How The Arts Can Help Students Excel

• December 11, 2012 by Jessica Velasco

Many people disregard the importance of the arts in education.  Sure, the arts are good for blowing off steam and encouraging creativity, but are they useful in the real world?  If a student doesn’t have the capabilities of being the next Beethoven or da Vinci, what is the point of wasting resources on their continued arts education?

The Current State of Arts Education in Public Schools

The prevalence of art education in public schools has been on the decline since the early 1980s and in recent years, budget cuts have made it almost obsolete.  Nowhere are these cuts more severe than in urban areas where minority children are the most unlikely population to receive arts education. 

Why Parents and Teachers Should Be Worried about the Future of Arts Education

Several new research findings are proving what art education teachers have been saying for years: art is valuable.  A well-rounded educational experience that includes the arts is closely linked to academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity.  

A recent study of high schoolers revealed a correlation between arts education and math and writing test scores. These high school students were tracked for three years and were required to take a minimum one credit of art education.  Students who took more than the minimum requirement were 1.5 times more likely to meet or exceed the ACT Plan national average composite score!  These students excelled in statewide tests, earning proficient levels in math, reading and writing.

How the Arts Enhance a Student’s Education and Overall Development

Plenty of research has supported the role of arts education in providing a comprehensive education.  Let’s take a closer look at how exactly the arts affect a student’s ability to learn and develop: 

• Learning to read music and understand concepts like time, rhythm, and pitch have a direct effect on a child’s ability to comprehend math skills.  One study showed math scores of music students surpassed those of their non-musical classmates.  Students from low socio-economic backgrounds were twice as likely to excel in math if they had musical education.
• Studying the lyrics of music can teach students about syllabification, phonics, vocabulary, imagery, history, myths, folktales, geography, and culture.
• Studies show there is a direct correlation between continued involvement in theater and success in math and reading.
• Non-native English speakers may learn the language more quickly with the use of music.  Thematic learning helps children learn in a safe, enjoyable, student-centered environment.
• Students who take the time to master a musical instrument learn about hard work, practice, and discipline.  While performing in a group – like an orchestra, band, or choir – students learn to work together, appreciate teamwork, strive for a common goal, and develop negotiation skills.
• Cultural awareness is achieved through every form of arts education.

Arts education has always been important to those who value creativity.  Now, as new evidence continues to emerge, more and more people are realizing its importance – especially when it plays such a crucial role in a well-rounded educational experience. What if the next Picasso is sitting in your classroom right now?

Author Bio:

Jessica Velasco is a freelance writer.  She has 15 years experience working as a teacher and child development specialist. 

References:

Schwartz, J. (2012). Kids Like Blues: Using Music and Video to Rock Your Classroom.  Retrieved from Edutopia website: http://www.edutopia.org/blog/kids-like-blues-music-video-jon-schwartz

Kloberdanz, K. (2012). Want Your Kids to Excel in Math and Reading? Teach Them to Paint. Retrieved from Take Part website: http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/10/23/want-kids-excel-math-reading-teach-them-paint

Good Reasons Why Your Child Should Study Music. Retrieved from Schoolatoz website: http://www.schoolatoz.nsw.edu.au/homework-and-study/other-subjects-and-projects/the-arts/why-your-child-should-study-music

 

 

Related reading:

Musical Training and Cognitive Abilities

Teaching Creativity in the Classroom

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Categories: Education Trends, Reading & Learning

Tags: arts, creativity, increased test scores, musical training

How to Re-Wire your Burned-Out Brain

• October 16, 2012 by Martha Burns, Ph.D

So it is only October and the buzz and excitement of starting a new school year has already fizzled. Life is a little boring, the holidays seem too far away, you are more tired than usual, and you are having a little trouble getting enthusiastic about your job or your children’s upcoming book reports and science projects, or whatever. What’s going on? Of course you know, burn-out.

What exactly is burn-out? Does it come from working too hard, not being appreciated?  Perhaps, but from the standpoint of the brain, burn-out occurs when motivation declines.  The human brain is designed to keep motivation levels high for activities we need to survive, those that are very rewarding, and those that involve novelty.  Hence we are usually very motivated to escape a dangerous situation, eat chocolate cake and watch a new movie we just purchased. We tend to associate reward and novelty with play and leisure – video games, a golf or tennis match, watching a new TV show or a sports event, playing a new board game,   or visiting a new vacation spot – even though we might work very hard at those activities.  Rarely do you hear avid golfers complain about golf burnout.  But you also rarely hear CEOs talk about being burned out. They may retire to relieve the stress of their job or spend more time with their family, but rarely do they complain about their workload or burnout.  Why not? Because the excitement of a new round of golf and the reward that might come from winning or achieving a greater profit margin motivates the golfer and the CEO.  However, when your daily life becomes repetitive, unexciting or non-rewarding, motivation decreases. Burn-out is really the symptom of a brain that has lost its motivation. And motivation declines when two important aspects of life are missing – earned reward and novelty.

So, what can you do about burn-out?  The answer actually comes from neuroscience research. Whether your burn-out is associated with a job in or out of the home, the solution is not to work less and play more (because poverty is not very rewarding).  Rather, the solution is to turn work into play.  And the way to do that is to imbue your day with novelty and challenges where there is an expectation of reward.

Reward thyself:  If your work is not very rewarding or your boss is not good at showing appreciation, one important key to avoiding burnout is to build in self rewards for a job well done. Each morning, next to your to-do list, make a “reward when completed list”.

• After I work out I will…buy myself a little treat (a new pen, some fun post-it notes or allow myself a small ice cream cone)
• After I finish my major work project I will…do something nice for myself (set aside time to watch the football game I recorded last week but never had a chance to watch, take a long hot shower with a special soap or set aside an evening with a few close friends)
• After the house is cleaned I will…do something that makes me feel better (take a short walk to the park, check out some of the new houses for sale in my neighborhood, call a high school friend I haven’t talked to for months)

Keep it new: If a job largely involves repetitive routines, try to come up with something new to add.

• Long boring commute – add something  different each week 
  • Try a slightly new route
  • Add a new song or pod-cast to your iPod to listen to
  • Rent audio books from the library
• Hours at a computer – add something new to look forward to
  • Listen to music in the background using headphones
  • Make a contest or start a pool with workmates over your most boring tasks. Guessing the number of junk mail messages each of you has to delete each week – the losers take the winner out to lunch on Friday
  • Start a company softball or volleyball team, a duplicate bridge competition, a  bowling league, a game of cards at lunch
• Change it up – change your routine
  • If you always eat lunch at noon, eat a late breakfast and take a mid-afternoon walk
  • If you always get in at 8:30 and leave at 4:30 pm, try a few days of getting in at 7:45, leave by 3:45 and go for a swim or a late afternoon hike
  • Do it a new way – rotate the pillows on each of the beds you make each morning, move the living room furniture around,  try one new recipe for dinner each week, learn a new technology to make your life a work simpler, take a management course and implement one new idea a week

Delay gratification: Make your work schedule its own reward by scheduling  your most boring task first each day and your favorite task last so all day you are looking forward to the activity you enjoy the most.

Finally, build in healthy brain-building activities to your week. A happy brain is a brain that is thinking, creating, planning, solving, and learning new things. Schedule activities outside of work that make you feel good about yourself and keep your mind sharp:

• Bridge
• Chess
• Sewing
• A musical instrument
• Dancing
• A class at the local junior college
• A new hobby:  furniture upholstering, furniture refinishing, water color painting, crafts
• A new language!

Related reading:

Lifelong Learning and the Plastic Brain

Creating the Optimal "Internal" Learning Environment

 

To learn more about the brain, view our free recorded webinar!

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Categories: Brain Fitness, Family Focus, Reading & Learning

Tags: behavior, brain development, brain plasticity, creativity, how adults learn, how children learn, motivating students, play

Back to School with the Summer Olympics: 3 Reading and Writing Activities for the Classroom

• August 9, 2012 by Carrie Gajowski

I remember being in the fifth grade in Upstate New York where the Winter Olympic Games were about to be held in Lake Placid, NY.  How exciting that they would be so close!  I got the opportunity to go on a field trip to Lake Placid in order to participate in a small part of this monumental event.  I will never forget that moment!

So while watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, I wondered how educators could apply watching the Olympics to the classrooms?  How could my teacher back in 1980 have incorporated our visit into her classroom?   How can we ignite the excitement of learning? 

For those of you heading back to school this week, here are a few ideas to get your students excited about being back in school.

1. Ask your students to research countries that are participating in the Olympics.  What are their customs/traditions?  What are their strongest sports?  Where are the countries located around?  What language(s) are spoken there?  Have students write a summary of what they find out and report their findings to their classmates.
2. Ask your students to write a biography about their favorite Olympic athlete.   Have them research the person and explore place of birth, age, practice schedule, and role models. 
3. Encourage your students to become sports writers – they can begin as they are watching their favorite sport.  Here are a couple of tips to get them started:
   • Encourage them to listen for good quotes to include in their article
   • Challenge them to think of an interesting title for their article
   • Demonstrate how to show, not tell, what is happening as they write their news story.

Using the Summer Olympics as a learning tool can help engage your students in writing and reading while nurturing their interest in sports and exploring cultures around the world.   Help your students explore the possibilities today! 

 

 

For further reading:

Top 12 Olympic Lessons & Classroom Activities

Gold medal learning: the Summer Olympics as a teaching tool

The Summer Olympics start today!

Related reading:

Using Fiction Writing Activities to Develop Creative Thinking in the Classroom 

Using Poetry to Teach Reading: Rhythm, Rhyme, and Choral Reading 

 

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Categories: Reading & Learning

Tags: creativity, motivating students, writing

Characteristics of Rapidly Improving Schools with Bill Daggett

• June 19, 2012 by PC Munoz

In one of my favorite Scientific Learning webinars, "Our Changing Education Landscape", Dr. Bill (Willard) Daggett outlines a proven, step-by-step blueprint for successful change in the rapidly evolving education landscape. Dr. Daggett shares the results of a study conducted jointly by the organization he leads—the International Center for Leadership in Education—which locates and evaluates the most rapidly improving elementary, middle, and high schools in the United States—and the Council of Chief State School Officers.

The findings were encouraging and inspiring: Dr. Daggett asserts that contrary to popular opinion, schools are actually improving, especially those that are adjusting well to the deeper needs and transitioning priorities of 21st century education. In the webinar, Daggett presents the three stages (Why, What and How) these schools go through when undertaking their evolution into successful 21st century schools.

WHY

Educators at the nation's most rapidly improving schools first come to the realization that they have the power to change things.  They actively decide to take responsibility for problems in the education system and identify themselves as the solution. Once that breakthrough is made, they begin to foster a culture to support change...and success follows.  Coupled with other, practical motivations (e.g., the accelerated pace of technological developments, globalization, etc.), this shift in perspective gives school leaders plenty of incentive (WHY) to make the necessary changes to survive and thrive in the changing education landscape.

WHAT

Schools that are rapidly improving have taken the time to identify exactly WHAT it is they need to change, and then decisively put into place innovative methods to make those changes. This requires a frank look at current and often antiquated models of teaching and evaluation, as well as the development of forward-looking models, which focus on interdisciplinary collaboration, significant real world application, and an embrace of technology (by both students and teachers).

HOW

Daggett suggests a three-year transition plan for schools considering HOW to re-imagine themselves in the changing landscape. It takes time to make the full transition to the Common Core State Standards, and to switch from old to new paradigms that focus on rigorous academic standards. Daggett also touches on the need for educators  at all levels and in all subjects to prioritize reading proficiency, and uses the  Lexile Framework  (a system for measuring reading skills) to illuminate relevant statistics on how schools fall short.

 

 

About the presenter: Willard R. Daggett, Ed.D., CEO of the International Center for Leadership in Education, is recognized worldwide for his proven ability to move preK-12 education systems towards more rigorous and relevant skills and knowledge for all students. He has assisted a number of states and hundreds of school districts with their school improvement initiatives. He serves on several advisory boards, including the NASA Education Advisory Board and USA Today's Education Advisory Board.

Related Reading:

Blended Learning Implementation Strategies for the K-12 Classroom

The Role of the Teacher in Blended Learning: Data, Management, and Student Support

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Categories: Education Trends, Reading & Learning

Tags: creativity, curriculum, effort, how children learn, innovation, learning environment, school leader effectiveness, teacher effectiveness, teacher impact, technology in education, webinar

Using Stories to Teach: How Narrative Structure Helps Students Learn

• June 14, 2012 by Sherrelle Walker, M.A.

Ever since the letter K was a baby, she loved to make her signature sound: ka, ka, ka. K knew that the only other letters in the alphabet that could make her “ka” sound were the letter C (when he didn’t sound like an S) and the letter Q. K enjoyed making her “ka” sound as often as possible in as many words as she could. Soon, however, K also learned that whenever she stood in front of the letter N at the beginning of a word, it was impossible to make her signature sound. At first, K was very sad about this, but after working with N and other letters to make fun words like knot, knob, kneel, and know—words that the other letters could only make with her help—K learned that staying silent sometimes was an important job for a letter, and that many of her alphabet friends also had to be silent from time to time. After a while, K was just as comfortable being silent as she was making her signature “ka” sound.

Scientists have long known that human beings are storytelling creatures. For centuries, we have told stories to transmit information, share histories, and teach important lessons. While stories often have a profound effect on us due to emotional content, recent research also shows that our brains are actually hard-wired to seek out a coherent narrative structure in the stories we hear and tell. This structure helps us absorb the information in a story, and connect it with our own experiences in the world.

Educators can create memorable learning experiences for their students by harnessing the power of storytelling in the classroom. A 2010 study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences showed an intimate connection between the brain activity of speakers and listeners in conversation, demonstrating how the brain of an engaged listener “syncs up” with a speaker. By engaging students with compelling stories that impart important material, teachers reach students both emotionally and biochemically, increasing the potential for rich learning experiences.

Creating a compelling story with a coherent narrative structure requires attention to detail, descriptive language, and a beginning, middle, and end of some sort. Different kinds of stories produce different kinds of reactions:  personal stories from the teacher’s own experience can help create and solidify strong bonds between educator and student, while stories of pure fiction may stimulate imagination.

Spending a little extra time on storytelling during lesson planning and actual classroom time keeps the learning experience highly engaging, creative, and truly, dynamically human. A story-filled classroom also encourages students to relate their own stories (whether factual or fictional), which helps grow their critical thinking, memory, and vocabulary skills.

 

 

Further reading:

Melanie C. Green. Storytelling in teaching. Association for Psychological Science. April 2004.

Related Reading:

5 Reasons Why Your Students Should Write Every Day

The Question Formulation Technique: 6 Steps to Help Students Ask Better Questions

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Categories: Education Trends, Reading & Learning

Tags: academic success, arts, creativity, emotions in learning, how adults learn, how children learn, learning environment, memory, teacher effectiveness, teacher impact, vocabulary

Disrupting K-12 Education: Innovating Learning with Michael Horn

• June 5, 2012 by PC Munoz

Disruptive innovation—that which "disrupts" existing markets with superior, more accessible, and ultimately less expensive offerings—has been occurring in the commercial marketplace for years. Innosight Institute executive director Michael B. Horn's recent Scientific Learning webinar, “Disrupting Class,” focuses on the ways disruptive innovation is already changing 21st century K-12 education for the better.

In the webinar, Horn identifies three prominent gains made possible by the disruptive innovation of online learning:

1) Blended Learning

Horn defines blended learning as "a formal education program in which a student learns at least in part through online delivery of instruction and content with some element of student control over time, place, path, and/or pace, AND at least in part in a supervised brick and mortar place away from home". He is careful to point out the difference between authentic blended learning, which implies a calibrated balance between the disruptive innovation of online learning and more traditional brick and mortar learning experiences, and the simple application of advanced technology in the classroom, which is not necessarily "blended learning."

2) Communication Capacity

New technologies enable educators and students to communicate, collaborate, and initiate projects with fellow educators and students, literally the world over. Communicating and collaborating worldwide is now as easy as launching your Skype application, and currently unimagined communication vehicles will have great impact on future online learning. Says Horn, "In the next ten years, I can't even imagine where this going to go!"

3) Improved Content

The actual content of online learning is much improved from the "early days" in the 90’s; current content is much more engaging. As software continues to evolve into platforms that allow the creation of user generated content, learning modules, and tools that enable the distribution of very specific content, educators will be able to find material that meets their needs at any particular time.  Khan Academy is perhaps the best known example of this type of user generated content for learners, and appears to represent the emergence of a growing network of content modules that will connect to create a fuller, richer learning experience.

Click here to listen to the entire Disrupting Class webinar—disruption free.

Michael B. Horn is the co-founder and executive director of the education practice of Innosight Institute, a non-profit think tank devoted to applying the theories of disruptive innovation to solve problems in the social sector. In 2008, Horn co-authored the book “Disrupting Class: How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns” with Harvard Business School Professor Clayton M. Christensen, the father of disruptive innovation theory, and Curtis W. Johnson, president of the Citistates Group.  BusinessWeek named the book one of the 10 Best Innovation & Design Books of 2008.

Related Reading:

Blended Learning Implementation Strategies for the K-12 Classroom

The Making of a 21st Century Educator: 5 Ways to be a Better Teacher in Today’s Classroom

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Categories: Education Trends, Reading & Learning

Tags: creativity, curriculum, digital natives, Disrupting Class, innovation, learning environment, Michael Horn, motivating students, technology in education, webinar

How to Rekindle the Love of Learning

• May 22, 2012 by Corey Fitzgerald

When searching for an expert on learning look no further than the crib. The infant brain is innately curious and without assistance, quickly begins to apply strategies for learning that help to make sense of the world around it.  No one worries that a baby will be too lazy, uncooperative or unmotivated to learn; they know nothing of the sort.  We are born with a built-in desire to acquire new information and will do so without fear of making mistakes or failing ^[i].  It’s this type of discovery that stimulates our natural love of learning and allows us to explore life in enriching and meaningful ways. 

Yet with such a strong impetus for learning, research demonstrates that a lack of motivation to study and learn is widespread among youth in the United States, and that love of learning declines steadily from third through ninth grade ^[ii].  A number of views suggest that the structure of school (i.e. required attendance, school-selected topics/curriculum, and constant checking on student’s progress) assumes that children are not natural learners, but must be compelled to learn through the efforts of others.  These structured approaches may in fact inhibit learning because they can avert a child’s natural curiosity, enthusiasm and intrinsic motivation. 

So how can parents and educators help rekindle the love of learning? Incorporating these 5 strategies into your daily activities with students is sure to help.  Not only are they important drivers for effective learning but they help to convey appropriate expectations for both you and the students.

1. Modeling - Show that you’re a learner too. Children need to be exposed to your own learning initiatives.  Talk about professional development, conferences and public events you’re involved with.  Invite students to be part of them and then further seek their input about its value in the classroom.
2. Trust - Make connections to your students’ lives.  Show genuine interest in their well being.  Children know when you’re fake or factual and may not hesitate to call you out.
3. Respect- Listen to your students and value their thinking.  Invite students to explore new topics and provide opportunities to investigate in a variety of ways.  Focus on each student individually; they’re eager to receive attention and will do almost anything to reciprocate your acceptance.
4. Feedback - Reward and celebrate students’ achievements with frequent, positive feedback and encouragement.  Try to avoid extrinsic rewards as they can undermine the students’ motivation and may prompt students only to perform when a reward is given.
5. Novelty - Create motivating learning experiences through passionate instruction.  If you aren’t enjoying the class, neither are they.  Step into character and act out a scene; the value of learning is worth more than the cost of your brief humiliation.

 

 

References:

[i] Alison Gopnik.  “The Scientist in the Crib: What Early Learning Tells Us About the Mind”. William Morrow & Co., 2000

[ii] Deborah Stipek and Kathy Seal.  “Motivated Minds: Raising Children to Love Learning”.  New York: Henry Holt & Co., 2001

Related Reading:

The Making of a 21st Century Educator: 5 Ways to be a Better Teacher in Today’s Classroom

Teaching with Poverty in Mind: How to Help At-Risk Students Succeed

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Attend one of our popular webinars with thought leaders in learning. Live and pre-recorded webinars are available. Register today!

Categories: Education Trends, Reading & Learning

Tags: creativity, effort, emotions in learning, how children learn, learning environment, motivating students, novelty, self-esteem, teacher impact

The Role of the Teacher in Blended Learning: Data, Management, and Student Support

• April 17, 2012 by Cory Armes

In the blended learning approach, a student’s day typically includes a combination of online learning and small group instruction time with teachers.  This learning model shifts the classroom teacher’s focus away from more traditional curricular and administrative tasks in the direction of working with data and providing more individualized support to students. Because the focus in this model has shifted from planning lessons and delivering content to being a facilitator of student learning, the classroom teacher’s role can expand in challenging and stimulating ways. 

Rather than follow the traditional roles of sharing content and grading papers, classroom teachers in the blended learning model must:

Be willing to learn

In a blended learning program, the teacher should be prepared to:

• assess, analyze and aggregate data
• use data as an integral part of the planning process for each individual student, groups of students and the whole class
• use benchmark tests and other assessments to direct instruction at different levels (individual, group, class)

To help teachers learn their new roles and to understand online learning, many blended learning programs require that the teachers take an online class themselves as part of the required professional development. Having an experienced blended learning mentor as a guide and participating in training on the data management system also is important.  With proper professional development, a “traditional” teacher can develop the data-analysis skills needed to get the most out of the blended learning model. 

Be open to new teaching strategies

The blended learning teacher should:

• have a wide breadth of content knowledge in order to teach multiple subjects
• differentiate instruction based upon student needs (as determined by the data)
• focus on academic intervention and enrichment

While blended learning instructors still need to be able to maximize learning time and manage a classroom effectively, they have more individual time with students and can give them the attention and support they need.

Be leaders

To help guide students in a blended learning environment, teachers should:

• model learning and show students how to find information and answers (or ask the right questions)
• be able to manage project-based learning activities
• have strategies in place to keep students on-task, engaged and motivated

The blended learning instructor helps students move beyond simply “regurgitating” rote responses to learning to apply content to new situations.  Just as the teacher must interpret and analyze information, students need to learn to reason, integrate information and demonstrate knowledge through application. 

So, what might blended learning mean to teachers?  Continued growth as they modify their existing strategies to lead students to become independent learners themselves? Technology can also give teachers crucial information to understand individual needs of students to support and strengthen their learning. When teachers use good technology effectively, it provides them the power to become even greater experts in the content areas they teach.

Sir Francis Bacon said, many years ago, "Knowledge is power." So why not gain more power in your classroom by building your expertise in the use of technology?

For further reading:

Technology Moving Teachers from Front to Center of the Classroom

Blended Learning Sports Variety of Approaches:

Related Reading:

Blended Learning Implementation Strategies for the K-12 Classroom

The Trend to Blend: The Debate over Online and Blended Learning

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Categories: Education Trends, Reading & Learning

Tags: blended learning, creativity, digital natives, learning environment, motivating students, teacher effectiveness, teacher impact, technology in education

Using Poetry to Teach Reading: Rhythm, Rhyme, and Choral Reading

• April 5, 2012 by PC Munoz

Poetry is a powerful vehicle to teach children to learn and love language, reading, and writing. In some ways, using poetry to teach reading is analogous to sneaking highly nutritious (and occasionally child-repellent) vegetables into otherwise kid-friendly dishes. By making use of creative devices like rhythm, rhyme and choral reading, educators can help students learn about phonemes, morphemes, grammar, and other language-based skills, all while having a great time with poetry.

RHYTHM
Many poems written for children have some sort of meter, or basic rhythmic structure, that is catchy and relatively easy for kids to copy orally. This provides a great opportunity for classroom teachers (particularly at the primary-grade level) to go line by line through a poem and focus on the number of syllables (or "beats") in a given word, and demonstrate how each sound and word plays a part in maintaining the meter of the poem. Asking students to swap out one of the words in a highly rhythmic poem for an appropriate new word (which has the same number of beats and a similar sound as the original) is a fun activity that exercises phoneme awareness, vocabulary, and creative writing skills. Haiku and its established structural confines, which require detailed syllable counting on the part of students, is a favorite for students of all ages to read and write.

RHYME
Rhyming poems are ripe with abundant classroom activities. Students can examine the sounds in each rhyming line, identifying the rhyming sounds and coming up with alternate rhyming words that could work in the poem. As an oral activity, creating "silly" substitute rhymes that have the correct matching sound but make absolutely no sense within the poem can also be a lot of fun for students of all ages, while flexing their phoneme awareness and vocabulary skills.

CHORAL READING
Choral reading of a poem (reading aloud in unison with a group of students or whole class) gets students to use their voices, collaborate with their classmates, gain an understanding of the potential dramatic power of the written word, and strengthen their understanding of punctuation. Leading students through a choral reading session can include a significant emphasis on punctuation and how it affects oral reading (pausing when there's a period, inflecting upwards in pitch when there's a question mark, etc.) and affords opportunity to work on enunciation skills as well. Breaking up a choral reading poem so all students have a chance to read a line or phrase on their own can also get the whole class to participate and feel positive about their relationship to the written word.

Using poetry to teach reading is a fun way to inspire students of all skill levels to engage with the subtle beauty and nuances of a language, encourage expression and creativity, and become excited about words, reading, and writing. The possibilities for using poetry in the classroom to teach valuable concepts and skills are almost as boundless as the potential combinations of words in a poem.

*I am the author of the haiku in this post. Though I didn’t know it at the time, my second grade teachers, Tina McCarter and Sharon Kamimoto, helped kick-start a lifelong love of words...for which I am grateful.

Related Reading:

Using Fiction Writing Activities to Develop Creative Thinking in the Classroom

5 Reasons Why Your Students Should Write Every Day

 

About the author:  PC Muñoz is a San Francisco-based writer, recording artist, and educator. Information on his past and future projects can be found at http://www.pcmunoz.com

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Categories: Reading & Learning

Tags: arts, child reading development, creativity, language learning, learning to read, literacy, motivating students, oral language skills, phonemic awareness, phonics, play, reading comprehension, teacher impact, writing

Oh, What A Day! 4 Fantastic Ways to Celebrate Dr. Seuss’ Birthday

• March 1, 2012 by Josefina Rodriguez

It is no surprise that we commemorate the birthday of one of America’s most well-known children’s authors by dedicating a day filled with fun reading and literacy activities. On March 2^nd, readers across the country will celebrate Theodore Geisel’s birthday (notably known as Dr. Seuss) by participating in Read Across America Day – a project created by the National Education Association.

Are you interested in celebrating Read Across America Day? Here are some ways you can get involved:

1. Take the pledge to build a nation of readers: How will you inspire literacy? Share how you plan to participate on Read Across America’s official website, and see how others in your area are celebrating.
2. Download these Dr. Seuss-inspired printable activities for the classroom or home play.
3. Check with your local library to see if your branch is celebrating the day, or click here to find an event in your area.
4. Follow the official Read Across America Facebook and Twitter pages for more ideas and to stay in the loop on ways you can promote reading and literacy.

So, grab your favorite Dr. Seuss classic, or any book for that matter, and celebrate the big day. As Dr. Seuss said, “You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.”

Related Reading:

Building Fluent Readers: How Oral Reading Practice Helps Reading Comprehension

The Essential Nature of Developing Oral Reading Fluency

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Categories: Reading & Learning

Tags: creativity, learning through play, literacy, play