Using Popular Music to Improve Reading Fluency

I traveled to New York City a few months ago and was given a
children’s book by Billy Joel called, “New York State of Mind.” Yes,
it’s the lyrics to his famous song, illustrated with city scenes and two
cute dogs that meet in New York. I didn’t think much about it at the
time but when I got to my classroom, I decided to put the CD in and show
it to my students. They immediately fell in love with the song! Day
after day they would beg for that book.
I gave them their own copy of the lyrics, from the internet, and then
began looking for other music that might engage their minds and hearts
like that song had. Friends helped me come up with lists of songs with
the same rich sound and interesting lyrics. Before long my students each
had a 3-ring notebook filled with song lyrics; not just children’s
songs, but real songs with rich music, challenging words, and content
they could sink their teeth into!
For more on this strategy and a list of songs to start with, visit me at Top Teaching on Scholastic.com by clicking on this link! Using Music to Improve Reading Fluency

More ideas on using music can be found on my newest Scholastic post at Using Music to Improve Reading: Close Up and Fluent!  Visit me there!

Uncle Reuben's Journeys Part 7 - The Camp Out

Once you've finished the hard work of an inquiry project, it’s fun to show someone what you’ve been learning.

We got the chance to do that in early May. The “invitation” group went to work writing notes and inviting other classes to visit us so we could show them what we learned. The afternoon was a success as evidenced by the discussions I could hear around the room as students shared their new learning with excitement.

Language arts activity

Reading with friends in the tent.

One of our favorite pictures of Uncle Reuben is him sitting by a campfire next to a small canvas tent.

I had come across some camping themed math and language arts activities online that would be perfect for a courtyard camp out during the last week of school. We pitched our tent, grabbed something to sit on and headed for the school courtyard for the morning. There were 12 activities to keep the class busy and s’mores for a reward partway through the tasks. It was a nice way to end both our unit and a wonderful 2nd grade year!

Cooler serves as table for story problem work.

Call it Magic!

So cute! We were working with /oo/ words such as "shook" and "good" a while back. I wondered out loud if they could close their eyes and pick up a word with that sound in it. I demonstrated the skill and they were pretty impressed with how good I was at it! (90% of the words on their desks fell into the right category.)

They all tried it a few times before a discussion started about why it worked for them, too. Well, they all got to practice reading the words and it felt like a magic trick!

My Teaching Timeline

1978-1979 - Kindergarten at a pre-school
1979-1980 - Kindergarten as a long term sub
1980-1985 - First Grade full time
1985-1993 - Second Grade full time
1993-2000 - Second Grade job share
2000-2002 - Reading Resource Teacher and Core Knowledge Grant Manager
2002-2004 - Instructional Coach for two schools
2005-2011 - Instructional Coach based in one building
2011-            - Back to the classroom - Second Grade