Chants and cadences engage students in creative writing and critical thinking.In our teaching, traditional spoken and written responses may be the most common, but they are not the only modes of representation to which we and our students have access. Poetry, drama, music, and art permeate all subjects of content area study and may provide more meaningful and creative ways for students to represent their ideas. (McLaughlin, 2009, p. 211)Daniel (a pseudonym) had benefitted greatly from the idea that students can creatively represent their ideas in a content area in ways other than traditional spoken and written responses. He was a preservice teacher enrolled in a teacher education program at a small northeastern university. During one class, he shared the following experience he had as a science student in school.In science class, I wrote [a song] to the tune of Jingle Bells. I thought it was pretty cool because, while writing it, I had to think about all of the scientific concepts involved and then figure out how to make them rhyme. I was always thinking about this piece. I could really hear the rhyme in my ears and picture the concepts in my mind. The most important thing, however, is this: Because I had to think about, work with, and write about these concepts, I didn't memorize them. I really learned them. I still remember them today.Daniel explained that his teacher often used popular songs to teach important concepts in science class. In this instance, his teacher invited students to write new versions of popular Christmas carols to demonstrate their knowledge of science concepts covered in class. Daniel composed a new version of Jingle Bells to demonstrate his understanding of Newton's laws of physics. He composed this new carol to help him actively learn, not passively memorize, these important laws. The experience lefta lasting impression on him. Today, Daniel remembers his Christmas carol vividly and fondly, can sing it without any prompting, and still uses it to identify and explain Newton's laws of physics.We were impressed with Daniel's story. Writing a new version of a famous Christmas carol or any song can be difficult for a student who, like Daniel, is not an experienced or professional songwriter; and it may be especially difficult if it is about a complex topic such as Newton's laws of physics. We were also inspired by Daniel's story. Like all teachers, we always look for innovative ways to help students learn effectively and efficiently across the curriculum. For Daniel, creating a new version of a familiar Christmas carol like Jingle Bells-with a distinct rhythm, rhyme, and cadence-was an enjoyable, effective, and memorable for him to learn difficult science content. We wanted to see what would happen if we used a similar strategy with our students, all of whom are middle school teachers enrolled in a graduate course entitled Reading and Writing across the Content Areas.This article shares a demonstration lesson from our graduate course in which we showed teachers how to use chants and cadences to teach content area material across the curriculum. We selected chants and cadences for two reasons. First, in the past we had used a variety of musical genres such as marching songs, rap music, jump rope rhymes, hand claps, and patriotic songs across the curriculum. We wanted to explore other musical genres, such as chants and cadences, to teach content area material. Second, we wanted participating teachers to actually use chants and cadences in their own classrooms. To achieve this, we felt it was important for the teachers to actually experience the activities that we ultimately wanted their students to experience (Harste, 2004).Struggling readers: Locating the problemWhen students struggle with learning in the classroom, all too often, teachers assume the problem lies primarily, if not exclusively, with the learner. This way of looking (Wheatley, 2001) at struggling learners has been particularly prevalent in reading education. …