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Let's Bring Back the Magic of Song for Teaching Reading
Author(s) -
Iwasaki Becky,
Rasinski Timothy,
Yildirim Kasim,
Zimmerman Belinda S.
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
the reading teacher
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.642
H-Index - 50
eISSN - 1936-2714
pISSN - 0034-0561
DOI - 10.1002/trtr.1203
Subject(s) - phonics , fluency , singing , psychology , reading (process) , lyrics , learning to read , magic (telescope) , mathematics education , premise , teaching method , pedagogy , phonemic awareness , primary education , linguistics , literacy , literature , art , philosophy , physics , quantum mechanics , economics , management
Based on a first grade teacher's search for approaches to promote successful reading acquisition in her first grade classroom, the authors present a curricular engagement in which the teacher explored using music, specifically singing songs, as a fun and motivating way to accelerate reading progress. The premise is that singing (while at the same time having a visual display of the words in the songs) can be a very useful instructional tool to teach reading to beginning readers. The process involves learning one new song (accompanied by the printed lyrics) per week, followed by repeated readings/singings, discussions of content, and activities related to phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency and word work. The children made on average more than a year's reading growth during the duration of the teacher's investigation. This article explores the possibilities and benefits of having beginning and/or struggling readers sing as an instructional strategy to enhance reading progress.