Creating Fluent Little Thespians

Most children love to pretend, and most young children are not inhibited from being dramatic. So cultivate the thespian in your child to help them develop fluency and prosody in their reading.

• Readers Theatre

These are plays that use voices, not acting. Make your own Readers Theatre productions from favorite picture books or stories. For example, in Green Eggs and Ham you read everything except for the part of Sam I Am which is "read" by your preschooler. How would Sam I Am say his part? What is his attitude?

What about Goldilocks and the Three Bears?  Which part does your child want to play? She could read the Papa Bear's part, “Somebody’s been sitting in my chair,” using a Papa Bear voice.

• Poetry and Nursery Rhymes

Pick rhymes and simple poems from library books or off the Internet. You read a line, then your child “reads” a line. Practice reading them with your child; then perform them for grandparents or the rest of the family. Even if your child memorizes the part, have them look at the words, and they will feel very grown up “reading.”  It also develops their skills when they follow along as you read your part.

• Sing using lyrics

One study showed that 30 minutes of singing 3 times a week for 12 weeks improved reading by an average of a one-year gain.  The students read faster, demonstrated better comprehension, and all but one passed the grade level achievement test. Lyrics for most songs are on the Internet.  Make sure your child follows along with the words as she sings.

Other fluency developers

• Watch TV with the closed captioning on. Just as it annoys you because you can’t block it out, so your child’s eyes automatically will be drawn to the print.

        

·    Neurological Impress Reading

Sounds hard, but it’s not.  It simply means that you read in your child’s right ear as she reads the passage out loud.  This method has been research proven to improve reading because the mirroring of the brain develops the left side that controls language.

·     Books on tape

As long as the student follows along with the book, this practice will improve word reading and fluency. Even if she just listens, listening to tapes without pictures helps develop the strategy of visualization.

This is the School Marm,

 Ringing her bell. 

School’s out!

GO WITH THE FLOW!

One of the most important activities to implement with pre-readers, is to read with them modeling fluency and prosody.  Fluency in reading can be defined as the ability to read text easily, quickly, and expressively without making much effort and with little difficulty, demonstrating comprehension of the text. Prosody in reading refers to the expressiveness the reader demonstrates.  It is the intonation, rhythm, and emphasis given when reading out loud.  Prosody is a key component in reading fluency.

As children begin reading, or even reciting books they have memorized, it is important for them to begin using fluency and prosody as they “read.”  Here are some additional facts about the effect of fluency and prosody on reading comprehension.

 

·     90% of children who struggle with reading comprehension have fluency problems.

• If children use up all of their energy decoding words, they have no energy left to help them comprehend text.
• Practicing oral reading with prosody improves children’s ability to read silently and improves comprehension.
•  Listening to someone read the print while the student follows along with the text, improves reading skills.
• Children of hearing impaired parents who watch television with closed captioning on, usually come to school reading.
• Reading aloud with students
• Builds interest in reading
• Builds vocabulary
• Builds comprehension

• The top three factors in literacy achievement are

                  1^st Parent involvement

2^nd Amount of reading done at home

3^rd Amount of reading done in school

                    

In the next segment, I’ll discuss some practical ways you can develop fluency and prosody skills by reading with your child.

This is the School Marm,

 Ringing her bell. 

School’s out!

Tracking Without a GPS

Because we as adults have been reading for so many years, we take many reading skills for granted. To us reading is almost involuntary.  Two skills that beginning readers must learn are left to right tracking and sentence phrasing.

These skills can be learned through a fun tactile activity. 

1. Have your child hold her left arm bent at the elbow in front of her body.

2. Have her take her right hand starting at the inside crook of the left elbow and bounce the right hand in small ‘hops’ from the left elbow down to the left hand.

3. Now add a song such as “Row, Row, Row Your Boat” and phrase the song lifting the right hand high in the air at the end of each phrase, jumping back to the crook of the elbow to start the new phrase.
1. Row, row, row your boat  (back)
2. Gently down the stream (back)
3. Merrily, Merrily, Merrily, Merrily (back)
4. Life is but a dream.

4. Now use a pre-made book, or write out a text for your child in four phrases and have the child look at the words while tracking the phrases on her arm.

This activity can be done with any of your child’s favorite songs or books, but training your child to understand phrases and left to right tracking will certainly give her a head start in reading. Besides it’s a lot more creative, and more fun and action filled than worksheets. Again you’re reinforcing learning with movement and music. 

Who knows? You might even stimulate your own endorphins -- cheaper than Starbucks, less calories than Snickers!

This is the School Marm,

 Ringing her bell. 

School’s out!

Hammers, and Pancakes, and Sticks, Oh My!

We have already learned that music stimulates endorphins, but when we combine music with certain movements, we affect our brain in another way.

The science behind all this involves how the brain works. Visual imagery (decoding letters to read words) and spatial abilities inhabit the right side of the brain while language and speech reside in the left side. So in application, our ability to recognize letters and words depends on the right side of our brain, and the ability to make sense out of those letters lies in the left side.  When the path between the two cortexes of the brain maintains a fluid route, synergy occurs and optimal reading is attained.  Wow!  And we just wanted to get some energy out of them!

Again I go back to Sunday School to the song about the wise man and the foolish man. As children sang, “The wise man built his house upon the rock,” they made hammer motions back and forth crossing their bodies, flipping their vertical fists like hammers.  The motion was two fold: Back and forth left to right, and inverting fists to alternate positions from top to bottom. They were creating an inter-neural freeway between the left and right side of the brain!  The good news is hammers can be performed to the rhythm of any song. How about “I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad?”

What about some pancakes?  Have children flip pretend pancakes back and forth in rhythm as they sing their songs. One hand is the pancake, the other the griddle.  Make sure they cross the body left to right, then right to left as they flip their hands horizontally with two slaps on each side.  (Loud slaps are optional, but it makes it fun.)

Rhythm sticks can be purchased or made out of dowel rods.  If you haven’t seen them before, they have about a ¾ inch diameter, and they are about a foot long.  Have children tap sticks twice, then cross them from side to side, switching the top stick as they go from left to right.  Hap Palmer’s Rhythms on Parade is a great CD for movement with music.

Forging those paths in the brain will create a super highway of learning as visual imagery and spatial abilities integrate with language and speech.  Voila! Optimum learning potential!

This is the School Marm,

 Ringing her bell  
School's out!

                                                                                                                       

Music, Music, Music!

Back in the day, everyone went to Sunday School. If there was somebody in the neighborhood who didn’t go to Sunday School, it was a real oddity. In Sunday School we sang little songs like “The B-I-B-L-E, yes, that’s the book for me,” “Jesus loves me, this I know for the Bible tells me so,” and “Jesus loves the little ones like me, me, me … Little ones like me, sat upon His knee.” Our Sunday School teachers were trying to impart Biblical truths to us, but they were also singing rhymes that were preparing us for reading. Because Class, what is the number one indicator that a child will become a good reader? That’s right. Phonemic awareness, the ability to hear and make rhyme.

You don’t have to just sing little church songs, although in this day and age it might not be a bad idea, but remember all those car-riding songs you used to sing that annoyed the heck out of your older brother? Just make sure the songs have some good rhythm and rhyme. My children loved Sharon, Lois, and Bram’s The Elephant Show, and there are currently many resources out their for simple little rhyming songs. Lyrics for most songs are on the Internet.

You see, when you add music to rhyme, you create a double whammy explosion because music stimulates their little endorphins. Endorphins reduce pain and produce a feeling of euphoria, kind of like comfort food without the calories. If you compound that euphoric state with movement, you have the perfect atmosphere for toddler teachable time. (We’ll investigate more about specific movement in another lesson.) In these tough economic times, it’s a neat trick. Your kids are learning and having fun, and you’re getting one up on the Joneses who just spent $2000 on preschool. Plus, you get to spend time with your child, building a relationship with that lovable preschooler who will someday become an obnoxious teenager.

Research among school-age children: One study showed that 30 minutes of singing 3 times a week for 12 weeks improved reading by an average of a one-year gain. The students read faster, demonstrated better comprehension, and all but one passed the grade level achievement test.

In addition, research suggests that children who are exposed to music perform better in tests of memory, literacy, mathematics and general IQ. So, in terms of academic success, the payoff seems far greater than what is achieved via reading readiness activities.

In my Master's thesis I did research that indicated students can learn and retain information more proficiently when the information is put to music.  Prime example:  "The ABC Song."

This is the School Marm,

Ringing her bell.

School’s out!

Dr. Seuss Had it Right

Ready for some ideas that will get your preschoolers ready for reading? It’s important to start them young so here’s a simple preschool reading readiness tip.

Phonemic awareness, the precursor to phonics, has to do with hearing and making rhymes, and research indicates that the ability to hear and make rhyme is the number one initial indicator of whether or not a child will become a good reader. Of course, this is not discounting comprehension, but if children can’t read words, they will not understand text.  Besides reading prosody* is a leading indicator of comprehension, but we’ll leave that for another lesson.

Back in the day, moms and teachers understood phonemic awareness; they just didn’t have scientifically based educational research to support the value of rhyme. Years ago, children learned nursery rhymes and memorized tons of poetry. In fact, my eighty-year-old mother can quote poetry she learned in grade school, and my grandma born in 1898 only had a third-grade education, but she could read the Bible from cover to cover.

So do you want to help your preschooler become the best reader he or she can be?  The first step is as simple as exposing her to Dr. Seuss, rhyming stories, and nursery rhymes. The favorite rhyming book at our house is Hand, Hand, Finger Thumb by Al Perkins which most of my children enjoyed when they were one, and they had it memorized by the time they were three. 

Start out reading several books and rhymes a day as you hold them real close to you.  Holding them close might not help them read better; it will just let them know you love them.  Come to think of it, I’ll bet children who know they’re loved read better, too.  I wonder if there’s any scientific research for that?

This is the School Marm

Ringing her bell. 

School’s out!

* The ability to decode words easily and
with expression to achieve reading fluency.