Janelle Marler
Professional Research Articles and Books Supporting:
The Literary Power of Song
Harp, Bill. (1988). Why are your kids singing during reading time? The Reading Teacher, 41,454-456.
Music is an essential part of my teaching practice each day. I have observed that during the noisiest and rowdiest moments m an early elementary classroom, children will quiet and settle down at the mere start of a song. Each student seems to be naturally touched by the music as they eagerly and excitedly join in by singing and moving their bodies to the rhyme and rhythm. 5Music and reading go together because singing is a celebration of language. Children's language naturally has rhythm and melody. Children bring this natural 'music of language with them to the task of learning to read, and so using singing to teach reading draws on this natural understanding." Teaching reading with this notion that a natural connection between singing and reading will easily enhance a child's ability to learn to read sounds more simple than it actually is; however, by using song, a tool in which the vast majority of students seemingly respond to in a positive fashion, the task of teaching a child to read becomes a bit less complex since the experience of singing is embedded within the child and the relationship between singing and reading is one of obvious purpose and sense. Singing allots numerous teachable moments that educators must capitalize on in order to prove the authenticity and meaningfulness in the various forms of written text (i.e. big books, song picture books, poems, and music). Lastly, since children learn to speak, listen, read, and write as a result of direct active participation within those four activities, it makes sense that "the more that children hear language, the more opportunities they have for constructing their own rules and relationships" in literacy. Singing and reading certainly open many doors for allowing children to hear a wealth of language experiences.
Langfit, D. (1994). Integrating music, reading and writing at the primary level. The Reading Teacher, 47,430-431.
"At the emergent and beginning reading levels, young children need many cues to help them make meaning from print. Along with the usual semantic, syntactic, graphophonic, or picture cues that we emphasize, a simple melody is another cue that is useful for young students. A familiar or simple melody included in a book that students read and write assures success." Similar to a predictable storybook, a song or tune known by the students allows the child a chance at knowing what comes next therefore providing that student with a cue that in turn develops into a strategy that students can use in their reading. In this article, Diane Langfit describes how she creates and integrates reading, writing and music activities in her classroom. First, Ms. Langfit uses a piece of literature or a concrete experience that the children have had as a springboard for the activity. The children generate their ideas in response to the first activity presented. As the children dictate their ideas the teacher records them on the chalkboard; she then takes one of the students statements and sets it to a familiar song tune (i.e. "She'll Be Comin' 'Round the Mountain). Upon combining the sentence with a melody, the teacher notices a significant increase in the number and variety of verses that the children are chiming in with. As they continue to brainstorm ideas the teacher writes their verses on the chalkboard and draws their attention to particular reading and writing details such as encouraging the children to sound out the words that she is spelling or noting particular patterns that have developed throughout the verses. By integrating these activities the teacher has capitalized on the wholeness of singing, writing and reading using song to teach through utilizing the reading and writing skills and strategies. Through this process the children come to recognize many of the characteristics (i.e. sounding out words, 1:1 correspondence of written word to spoken word, labeling, and creating verses) that I have established as evidence that supports my research of teaching children pre-reading and writing skills through the use of song as text.
Barclay, KD. (1992). Linking lyrics and literacy through song picture books. Young Children, 47, 76-85.
Musical lyrics have a distinct way of luring children into a world of imagination, movement and enjoyment. At a very young age, children memorize numerous nursery rhymes, chants, poems and songs verse after verse. "Like predictable books, song lyrics contain features that help children to more easily make the link from oral to printed language because they possess any or all of the following characteristics: rhyme, rhythm, repetition of vocabulary and repetition of story structure." Since the language of song is natural for children it is advantageous that the teacher use singing as one of a variety of interesting ways to teach reading in which the song interests the learner and engages him/her authentically, making that reading and writing activity seem incidental. In addition, using songs which are familiar or predictable provides children with a sense of control and confidence in their ability to learn. Recently the increased availability of song picture books has eased teachers into the realm of presenting children's favorite songs in an illustrated book in which emergent readers are able to sing and read along. These books multiply in their educational value as teachers integrate writing into the activity along with reading and singing. Children can concoct their own verse or lyric to extend the song story or create an entirely new version with the assistance of a musical cue or guide. Children involved in such activities have been observed re-reading, re-writing and consulting the original song book to see and hear if their new verse "fits" into the pattern of rhyme, rhythm or repetition as does the original text. Such activities integrating singing to reading and writing instills those imperative beginning skills and strategies , however the complex task of teaching reading and writing through song allows the student's learning to occur in a holistic, meaningful manner in which the child is directly involved in his/her language experience.
McCracken, R.A. & McCracken, M.J. (1986). Stories, songs, and poetry to teach reading and writing: Literacy through language. New York: Teachers College Press.
"Poetry and song are meant to be heard. Their rhythm and cadences and rhyme, make it a natural vehicle for introducing children to print." The rhythm and rhyme make it easy for all children to learn poems and songs and because of their simple to learn nature, children chant them over and over converting them to memory with an understanding of their meaning. McCracken and McCracken emphasize the value of using song to teach reading because of this very fact that songs are something children have inside them in a meaningful and memorized way because the children have experienced the songs through movement and repetition. Once the children have orally memorized the verses and rhymes, they can then be introduced to the printed words which make up the ideas being sung throughout the song. McCracken and McCracken reference several activities that they have carried out in a classroom setting which leads children from the memorization of song verses into the recognition of correspondence between spoken word and sung word and eventually leading the children into the writing process whereby the children create their own verses and song books. The young emerging readers are guided by an adult through these processes where again the adult utilizes the teachable moment and incorporates reading and writing skill and strategy components into the singing activity. In chapter 7, the authors detail how to guide the students through a rhyming activity, breaking it down into bite-size pieces, introducing word families and differentiating between real and nonsense rhyming words.
Tracy Reynolds
Literature Review
Edmiaston, R. K. "Oral Language And Reading: How Are They Related For Third Graders?" Remedial And Special Education 5 (1984) : 33 - 37.
This article is a report of research study which investigated the relationship between the oral language and reading comprehension skills of a group of third grade students. The results of the research indicated that there seem to be strong relationships between oral language competency and reading comprehension skills. Edmiaston then uses the results of this research to build a case for integrating language skills into a "complete" language arts curriculum.
Hamilton, M., and M. Weiss. "Children As Storytellers Teaching The Basic Tools." School Library Journal 39 (1993) : 30-33.
In this article, Hamilton and Weiss describe why it is important to teach children to tell stories. The piece then goes on to outline effective strategies to use in teaching children to become more confident and successful storytellers. A list of stories that are well suited for young children to retell is also included
Morrow, L. M. "Reading And Retelling Stories : Strategies For Emergent Readers." The Reading Teacher 38 (1985) : 870-875.
This article is a report of three related research studies focusing on the benefits of asking emergent readers to retell stories that they have heard. The first study indicated that a single experience of retelling a story produced a small improvement in kindergarten students' comprehension of that story, Further studies revealed that levels of improvement could be increased by frequent practice and guidance in retelling stories. It was also found that retelling activities also encouraged students to retell favorite stories on their own or at home, and that over time students showed much greater poise and confidence when retelling stories.
Peck, J. "Using Storytelling To Promote Language And Literacy Development." The Reading Teacher 43 (1989) : 138 - 141.
In "Using Storytelling To Promote Language And Literacy Development," Peck describes two distinct learning opportunities that storytelling in the classroom provides for students, based on a storytelling project that she implemented in a third grade classroom. The first, that storytelling improves students' critical listening skills, and the second that students can also develop their oral and written language skills when telling stories. Peck also indicates that students develop more complex senses of story through storytelling. In addition to providing information on the benefits of classroom storytelling, Peck also provides information on the effective implementation of such a curriculum.
Strickland, D. and L. Morrow. "Oral Language Development Children As Storytellers." The Reading Teacher 43 260 - 261.
In this article Strickland and Morrow argue that although storytelling is initially difficult for young children it is a very beneficial activity to their oral language development. Strickland and Morrow describe that through scaffolding and the careful structuring of storytelling activities, storytelling can be a very valuable and successful component of a language curriculum for young children.
Tamara Culver
Literature Review
Hiebert, E., Mervar, K., & Person, D., (1990). Children's selection of trade books in libraries and classrooms. Language Arts, 67, 758-763.
This article looked at trade books self selected by children during library and classroom settings. The research made a distinction between children in second grade literature based classrooms and children in second grade textbook based classrooms. The researchers were especially interested in the process children use to select books and if the self selected books were appropriate for the children's reading level. A major finding was that children in literature based classrooms could give more detailed reasons for choosing their books, often citing issues discussed in their classrooms such as author, genre, illustrations or specific topics being studied in class. Children in textbook based classrooms usually just browsed until they found something that looked interesting. With probing, many of them cited pictures as the source of their interest. As far as readability was concerned, children in the textbook based classrooms choose books that were approximately one-half grade level more difficult that those of literature based students. The less able readers in the textbook classrooms choose books that were about one grade level higher than their less able counterparts in the literature based classroom. One interesting point was that the less able readers in the textbook classrooms choose books were on the same level as the more able readers in the same room.
Anderson, G., Higgins, D., & Wurster, S., (1985). Differences in the free-reading books selected by high, average, and low achievers. The Reading Teacher, 39, 326-330.
The premise of this article was that children are most likely to gel hooked on reading when the books they read are of interest to them and are easy to read. The authors did a study of fourth and sixth graders divided into high, average and low achievers where the children kept reading logs of their independent reading material for 5 weeks. They then looked at several factors among the different ages and levels. All readers, high, average and low liked and disliked the same categories of books. Tall tale/fantasy, realistic fiction and information books were high on all lists in both grade levels. Fourth graders across the board did not pick many biographies and sixth graders underselected in biography, animal fantasy and sports. An interesting finding was that readability was not a factor across the levels. All levels, high, average and low, picked books at about the same readability. However, in both fourth and sixth grades, the low achievers picked books that were harder than the average achiever and slightly higher than the high achievers. Length of books was a minor factor, with high and low achievers picking books of longer lengths. In both grades the number of books finished did vary among high and low achievers. There was about a twenty percent difference in the amount of books that the high achievers finished as compared to the low achievers. The authors ended with some suggestions as to why poor readers make poor choices and fail to finish more of their books and with suggestions for parents and teachers in guiding their children's selection of reading material. It is interesting to me that the authors suggest highlighting the easier books that higher achieves choose so that the low achievers will feel comfortable reading these easier books. Is this commenting on the social status of higher achievers?
Greenlee, A., Monson, D., Taylor, B., (1996). The lure of series books: Does it affect appreciation for recommended literature? The Reading Teacher, vol.50, no.3, 216-225.
This article describes a study focused on children's response to independent reading and their perceptions of literary quality of series books and recommended literature. The article begins by highlighting the sub-literary status of series books. Many experts object to series books on the basis of their poor quality and how series books reinforcement the world as patriarchal, primarily white and affluent. When children read and compared a series book with a recommended book, fifty-six percent preferred the recommended book and sixty-four percent suggested their recommended book over the series book for a teacher read-aloud. The authors say the ease of choosing a series book accounts for a lot of the popularity. Many children choose a series book because they have read one before and liked it, and they know that the next book will have similar characters and plot structure. This also accounts for why these books are popular with struggling readers. Right from the beginning, the reader has some control over the book and comprehension of the story. The readers also have a large amount of involvement with the book and the events of the story since these books are carefully targeted to the identified interests and dreams of a particular age and gender. The most frequently mentioned reason for choosing a recommended book was a suggestion from someone else. This emphasizes the social aspect of choosing a book. The authors did report that children recognize the quality of recommended literature and that series books were not likely to interfere with that. It is more likely that children will grow tired of series books when they are developmentally ready for a different type of reading experience. When they are ready, children often need guidance in finding the right type of book.
Hunt, L. (1970). The effect of self-selection, interest, and motivation upon independent, instructional and frustration levels. Reading Teacher, 24, 146-158.
The basis of this article was that teachers should not use reading levels alone to assess or predict reading success and when the teacher is assessing the child's reading, he or she should accent the positive things the child does instead of counting and categorizing errors constantly. The author argued that the child's interest in the reading material, effected strongly if the child selected his or her own material, would offset a more difficult text. If the child understood some of the key points and enjoyed his reading experience, this was more helpful than being able to give textbook answers to teacher's questions. The author proposed a strong emphasis on daily silent reading where the children are given opportunities to select their own books and then time to reflect on whether or not they enjoyed the book and could follow along with the ideas presented in their self chosen book.
Moran, B., and Steinfirst, S., (1985). Why Johnny (and Jane) Read Whodunits in Series. School Library Journal, March, 1985, 113-117.
The subject of this article is the appeal of series mysteries for children and especially for adolescents. The paper examined four series of books, including the older Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys and two newer series, one for mainly girls and one for mainly boys. The ease of a predictable format and happy ending were cited for their popularity but the authors also took it one step further to examine the implications of some of Erik Erikson's theories. Erikson proposed that the time of adolescence was a time of both identity crisis and a time for solving a series of eight major life dilemmas. Children identified with the identity crisis that many of the series mystery's main characters had in trying to figure out what they wanted to do with their lives. The readers can see that even teens with lots of things going for them still have a tough time making decisions that define who they are. The Erikson dilemma the mystery characters struggled with is related to kids reaching towards competence in a certain area. This competence in an area is important because adolescents or young adults will eventually have to do or prove something that will gain positive recognition in society.