music.

The first step would probably be to help students understand music, especially to help them listen beyond the lyrics to the tone and feeling of a song. A librarian could play sample songs to begin with in order to help students hone their skills. By playing the first 30 seconds before the lyrics even start, the students could try and guess what the song is going to be about. What feeling are the artists trying to convey in the opening of the song? Afterward, students can listen to more of the song and see how their initial impressions compared to the lyrics and mood of the rest of the song.

Students could use their newfound knowledge of music to think about the literature. Each student can bring in a song that they can connect to the literature of the book circle in some way. Although lyrics are a good starting point, they should try to go beyond the lyrics to determine the mood of the music, too. At the discussion where everyone brings their songs, students can play their songs, and the rest of the club can guess what part of the book the song connects to and why. This discussion can focus on specific details of the book and of the song.

This not only leads to some really thoughtful discussions on the book, but it also exposes students to music literacy skills. They have to think critically in order to find their own song to make connections; then, they get to perfect these skills further by listening and connecting to everyone else’s songs!