Experiencing WAM Songs Across Age Groups

Written By Katherine Giszack

The question was posed to me: are WAM songs relevant for students of various ages? I am happy to answer an emphatic, yes, indeed they are. How can I be so sure? The reason is simple: they have been tested and proven effective through first-hand experience.

While the songs were in their early stages of creation, several professional educators, myself included, had the opportunity to test them through a pilot program in which we conducted sample lessons with real students. There were three age groups involved in the tests: elementary, high school, and adult learners. After teaching our sample lessons, we conferred with each other to compare notes on the process, detailed below.

First, the elementary school teacher shared his perspective on the success of using WAM songs with younger aged students, including how he used techniques such as TPR (total physical response) and artwork to implement the songs.

Next, I shared my story of working with a group of non-native English speaking high school students and how we experienced favorable results as well. In our case, we did a pre-teaching activity of highlighting familiar words on a sheet of vocabulary words from the songs. We then discussed the unfamiliar words in preparation for learning.

Finally, with the adult learners, that group consisted primarily of women whose culture did not often give females the opportunity to be students. Despite their natural hesitation with being in a classroom setting, these women were able to engage meaningfully through the accessibility of the song format, showing the efficacy of WAM songs with adult learners.

In all three cases, the songs were put into the hands of practicing teachers who were then able to use them successfully in each of the different contexts. This experience shows that WAM songs are a useful tool with multiple applications. Just as a hammer can be used to build a birdhouse or a vacation home, these songs can be used for simple or complex purposes. In all cases, multiple modes of learning can be addressed in a fun and relevant way through the valuable tool of WAM songs.