RM Winter 2016 FLIP

particular language syntax or a word that makes sense in context is an important strategy for reading as well as a resource for decoding unknown words and monitoring comprehension. Julie experienced the power of such activities during her recent student teaching. Capitalizing upon what she had learned about music and reading, she decided to take advantage of every opportunity to incorporate music into classroom instruction. While teaching a unit on poetry to a group of fourth grade students, Julie was amazed at the shift in attitude that using music had in her classroom. To support students’ interest and literary interpretations skills, she invited students to listen to the song “Home” by Phillip Phillips. Students wrote what they thought the song meant in their reading journals before sharing their ideas with the whole class. What a difference! Julie was amazed to see the increased number of students wanting to share their perceptions of the song as compared to the few raised hands the day before when asked to share their thoughts on a poem! Frequently, students would groan when handed a poem or a text that they thought they could not understand, complaining, “It’s too hard!” or, “I don’t get it!” Julie realized that interpreting the song required basically the same skill set as the poem, but the tools were different— adding the component of music gave the experience elements of familiarity, fun, and light-heartedness that the students needed. The songs they allowed them to take risks and to feel free to share their ideas without fear of having the “wrong” answer. Analyzing a song that contains inferences or literary themes requires the same level of interpretation and higher level thinking as poems and similar types of texts, but familiarity reduces learners’ anxiety and processing demands (Almasi & Fullerton, 2012). They are already familiar with the words of the song, so they do not have to decode. They know the rhythm of the song, so aspects of fluency such as phrasing, tempo/pacing, rhythm, pitch, and stress are supported; and because it is something they have prior knowledge of and can relate to, they are more likely to interpret the meaning. Because her first lesson using music went so well, Julie decided to continue with that approach throughout the poetry unit. She was pleased to see these fourth graders singing along with Katy Perry to the lyrics of “Roar” as they read the words on their sheets. She noted that many of the students who were singing rarely volunteered to speak in class, so seeing them participate in a new way, through song, was a valuable reminder that, as educators, we need to constantly look for ways to involve students and provide different ways to learn so that they will be successful. The students already knew the lyrics by heart just from hearing it on the radio, but using their eyes to read the words through shared and repeated readings was a valuable reading support for them. One of the most interesting displays of increased student motivation Julie saw was when music was incorporated into a writing lesson. As the culminating task of the poetry unit, each student was required to share an original poem, choosing from many that they had written throughout the week. Julie suggested that one of her students, Janie (pseudonym), write a song to perform in the poetry slam since she sings competitively. Janie and a classmate wrote a beautiful song with a set rhyming pattern, metaphors, similes, and imagery,

A very simple variant of Five Little Ducks using animals and numbers that are familiar and interest children or that comes from their own ideas could be developed:

Seven little lambs went out one day, over the field and far away. Mother sheep said, “Baa, baa, baa, baa.” But only four little lambs came back .

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Again, such chart stories or class-created Big Books can be illustrated by the children—young learners take great pride in sharing and reading such class-created texts. Smith (2000) and Jalongo and Ribblett (1997) offer many familiar songs and song book titles that can be used to create variations. As suggested by the text variant above, creations of their own texts through shared or interactive writing can encourage learners to look carefully at the print and develop a variety of sight words. The rhyming words, in this case, day and away can also be used to teach analogies or word patterns. Thus, another area in which music instruction can benefit reading instruction is word identification. Young readers must learn to recognize letters and words automatically, much like music students must learn to recognize notes and groups of notes, in order to adjust vocal placement. This action allows both readers and musicians to demonstrate fluent reading/singing. As indicated by the –ay pattern of day and away in the Over in the Meadow text, children must also develop orthographic/spelling awareness. Teachers can use familiar songs to help learners understand that letters grouped together (in vowels, blends, diphthongs, and digraphs, as examples) form a range of sounds that can change according to their position in a word and that these groups can represent patterns of onsets, such as the d in day and the rime, -ay in day . The rhyming patterns in many songs promote such phonological and orthographic awareness. Finally, Hansen and Bornstorf (2002) affirm that music instruction benefits students in the early stages of reading because music students and reading students alike must acquire an ability to listen for whether something “sounds right.” For readers, this involves syntactic, semantic, and graphophonic considerations, aiding the understanding and development of cueing systems as learners read and sing the print. Music and Songs in the Elementary Years and Beyond As children become older, their interest and knowledge of music grows. Relating reading to something children hold valuable such as popular music supports motivation to read; hearing the song and reading the lyrics makes reading a delightful and engaging experience. Often in our university summer reading clinic, when we have upper-elementary and middle school reluctant readers, we will ask them to name some of their favorite popular songs, and we then collaborate with them on locating the lyrics and putting together a notebook of songs that they can read, sing, and enjoy. As lyrics are repetitive, using songs in classroom instruction supports students as they read the lyrics. Song structures allow students to hear and anticipate when lines are repeated; predicting

Reading Matters | Volume 16 • Winter 2016 | scira.org | 41 |

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