Re: [MOSAIC] songs and fluency
Just a reply to the concept of singing and fluency. I teach first grade and we begin each day with a morning sing... something I decided was a must after responsive training inservice. In fact, in my old district, morning sing was a school wide affair that began each day. Now I am not talking about traditional first grade ditties or nursery type songs. We sing popular songs of yesteryear and the here and now. Besides the community that it builds, I have found that it really helps first graders in a number of ways many examples of working with words are naturally built in. this was eye opening to me when an emergent reader spelled the word beautiful in September... she just hummed Oh what a beautiful morning and when she came to beautiful she said she closed her eyes and pictured the chartof course there are all the other working with words strategies that can be used just as well as configuration and visual imagery. Then there's all the reading comprehension strategies connections, mental images, determining importance in fact we just finished inferences and are now working on synthesis. The kids are singing Let the day begin by the Call a real happening now type beat..and are doing a marvelous job of inferring and synthesizing how they begin their days. Conversation has been going on for days about attitude, thankfulness, self-improvement, perseverance, cooperation we taken it to writing poetry as well as our own songs... It's also a good jumping board for our final unit in reading workshop: planning our lives as strong readers and writers lots of good stuff. Singing also helps with peer revision; our motto is ... if you we can't sing in front of each other, how could we ever peer edit? This sets such a wonderful tone for respect and cooperation, and understanding when kids come together to help each other... rather than that gotcha,I'm smarter than you that I've seen happen with younger children. During our research reports on the rain forest, kids would spend their time printing out articles and cutting pictures they found for other kids' reports while searching for their own info rmation. Then there's the whole aesthetic stance to text... I love when the kids pick songs for us to sing. They have to tell why they chosen a morning sing and how it would help us as community member or reader or writer Finally, another very early benefit for first graders: stamina! Children are not afraid on longer text. In September my early readers often choose books that are tad longer in length and say well it is not as long as our text in morning sing. I love morning sing... it sets up my day as well. I just don't plow into the day... more reflective and hopeful... ** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
Re: [MOSAIC] songs and fluency
Very eloquently stated case for more song in the classroom. Thank you. Personally, I have a thing for the lyrics of Cole Porter, Ira Gerschwin, Irving Berlin, and Hammerstein - the old show tunes. At 09:36 AM 5/27/2007 -0400, you wrote: Just a reply to the concept of singing and fluency. I teach first grade and we begin each day with a morning sing... something I decided was a must after responsive training inservice. In fact, in my old district, morning sing was a school wide affair that began each day. Now I am not talking about traditional first grade ditties or nursery type songs. We sing popular songs of yesteryear and the here and now. Besides the community that it builds, I have found that it really helps first graders in a number of ways many examples of working with words are naturally built in. this was eye opening to me when an emergent reader spelled the word beautiful in September... she just hummed Oh what a beautiful morning and when she came to beautiful she said she closed her eyes and pictured the chartof course there are all the other working with words strategies that can be used just as well as configuration and visual imagery. Then there's all the reading comprehension strategies connections, mental images, determining importance in fact we just finished inferences and are now working on synthesis. The kids are singing Let the day begin by the Call a real happening now type beat..and are doing a marvelous job of inferring and synthesizing how they begin their days. Conversation has been going on for days about attitude, thankfulness, self-improvement, perseverance, cooperation we taken it to writing poetry as well as our own songs... It's also a good jumping board for our final unit in reading workshop: planning our lives as strong readers and writers lots of good stuff. Singing also helps with peer revision; our motto is ... if you we can't sing in front of each other, how could we ever peer edit? This sets such a wonderful tone for respect and cooperation, and understanding when kids come together to help each other... rather than that gotcha,I'm smarter than you that I've seen happen with younger children. During our research reports on the rain forest, kids would spend their time printing out articles and cutting pictures they found for other kids' reports while searching for their own info rmation. Then there's the whole aesthetic stance to text... I love when the kids pick songs for us to sing. They have to tell why they chosen a morning sing and how it would help us as community member or reader or writer Finally, another very early benefit for first graders: stamina! Children are not afraid on longer text. In September my early readers often choose books that are tad longer in length and say well it is not as long as our text in morning sing. I love morning sing... it sets up my day as well. I just don't plow into the day... more reflective and hopeful... ** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. Timothy Rasinski, Ph.D. Reading and Writing Center 404 White Hall Kent State University Kent, OH 44242 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: 330-672-0649 Cell: 330-962-6251 Fax: 330-672-2025 Informational website: www.timrasinski.com Professional Development DVD: http://www.roadtocomprehension.com/ ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
Re: [MOSAIC] songs and fluency
We, too, begin our morning meeting time singing and reading poetry. Each child has a copy for his own Poetry Song folder. And each song/poem is on a big chart stand. We get lots of uses for these as Kukonis mentioned. Many minilessons refer back to our songs, lots of word work but also including identifying theme. We integrated some social studies with several Patriotic songs ( when students chose their favorites to sing again and we held a Poetry Cafe for parents to attend they overwhelmingly chose songs like America, This Land is Your Land and Yankee Doodle). And like Debbie Miller, I use these songs to signal when to come to the carpet for read alouds and minilesson. Second graders love to sing! Linda/2/OH On Sunday, May 27, 2007, at 08:36 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Just a reply to the concept of singing and fluency. I teach first grade and we begin each day with a morning sing... something I decided was a must after responsive training inservice. In fact, in my old district, morning sing was a school wide affair that began each day. Now I am not talking about traditional first grade ditties or nursery type songs. We sing popular songs of yesteryear and the here and now. Besides the community that it builds, I have found that it really helps first graders in a number of ways many examples of working with words are naturally built in. this was eye opening to me when an emergent reader spelled the word beautiful in September... she just hummed Oh what a beautiful morning and when she came to beautiful she said she closed her eyes and pictured the chartof course there are all the other working with words strategies that can be used just as well as configuration and visual imagery. Then there's all the reading comprehension strategies connections, mental images, determining importance in fact we just finished inferences and are now working on synthesis. The kids are singing Let the day begin by the Call a real happening now type beat..and are doing a marvelous job of inferring and synthesizing how they begin their days. Conversation has been going on for days about attitude, thankfulness, self-improvement, perseverance, cooperation we taken it to writing poetry as well as our own songs... It's also a good jumping board for our final unit in reading workshop: planning our lives as strong readers and writers lots of good stuff. Singing also helps with peer revision; our motto is ... if you we can't sing in front of each other, how could we ever peer edit? This sets such a wonderful tone for respect and cooperation, and understanding when kids come together to help each other... rather than that gotcha,I'm smarter than you that I've seen happen with younger children. During our research reports on the rain forest, kids would spend their time printing out articles and cutting pictures they found for other kids' reports while searching for their own info rmation. Then there's the whole aesthetic stance to text... I love when the kids pick songs for us to sing. They have to tell why they chosen a morning sing and how it would help us as community member or reader or writer Finally, another very early benefit for first graders: stamina! Children are not afraid on longer text. In September my early readers often choose books that are tad longer in length and say well it is not as long as our text in morning sing. I love morning sing... it sets up my day as well. I just don't plow into the day... more reflective and hopeful... ** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/ mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. ___ Mosaic mailing list Mosaic@literacyworkshop.org To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
