When you learned your ABCs all those incalculable decades ago, you also mastered the attendant little song “” you know, the one that goes with the lyrics to “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.” It turns out you were in good company, as the tune has inspired tons of musical variations, not the least of which was written by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart at age 17.
The point is that your first brush with literacy coincided with your introduction to music. Research literature is loopy with reports on the links between the two disciplines; competency in one seems to reflect fluency in the other.
From the vantage point of local music teacher Tamara Paige, all those studies make a lot of sense. And since September is International Literacy Month, a word about her new assignment, and its twofold reward, is in order.
Paige was recently named master teacher of the Point Loma String Project, a music laboratory in which Point Loma Nazarene University (PLNU) students instruct children in the fundamentals of stringed instruments. The project, begun three years ago, caters to 100 kids aged 7 to 14 from across the county, with nine PLNU music majors teaching violin, viola, cello and bass violin “” “your typical string orchestra setting,” Paige said, adding that a piano sneaks in every so often.
Paige, 29, plays the four instruments and teaches grades 6 to 12 at the San Diego School of Creative and Performing Arts (SCPA), where she also serves as orchestra and band director. She’s been named the school’s most inspirational middle school teacher and in 2005 was named California music educator of the year. She holds a bachelor’s degree in music education from Arizona State University.
She replaces the recently retired Bill Pordon, who founded the program with Philip Tyler, its current director.
“I felt really honored that they asked me [to succeed Pordon],” Paige said. “I wanted to do something to help kids outside of what I was doing at SCPA, but I never thought that would open up to me. I was delighted.”
She was also taken with the concept of music as a key factor in literacy development. All those studies were conducted for a reason “” and Paige seems to think she knows what it is.
“When they first start,” Paige explained, “the kids learn by rote, so they’re not actually learning to read music. But halfway through the first year, they begin to learn to identify symbols and numbers and different nuances of music, which I think can definitely be linked to literacy at a young age. Music is definitely its own language, but there’s definitely a system of reading, with notation and lines on a staff, that can be linked to symbols found in English.”
The parents of her private students note their children’s comprehension of English improves alongside musical instruction, Paige added.
“Language is symbolic, just as are the alphabet, phonics, numbers et cetera,” wrote renowned music educator Cak Marshall. “Children need to learn to decode in order to read. Music is rich with opportunities to decode and interpret. We are constantly challenging children with the sound-symbol relationship. Through movement and rhythm, we can also help them learn to decode.”
The Point Loma String Project is seeking participants between the ages of 7 and 11. The string project holds concerts in May and December, with the music majors in charge of virtually all the arrangements.
For more information, visit www.pointloma.edu/stringproject or contact Paige at (619) 392-5369 or [email protected].