If you read my earlier blog post, I explained how my passion for children's literature has become somewhat of an obsession. In the last four months I have gone to about 3 different book sales and countless thrift shops and yard sales, scouring Lancaster County for cheap treasures!
My biggest find was the book "Music Play," which I actually just bought with budget money for this year (more to come on Music Play and Gordon's Music Learning Theory in another post). At a book sale I found an early edition of "Music Play" in nearly perfect condition for only $1.50! Now I can have a copy at each of my elementary schools!
I recently went to the Etown Library book sale and came home with about 20 books that I can use in the classroom. Most are song-based picture books, which means that the text is simply the lyrics of a known song. Here are a few of the books that I purchased at the sale:
There is something magical about books. As soon as I mention that we will be using a picture book the room gets quiet and there is this peaceful excitement about the room. Kids just love to be read to and I love that I can do that in a way that also facilitates the learning of musical concepts.
In preparing for the conference that I will be presenting at in November, I came across some interesting research by Dr. Amanda Montgomery and Dr. Kathryn Smith of University of Alberta in Canada. They did a study in which students participated in a reading program that only used song-based picture books. Students that were identified to have an academic need in reading came to a program with their parents on a weekly basis and were given a series of song-based picture books that teachers modeled for the parents and then the parents read at home. Parents kept a journal and testing was done to see how much progress the students had made during the program.
Some interesting findings from the program were that the song-based picture books made reading fun for the whole family! Younger, and even older, brothers and sisters also wanted to participate in the nightly reading of the song-based books. Parents were surprised that songs they considered to be "babyish" were so engaging for the students. Most importantly, the rhyme scheme and familiarity of the tune acted as a scaffold for the students as they were encouraged to read on their own. Using the song-based picture books helped the students move through unknown or difficult words.
Click here to read the actual journal article.
Maybe you have some song-based picture books that you can pull out for reading with your family tonight!
There is something magical about books. As soon as I mention that we will be using a picture book the room gets quiet and there is this peaceful excitement about the room. Kids just love to be read to and I love that I can do that in a way that also facilitates the learning of musical concepts.
In preparing for the conference that I will be presenting at in November, I came across some interesting research by Dr. Amanda Montgomery and Dr. Kathryn Smith of University of Alberta in Canada. They did a study in which students participated in a reading program that only used song-based picture books. Students that were identified to have an academic need in reading came to a program with their parents on a weekly basis and were given a series of song-based picture books that teachers modeled for the parents and then the parents read at home. Parents kept a journal and testing was done to see how much progress the students had made during the program.
Some interesting findings from the program were that the song-based picture books made reading fun for the whole family! Younger, and even older, brothers and sisters also wanted to participate in the nightly reading of the song-based books. Parents were surprised that songs they considered to be "babyish" were so engaging for the students. Most importantly, the rhyme scheme and familiarity of the tune acted as a scaffold for the students as they were encouraged to read on their own. Using the song-based picture books helped the students move through unknown or difficult words.
Click here to read the actual journal article.
Maybe you have some song-based picture books that you can pull out for reading with your family tonight!
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