Students do more than learn to play an instrument in Ilya Levitins third and fourth-grade music classrooms.
Levitin, who teaches string instruments in all three New Canaan elementary schools, has crafted a music program for students that improves their skills in topics ranging from languages to mathematics. I always compare [music] to a different language, and thats always helping them to learn, he said. We integrate this with everything else that they learn.
The teacher tells his students that music is a different language just like Spanish or Italian, but it can also be a universal one. If they were now put in the same room with kids from Japan, and nobody there spoke English, and none of our kids spoke Japanese, they would be able to look at the music and play it and that makes music a very universal language, he said.
Outside of linguistics, Levitin has also teamed with a math teacher to track his students' status and progress in math and fractions, something else he believes music can help. This program is fun, but ... they learn a lot and it helps them on many different levels, he said.
It isnt all literacy or math, however. Levitin said students love when they are able to do improvisation in class. Hes crafted a Question and Answer part of the curriculum, in which he will play a note and the students must answer with another.
It helps them to get into the creativity of it, and explore, he said. To see them explore and express themselves through music, its just so much fun.
When Levitin moved to the United States from Russia in 1989, he wasnt sure whether he would be able to pursue music, something he had been involved in since age 7. His love of music took him to the Manhattan School of Music, and he took a job immediately after in Spain with a symphony orchestra. It was after this adventure that a friend recommended Levitin try out teaching, a profession he now describes as the perfect fit.
When I can see that theyre getting excited and they want more of it, and they ask for more songs or ask for more difficult or challenging parts when they get really interested and I can see a twinkle in their eyes, thats just pretty much what it is it cant get any better.
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