Guest post by TI:ME member Bob Habersat. Bob Habersat is a high school music educator, specializing in guitar, modern band, music technology, and theory. As the founder of Shedthemusic.com, Bob has developed innovative curricula that make modern music production accessible to students and educators alike. His newest curriculum, “Electronic Music Elements,” created in collaboration with Eric Jao (former DJ for Madonna), empowers students to engage in non-performance-based music creation, using tools like Soundtrap. Bob regularly presents at national conferences on music technology, guitar, and education, offering insights into how teachers of all levels can incorporate these cutting-edge techniques.

Students in my Guitar 1 class write and record a pop-punk song at the end of the power chord unit. There was one “band” of kids that were rarely in class in the same period- at least one student in the group was suspended, or doing something that got them suspended, at any given time. On this day, each band was working in practice rooms, writing lyrics for their verses, and everyone in this band was miraculously in attendance. I walked past their room to check in and overheard the most interesting conversation.

“What’s that word that sounds like other words?” one member of the at-risk band asked.
“It’s an “onomatopoeia,” the other replied.
I barged in and immediately started questioning them.
“Do you talk like this in English class?” I asked

They all laughed and told me that they don’t like English class and they were just working on their song.
I’m sure something like this has happened to you in your teaching situation. When you teach in a student-centered, project-based creative classroom using material that students are really into, they show up, feel like they belong, and connect.

We are fighting an ELA battle at my school. Students are coming into freshman year with low reading and writing scores and have to take remedial English classes. This takes up a precious period in their schedules, and most of them are not able to take interest-based elective classes their first year, keeping them from finding something that gives them purpose in school. This cycle contributes to chronic absenteeism; if students don’t feel purpose or belonging, they don’t see a reason to come to school.
I had lunch with an amazing ELA teacher and friend at my school over the summer, and we talked about this issue. He said that, especially post-pandemic, English teachers are having a hard time getting students to do more than the bare minimum. Responses to questions are only surface level, they have trouble reading for understanding, and their writing is well below grade level.

Then it clicked: what if we get students to connect with their verbal and written communication by contextualizing ELA in real-world projects that interest them? The music production and media arts curriculum that Eric Jao (former DJ for Madonna) and I have created is the perfect vehicle for this. It is non-performance-based, so everyone can be successful, and it already includes real-world, multidisciplinary capstone projects like radio commercial writing, pop songwriting, scoring original short stories, and podcasting. Furthermore, the iterative nature of working in a DAW and the concept of referencing (listening to an existing song to get ideas for what you can include or improve on) could help students dig deeper into literary analysis and their own writing.

In ELEMENTS, we identify a producer as filling the roles of a troubleshooting engineer, an open-minded musician, an easy-to-work-with collaborator, a teacher who is in control of their own learning, and a creator who is not afraid to publish their own music. I’ve developed an adapted version of the course, called ELEMENTS Communicator, that adds the role of communicator to a producer. What good is a producer if they can’t read technical texts, analyze lyrics, and write, not just for creative projects, but also to promote themselves, justify their creative works, and adapt for any gig?

ELEMENTS Communicator focuses on developing reading and writing skills through this lens. There are reading and writing strategies introduced that are derived from, and connected to, being a creator. Take the ARC framework for literary analysis and composition, for example: A (analyze), R (remix), C (create). Whenever students need to write something, they must first ARC it, just like a producer would reference a track. They analyze the written work and figure out what makes it tick, make it their own by remixing the original, and finally create something new and original using everything they have learned.

We also use podcasting as a way of brainstorming and generating outlines. Students are limited in their generation of ideas when they use writing as the primary modality to record their thoughts (especially if they are new to the language or have limited proficiency). In Communicator, students learn how to use podcasting to verbally brainstorm ideas without worrying about the written component. They can then use Soundtrap’s transcription feature to see their thoughts and create an outline for their written work. I have worked all of the freshman-level English objectives into this course, making it something that would benefit students’ ability to read and write while giving them a place and space in school.

There are some articles on the benefits of music production courses for reading and writing, but there have been no studies on the subject. What if we could show quantitative data on the effectiveness of this type of instruction? This could help us justify our positions in times of budget cuts and help address ELA and SAT/ACT test prep, something that is being tasked to more and more teachers.

I’m going to run a study in the fall of 2026 on the effectiveness of music production and media arts instruction on ELA using the ELEMENTS Communicator course. We will run free professional development on ELEMENTS Communicator for music and English teachers over the summer (earn some free PD credits!) to prepare for using it. Each teacher will receive a free copy of the ELEMENTS Communicator course and an extended trial of Soundtrap EDU to use over the semester. There will be optional monthly meetups to talk about the curriculum and address any issues. Participating schools will administer a pre- and post-ELA test, and the data will be compiled into a study that can be shared with their administration. The goal is to provide quantitative evidence that multidisciplinary, project-based learning in music classes can have a positive impact on student engagement and could, potentially, replace a remedial English course.

Learn more about the study and sign up to participate by visiting https://www.emusicelements.com/ELA today.