BY DEBRA KARR
The setting: Westminster Elementary School in Venice. The scene: a fifth
grade class, seated semicircle on a stage, ready to show an audience how
drumming can enhance learning.
Fifth grade teacher Evelyn Soo, in a gentle but firm voice, tells her students,
“OK - books on your laps. Let’s clap four times so we have our rhythm for
dividing two digit divisors.”
Like well disciplined soldiers, the fifth graders bang out the rhythm: ta
ta ta-ta-ta, ta ta ta-ta-ta and then begin a chant that coincides with the
rhythm.
“Di-vide mul-ti-ply, sub-tract bring-one-down!” they shout in unison. A division
problem is solved, using the rhythms as references. The students demonstrate
another rhythm, moving their bodies to the right when they chant “Pos-i-tive
right move!” and wiggling to the left as they shout “Neg-a-tive left move!”
An integer problem is solved. Still more rhythmic chants are used for grammar,
spelling and vocabulary.
Soon Steven Angel, professional drummer and the force behind the Drumming
for Your Life Institute, steps forward. A former child prodigy who performed
with famed jazz drummer Buddy Rich at the age of 6, Angel went on to enjoy
an illustrious career touring with various bands, composing for television,
and, at one point, starting a New Age record company. But times changed and
so did he, so he searched for something new.
“It clicked in my brain: help other people using drums as a vehicle,” he
says in his unmistakably New York accent. Today, Angel’s passion is helping
facilitate the Rhythm of Learning Program.
Angel first introduced his drumming workshops to cancer patients and drug
addicts - he found that drumming rhythms helped release blocked emotions.
He also brought his workshops to Camp Karl Holton, a detention camp for
14 - 19-year-old boys.
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Steven Angel's passion
is using drums as a vehicle for learning
Social workers began seeing less hostility and impulsiveness among teens
who worked with Angel. The positive response persuaded Angel to take Rhythm
of Learning into the classroom, funded solely through donations and PTA fundraisers.
In the spring of 2001, Angel met with Diane Ventura , an accomplished educator
skilled at intertwining the arts with education. The two shared an interest
in bringing a drumming program into public schools, and by July 2001, the
pilot for the program began.
In the beginning, Angel had a jumble of ideas, but once he began working
with teachers, he was able to hash out what worked. Angel would give the
teachers different drumming patterns and rhythms and then let them create
their own.
“They (the teachers) learned how to pick out a rhythm that coincided with
what the kids needed to learn,” Angel says. Easily recognizable drumming
patterns and student-friendly phrasing seemed to maximize the memories of
young minds.
Besides aiding learning, Soo’s fifth graders also utilized rhythms to soothe
stress and enhance the teacher-student relationship. For example, students
are asked to close their eyes and visualize something that causes them stress.
Eyes closed, the beats get louder and faster until the instructor directs
them to stop.
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In the Chaos into Harmony exercise, the kids bang a mishmash of different
tempos and rhythms; eventually, the various beats slowly flow into one steady
river of rhythm. When the class plays together in this fashion, their own
rhythm (or class tempo) is discovered. The teacher’s individual tempo is
also encountered through this exercise: the teacher could then lead the class
into aligning their tempo with his/hers.
Soo is grateful to the Learning Through Rhythm Program. A 16-year veteran
of the classroom and a National Board Certified Teacher; Soo had entertained
quitting the teaching profession entirely because of the high levels of stress
involved. She stumbled upon the Rhythm of Learning program and was interested
because it dealt with focus and concentration.
“It made a difference in my whole outlook toward teaching,” Soo says. “It’s
not that I’m coping with my stress better; the kids are able to control themselves,
so I don;t have to. They are less impulsive. We still have incidents, but
it’s lessened. There’s trust that’s developed.”
The fifth grades certainly seem to be enjoying themselves, but can the power
of rhythm improve the three Rs: reading, writing and ’rithmetic?
Westminster Elementary Principal Betty Coleman says yes. “Every six weeks
there’s a test that measures
achievement in the classroom”
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When compared with a
control class, the Rhythm of Learning class scores 14 to 46% higher.
“At the time (we started), the classes we were working had the lowest scores
in the grade,” says Angel. “Four months later, after the program, they were
the highest in the grade. Their literacy average jumped from 62 words per
minute to 115.”
“The rhythms help me to remember stuff, to read faster and to focus,” says
Ashley, a fifth grade Rhythm of Learning student. “When I’m mad, it helps
me to release anger.”
Laura Shofron-Roth, Ph.D., a clinical psychologist at Sage Hill School in
Orange County, gave her opinion on why rhythm might help kids learn.
“Rhythm keeps the students focused on the words and their meaning,” she says.
“Rhythm has a way to calm their nervous systems. It helps with their confidence.
Students sometimes don’t read well due to lack of confidence, and the rhythm
give the reading a path to follow.”
About 45 teachers in Los Angeles have been exposed to the Rhythm of Learning
teacher workshop. The program is currently being used by classes at Westminster
Elementary and Westport Heights Elementary, and trainings are scheduled for
schools in Culver City and Gardena.
It takes three months for teacher certification that lasts an entire teaching
career. If the bondage of budget cuts eventually lifts, perhaps more teachers
can become certified. Until then, Steven Angel continues his work, and the
beat goes on.
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Debra Karr is a freelance writer working on her first book. She taught English
at Freemont High School
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