There are two critical advantages of integrating music, dance, or movement into reading instruction. Firstly, these elements can add to student engagement, whereas more formal instructions to read specific texts and reflect on them do not necessarily meet the needs of students that need bigger ideas or find auditory information and active movement as the points of interest and prerequisites to learning. From my practice and professional literature, singing songs to improve word recognition or the use of steady beat activities to promote an understanding of rhythm and how it pertains to reading fluency make children more engaged by offering the opportunity to express themselves and their strengths during learning.
Another potential benefit of integrating these elements into reading tasks refers to the ability to support linguistically diverse students, including recent immigrants to the United States. It is because the inclusion of dance and movement promotes the use of kinesthetic symbols and gestures and links them to language. For non-native speakers of English, the opportunity to grasp the meaning of unknown words through intuitively clear gestures is invaluable.
As for the disadvantages, if dance and kinesthetic reading activities are poorly supervised, it might involve the risks of accidental injuries and kids fighting. Actually, the integration of active movement into reading requires substantial preparation, including having enough physical space for each child, ensuring the absence of any dangerous objects in the classroom, or making sure that students’ shoes and clothes are comfortable and do not hinder movements. If the teacher is not attentive enough or has little experience in helping children to tame their physical aggression, movement and dance activities will not be perfectly safe. In contrast to that, music-based activities for reading comprehension are unlikely to entail any specific issues.