2 Wheaton Educators Incorporate Piano Lessons into the Learning Environment

Ms. Alysa Lueondee and Mr. Don Casper are both educators at Washington Elementary in CUSD200. Together they offer a musical program titled Forte Music Club. This program offers weekly piano keyboard lessons for English Learner students during their lunch hour. Participating students are not required to have a music background because Ms. Lueondee and Mr. Casper teach them basic music skills, such as reading music and finger placement on the keyboard. The goal of this program is to improve learning through teaching music and to share their talent with the community. According to Ms. Lueondee, “Research has shown that not only are language and musical processing located in the same area of the brain, both musical and linguistic syntax are similarly processed.” Therefore, by teaching our English Learner students music through the keyboard, they hope to impact student learning in numerous ways. They believe that through teaching music, student concentration and memory will improve. It will also bring a sense of community to the group, motivate learning, relax students who are overwhelmed or stressed, make learning fun, and help students absorb material.

Ms. Lueondee and Mr. Casper were able to purchase individual electronic keyboards for each participating student through a $1000 SCORE grant received with the help of their local union, the Wheaton Warrenville Education Association. In the Spring, Alysa and Don plan to provide a field trip opportunity for participating students to a local nursing home, Belmont Village, where students will perform their new keyboard abilities and engage the seniors in activities such as singing or crafts.

Thank you, Alysa Lueondee and Don Casper, for sharing your musical abilities to inspire and support our students.