![\"KONICA](\"http:\/\/www.vbcpsblogs.com\/core\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/Stolte.jpg\")
<\/a>Every class jolts to a start with upbeat, energetic melodies enticing students in the door. You want a class of alert and excited students, she explains. Music, inherently, does just that.<\/p>\nStolte gets up from her desk chair and heads straight to the mp3 player sitting on the table across from her.<\/p>\n
With a click of a button, steel drums beat through the speakers.<\/p>\n
After the students are inside and settled, we might play a round of warm up games, she says. Music in the major mode improves mood and increases productivity, she explains, so the steel drums thump throughout the warm ups.<\/p>\n
Stolte walks \u2013 in time\u00a0\u2013 behind a row of chairs, where her students would ordinarily sit, and she rhythmically shows off some of the activity sheets, then zestfully sashays back.<\/p>\n
Without missing a beat, she transitions to another piece of music and another task.<\/p>\n
Now it\u2019s an instrumental piece from Chopin, the same music that plays when it\u2019s time for students to start their individual exercises. It both calms the energy, but stimulates the mind, she explains, which does not distract the students in the classroom, but enhances their learning time. She sways gently back in her seat and listens to the delicate notes playing for just a minute.<\/p>\n
If you didn\u2019t know better, you would assume Stolte teaches orchestra or band or maybe even chorus. But she does none of those: She is a reading specialist and special education literacy teacher at Brandon Middle School.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a tough gig; she will be the first to tell you. She routinely sees middle school students who are reading at just the kindergarten or first grade level.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s her job to catch them up.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy students come to me and they have faced years of adversity when it comes to reading,\u201d Stolte said. \u201cThey have shut down. They last thing they want to do is read.\u201d<\/p>\n
So, she makes it her mission not just to get students to read, but to get them to want<\/strong> to read.<\/p>\n Often, music helps hit the right chord with her students.<\/p>\n \u201cIt creates a happy mood,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you enjoy what you\u2019re doing, you\u2019re going to want to do more. The things we do with joy, we will always remember.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether it\u2019s Caribbean music during vocabulary bingo, Vivaldi playing throughout reading assessments, the Cha-Cha Slide with ABCs on the floor or reading comprehension exercises with song lyrics, Stolte stealthily builds her students\u2019 literacy through the love of music.<\/p>\n It pays off.<\/p>\n In reading terms, students are measured by their Lexile growth from year to year. On average, a middle school student improves by 70-100 Lexile a year.<\/p>\n Stolte\u2019s students increase by an average of 250 Lexile.<\/p>\n \u201cI stand behind the kids as they\u2019re testing and their scores come up, and I\u2019m just welling up,\u201d Stolte said.<\/p>\n Her tactics have proven so successful she was featured in Dr. Rich Allen and W.W. Wood’s book The Rock ‘n’ Roll Classroom: Using Music to Manage Mood, Energy, and Learning<\/i>, a book dedicated to the practical skill of using music effectively as well as the research regarding the power of music.<\/p>\n But it\u2019s not just the improved scores or accolades that have mattered to Brandon\u2019s staff; it\u2019s the revitalization of students.<\/p>\n \u201cHer students have shown great improvements in their reading abilities,\u201d said Christy McQueeney, principal of Brandon Middle. \u201cTheir scores have increased significantly and they are using the skills taught in her class in all of their other classes. (Her students) now volunteer to read out loud in their core classes and feel happy in her room.\u00a0\u201d<\/p>\n And that, Stolte said, is the best part of her job.<\/p>\n \u201c(The students) come out with such a positive attitude,\u201d she said. \u201cAll of the sudden, when someone calls on them to read, they don\u2019t have to feel sick anymore… the kids begin to love reading too. I have the most awesome job in the whole wide world.\u201d<\/p>\n Compass Keeper Q&A:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n What\u00a0are your favorite books?<\/strong> Where is your dream vacation spot?<\/strong> Who was your favorite teacher and why?<\/strong>
\nThe Giving Tree<\/i> by Shel Silverstein, Survival in Auschwitz<\/i> by Primo Levi, and Izzy’s Fire <\/i>by Nancy Wright Beasley<\/p>\n
\nNorway<\/p>\n
\nMy sixth grade teacher, Mr. Garcia, was my favorite teacher because he taught “outside the box” and\u00a0believed in learning through experience.<\/p>\n