We know that repeated readings of prose passages works from a ton of research 
(see National Reading Panel, work by David Chard, Steve Stahol, Melanie Kuhn, 
myself and many others).   Theoretically there is no reason why repeated 
readings of songs or other texts should not work.  I think that as students 
repeatedly read a song lyric, poem, or passage they add to their sight 
vocabulary (automatized word recognition), develop a sense of phrasing and 
prosody, feel that they can be successful in reading, and have a lot of fun 
with reading.     
 
See the article by Lorraine Griffith (Oct 2004, The Reading Teacher) -- "A 
focus on fluency, how one teacher incorporated fluency into her reading 
program"    She reports remarkable results for fluency, comprehension, and 
overall reading achievement from students doing repeated readings of scripts, 
poems, speeches, and other lyrical texts.
 
BTW, thanks to all for your great ideas on using and extending singing in the 
reading program
 
tr
 
 
Timothy Rasinski 
404 White Hall 
Kent State University 
Kent, OH  44242 
330-672-0649 
Cell -- 330-962-6251 
FAX  330-672-2025 
[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
informational website: www.timrasinski.com 
professional development DVD:  http://www.roadtocomprehension.com/ 
<https://exchange.kent.edu/exchweb/bin/redir.asp?URL=http://www.roadtocomprehension.com/>
  

________________________________

From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] on behalf of Heather Blau
Sent: Mon 6/25/2007 8:06 AM
To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group
Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] reading songs



Tim, could you explain what you see happening with repeated readings 
of songs, that is leading to improved fluency?  How does it work?  
Maybe this would help highlight where the work is for older kids.  
(Does the music provide a certain type of support?)

What do we want them to notice about this text?  What makes it hard 
to read?  Which are the tricky parts and what makes it tricky?  These 
questions work at any age.

Maybe w/ older kids you could take out a key word and offer some 
possible replacements and have the group decide why one choice is 
better than another.  Is it tricky for older kids to move fluidly 
between different cueing systems (meaning, structure, word/sound)  to 
help them deal w/ tricky parts. Is dealing with punctuation tough? or 
creating intonation which enhances meaning? Maybe the music provides 
support, hints at meaningful intonation, which kids might have 
trouble with when reading text without the music.  Would it work to 
look at the lyrics together w/o telling them its a song, then later 
adding the music?

Another great activity is to have kids change the genre of the 
piece.  Has anyone tried asking kids to take the lyrics of a song and 
turn it into poem? or narrative? or informational piece?  or a 
letter?   Or even better, take a tricky and meaning rich piece of 
narrative an turn it into a song.  What music would set the right 
tone?  pace? emotion?  to match the deeper meaning, language 
structure.  Just a few more ideas to add to the mix.

Heather


On Jun 24, 2007, at 11:14 PM, Debbie Goodis wrote:

> Yes, we used to do this in pre-K. When children knew a song we 
> would change a word or two or a phrase and let the children notice. 
> Of course, they would "scold" us for singing it wrong. In my class 
> I have given tickets to students who find my mistakes when I'm 
> writing something on the board. What if teachers pulled this same 
> trick with reading words to songs or poems. For example, we would 
> all be reading chorally when the teacher would make sure the 
> students heard her read something wrong. It would keep the kids on 
> their toes and really engaged because they love to hear the teacher 
> make mistakes and then to correct her. This would only work for 
> younger students, of course. Maybe a different version for older 
> kids?  Someone who works with them might be able to think of 
> something similar.
> Debbie
>
>
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