Here’s a snippet from my Thesis where I mention Mary Amato’s book “Guitar Notes.” Good stuff!
Maybe with Mary Amato’s permission, excerpts from her Young Adult book Guitar Notes could weave through chapters five through 10 or so giving students a flavor of the very lore of musicianship and musicality from perspectives of a young dreamer or two. She even portrays young adults writing songs throughout the story and occasionally includes verses notated so someone could easily sing and play the melody on a guitar or piano. Once in a while she also includes a guitar chord diagram along with a suggestion such as, “try a Hendrix chord in place of the E7 when you get to the beating part. I think it would sound cool. Here’s the diagram for the chord, which is named after Jimi Hendrix, of course. God of guitar. I’m going to make you some guitar-playing videos and send you the links†(Amato, 2012, p. 139). With all that in mind, doesn’t this book take on a somewhat mixed-media or multimedia art form? Or perhaps a found art of sorts.
Amato, M. (2012). Guitar notes. New York: Egmont USA.
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The story behind “Chiapaneca,” a song. (Girl From Chiapas) – a Flamenco/Huapango mix.
It is December 22, 1997. A paramilitary group called “Paz y Justicia†rapes and murders dozens of women and children at a prayer meeting in Acteal, Chenalho, Chiapas. One paramilitary chooses to leave. He picks up a little girl, Marcela saving her from harm. But later he is found out in the act of helping her escape to the neighboring village and they hang him after much torture. Aggressively they search for little Marcela but give up after a time. There are other witnesses they weren’t able to kill. Undetected, a young guitarist sits in the bushes; waiting for them to leave. He remembers everything he has seen.
1) Intro Eastern Point Beach
2) Anarcho Jazzm Arch (A March)
3) Old Folksinger
4) Ziggy’s Little Drummer Boy
5) Completely Different
6) Burma Shave
7) Roll In My Sweet Baby’s Arms
8) Bunion
9) How Come (You Do Me Like You Do)
10) It’s Beginning To Look A Lot (Like Xmas)
11) Is This Thing On
12) Chiapaneca
13) Frybread
14) Little Things
15) Swedish Folk Song
16) Manitou
17) Love Me For My Heart
18) Verseless Song
You’ll just need non-toxic clay, paper to put down for neatness and something pointy to make holes with.
As you’re embellishing it you could refer to the book, “Music Before Columbus” to see many instruments that seemed to resemble pan flutes, ocarinas and rattles. Some of these technologies will not have changed much in 40,000 years so you won’t be just imagining it as you complete this that you’re in touch with a process that is quite ancient.
Skill Activity:
Find evidence of musical styles and inspirations that existed in North America prior to the famous Christopher Columbus voyages.
Use primary and secondary sources while attempting to discover what instruments will have been constructed from the resources available in the Americas.
One resource on hand in the classroom is Samuel Marti’s “Music Before Columbus.”
Many of your other primary and secondary sources will have to be found online.
This museum has some other books that might be worth exploring too.
Product/Project:
Conduct research for the same evidence of musical instruments and styles in Italy and Spain.
Craft a persuasive essay claiming Italy or Spain influenced America’s music.
Craft another one saying the exact opposite that the Americas influenced Europe.
Support this with deeper evidence than what you’ll find at Wikipedia.
(although Wiki is allowed as a starting point for this exercise.)
For example you will find ancient ocarinas mentioned all over Europe and Asia.
Here’s one in China: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq2zfIc-Swg
Did China get this from the Americas so very long ago? Or was it the other way around? Perhaps they each came up with this without knowing each other at all. Explore the same possibilities for Spain and the Americas.
[Key Entry Point: Bridging]
[Extra Gardner Intelligences: Existential, Mathematical, Kinesthetic and Spatial]
Make your own graphic organizer by drawing a T-Bar down a single sheet of paper. You can label one side Real but the other side Legend, and organize all your evidence to one side or the other.
PRODUCT/Project:
Are you ready for one of the most unusual but enjoyable short research projects you’ve ever done in your life?
Using the melody from the old folksong “Follow The Drinking Gourd,” write some new lyrics based on this evidence of Peg Leg Joe.
He is only featured in the original song as “The Old Man,” so you can keep calling him that, or call him Peg Leg, Mr. Peg Leg, Mr. Joe, or whatever fits to the beat of the song. It is totally up to you.
There are many versions of this song you can find. You’re welcome to use mine free of charge.
The new lyrics you make will basically become a brand new song. Your exit ticket is to sing the new lyrics or say them somewhat poetically.
[Key Entry Point: Understanding]
[Extra Gardners: Existential, Mathematical, Body/Kinesthetic and Spatial]Â Â [Blooms: Applying, Creating, Evaluating, Understanding]
Task Card 3
Enrichment:
Make a short biographical paragraph about your favorite contemporary musical artist.
Find out about an old, dead and nearly forgotten musician and do the same.
Now compare and contrast the two.
This will hit the added “synthesizing” from Bloom’s Taxonomy but it will also have you appreciating where music comes from and where it might go.
Creativity is the limit if you hold strictly to the theories, but it’s the sky when you think about it, and music stretches across all of them and everywhere else.
Skill Activity:
Using Internet tools find out about Rock Star Brian May, the lead guitarist of Queen,
Gather information about what he’s been studying, and what school gave him a PHD in Astrophysics.
Compose a small moment story about the astrophysicist who became a rock star.
But replace yourself in as the main character as if you were Brian May.
Essentially you will drop out of college in the middle of your thesis to become a rock star and tour the world and then go back to complete it after your band has already made it.
Product/Project
List one specific thing you want to be when you grow up.
(It’s just fine if it was something different even yesterday or maybe you’ll change tomorrow.)
Try to remember some other things you always wanted to be. There were probably many.
Using just internet searching try to find some ways that you can be at least two more things besides your main choice at the same time.
Create a simple text file listing the 3+ things you want to be when you grow up.
Next to each one list at least two ways it’s possible.
Now in one paragraph or less at the bottom of the same text file, title it “Action Plan,” and simply state how you’re going to become at least three different things when you grow up.
[Extra Gardners: Existential, Intrapersonal]Â Â [Blooms: Creating, Remembering, Understanding]
Task Card 4
Enrichment: (Short Answer Questions.)
Watch Rhiannon Giddens sing “Black Is the Color”
How many musical instruments can you identify.
What musical styles do you think you hear Rhiannon’s band interpreting?
Do you consider this an old song or a new one?
If you’ve ever heard this song before, how is Rhiannon Giddens’ version different and how is it the same?
Skill Activity:
Listen to Storycorps’Â “Keeping Family Traditions Alive.”
Write a small moment from your life into an essay that might be worth “voicing over” a StoryCorps podcast someday.
Perhaps write about how your own family keep some of your traditions alive.
Here’s the beauty of NPR’s Storycorps van going around the nation empowering people to become recorders:
The story can be as complicated or easy as you wish it to be. Yes, it can be about a turtle you saved from getting squashed by a car once, or it could be about a dad attending his daughter’s kindergarten class as a surprise because he’s home from the war.
Surely something that’s happened in your life so far can be something you might want to “tell the whole world” with the help of the StoryCorps van.
Project/Product:
Start from the same Storycorps’ “Keeping Family Traditions Alive,” from the Skill Activity.
Now using an iPad, record and edit a StoryCorp-styled podcast of a small moment from your life.
Interview yourself, or a friend, or have a friend interview you.
You might want to script it yourself, or at least start from a one-page organizer.
For instance, I’ve been trying to talk my mom into letting me record her telling about the time when she was in her Junior year of High School and her date to the prom was Billy Martin from the New York Yankees.
[Key Entry Point: Authentic Problems]
[Extra Gardners: Existential, Mathematical, Body/Kinesthetic and Spatial]Â Â [Blooms: Applying, Creating, Evaluating, Remembering, Understanding]
Task Card 5
Enrichment:
Build a paper plate or papier Mache mask and teach yourself a circle dance similar to one that False Face Societies have done for thousands of years.
(Caveat/Warning: Be careful to keep this from being in a mocking way. We are trying to get a feel for what they do rather than steal their ritual or religious beliefs.)
There are plenty of tutorials on how to make a mask online. Sample a few and find one you can make most easily.
Good keywords to start with for the dances are, “medicine mask dance,” or “Iroquois dances.”
One challenge you will face is that you will find many more images of these than videos. The more traditional dances tend to forbid filming.
Yes, you may blend stomp dances and smoke dances to get an idea of what the same groups do. And then totally use your imagination how your mask will dance based on how you created it. Your role is to be the arms and legs of this mask as it travels time and space. Get it?
Skill Activity
Watch 29Oct15 Time For Kids video about Niizhoo (nee-shoo) Sullivan, 11, who loves to sing.
Niizhoo (nee-shoo) Sullivan, 11, loves to sing. He’s the lead singer of the drum group Hay Creek.
He has won several singing competitions. Niizhoo’s family lives in northern Wisconsin on an Ojibwe reservation.
Read the full article about Native singers and dancers if your school provides it.
On a piece of writing paper generate five fast facts from the video.
(For example, I noticed an ancient stick being used as a boom stand for a microphone by probably a proud dad or uncle. My first thought was “that’s so ghetto,” but then I realized with the microphone it is a perfect blend of the modern and the ancient all together in one place and time.
Project/Product:
Take a Google Maps journey to Wisconsin where Niizhoo lives.
Learn some fast facts about his tribe but also some of the other tribes in his state.
You can start with Oneida, Menominee and Potawatomi to be sure.
There are many tribes represented around Wisconsin.
Build a graph showing Tribal names and the differences and similarities represented.
Drumming
Dancing
Crafts
Food
Anything Else
______________
Ojibwe
Oneida,
Menominee
Potawatomi
Anyone Else
[Key Entry Point: Talent Development]
[Extra Gardners: Kinesthetic and Spatial]Â Â [Blooms: Creating, Evaluating, Remembering]
Task Card 6
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Enrichment:
Watch a short video of someone playing a wineglass harp.
You’ll see that this applies to everything from church pipe organs to drums and everything in between.
Product/Project:
Predict whether to line up the eight “notes” from full to empty, organizing it in a sensible way.
Make any necessary adjustments after tapping several glasses.
Now using 3 or more of the glasses find your way to something resembling a simple melody such as “Mary Had a Little Lamb”
or “This Old Man.”
One more adjustment: if you sense that one or more notes were much too high or low, try adding and subtracting water until it’s close.
Voila! You’ve constructed another musical instrument.
[Key Entry Point: Talent]
[Extra Gardners: Mathematical, Kinesthetic and Spatial]Â Â [Blooms: Creating, Evaluating, Applying]
Task Card 7
Â
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Enrichment:
Watch a 4 minute snippet of the “Mary Mack” segment of PBS for Kids’ show “Lomax the Hound of Music.”
This hundred year old song began in Virginia and spread all over the nation memorized as a skipping song for a long time before it was ever written down.
Playground rhymes like this are some of the earliest inspirations for Hip Hop music.
List as many other Skipping songs, playground rhymes and jump rope tunes as you can from memory.
Conduct a web search for even more. Some of them were inspired by military cadences, so you could add the keyword “cadence,” to ones such as “jump rope” or “playground.”
Skill Activity:
The song “Mary Mack” is all about movement and beat; and this is why it made a great jump rope song.
It was also perfect for Rap and Hip-hop as the video’s elephant character Lil’ P-Nutt explained.
Make your own personal chalk-talk on a portable whiteboard by listing any other jump rope or skipping songs you remember from when you were young.
If you don’t remember titles you can try to search for them on the web.
Organize half a dozen or so by how much rhyme you see and how much rhythm you can feel.
Next you can pick one or two to make into a freeform rap. Either write them the same way and experiment out loud how you would sing them, or change the words around to suit the newer form.
Product/Project:
Record your rap from the previous skill activity to iPad.
You will need to be good at Garage Band or iMovie.
There are tutorials galore online.
Teacher knows PC recording tools better so he can help you on a chrome book,
but if you already know iPad, go for it.
[Extra Credit: 1) Teach the teacher iMovie 2) Teach a classmate. 3) Present rap to whole class.]
[Key Entry Point: Exploration]
[Extra Gardners: Linguistic, Body/Kinesthetic and Spatial]Â Â [Blooms: Creating, Remembering, Applying]
Task Card 8
Â
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Enrichment:
Measure all the strings of a guitar. Length and width count.
(I suggest using an electric guitar or a steel string acoustic, because three of the strings on a classical guitar will vary from this and add confusion.)
Listen and compare to see if both length and width correspond to pitch and tone.
In other words, does each string have a lower or higher sound?
Does it sound fatter or thinner?
Is there any difference in volume or how long the string sustains after you pluck it once?
[Further Study. If you happen to find this fascinating, do a search in your spare time for the longstanding argument over 432hz tuning versus 440hz to acquaint yourself with this compelling difference of opinion. Some of the answers might be rooted in music therapy and have implications with psychology and medical fields.]
Skill Activity:
How are guitars and pianos similar and different.
Draw a simple sketch of the shape of a guitar. (a stick figure will work just find)
Search internet to find the following items and label them nearest to where they should be on a common guitar.
String
Soundhole or Pickup
Bridge
Tuning Peg
Anything else you can fit on the diagram.
Now research online to find five basic parts of a Piano.
Compose a short paragraph describing as many similarities and differences as you can find.
Product/Project:
Design just the hit points and lives for a video game where the following two characters go to war against each other.
One character is a guitar. Give him/her a name and use the Skill Activity from this card to come up with some criteria for points.
Do the same for a piano. What is his or her name? Does s/he have some of the same hit points? Are some higher/lower?
Now predict an outcome.
[Extended project suggestions. 1) If already skilled at Visual Basic, Java, etc., go ahead and build the game. 2) Write a persuasive essay to send to an already established gaming company suggesting your game. 3) Can you think of a way to make this same thing into a board game?]
[Key Entry Point: Exploration]
[Extra Gardners: Mathematical, Kinesthetic and Spatial]Â Â [Blooms: Creating, Analyzing, Evaluating, Applying]
Task Card 9
Enrichment:
Using the Online CIA Fact book learn some fast facts about Brazil’s people and culture.
I recommend using the keyword “introduction” in your first few searches, or they tend to take you right to the nitty gritty of all things “war and peace.”
Now give yourself a mini lesson on Carnival elsewhere on the Internet.
First, watch 40 seconds of Gabra womenfolk singing
Next watch snippets of a Gabra shepherd boy from David Mayberry Lewis’ Poor Man Shames Us All.
48:06-49:00 camel dance
49:13-50:00 do you like my song?
Lastly, just ponder the concept of giving a song away to someone for free.
Activity:
Goal: try for 3 levels of compare/contrast: Gabra versus. NYC., African music vs. American music and more specifically traditional music vs. popular music.
Just make notes of these “C&C’s.” It doesn’t have to be a formal essay.
Watch an advertising agency spending millions of dollars creating a jingle that was co-written by Ray Charles.
50:04Â In NY songs are not for giving they are for selling.
Hundreds of singers and bands were invited to make music to those words.
They were paid well even if their music wasn’t used in the ad.
The first of many ads premiered during the commercial break of the Super Bowl XXV.
Action: Write a few words requesting people purchase camel milk from a family in Gabra because they’re very nice.
Now see if they can fit right onto one of the many ads already made.
Product/Project:
Teach yourself how to remove vocals from a song using the recording tools app Audacity.
There are many tutorials online. (for instance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6TSETiRPu4)
Take the vocals out of “You got the right one baby, uh huh.”
50:12 of “A Poor Man Shames Us All”
Quickly jot down some lyrics that could seem like an ad for camel milk.
Either sing or speak a track over the music persuading people to buy camel milk from the Gabra family you previously studied because they’re so nice.
[Key Entry Point: Bridging]
[Extra Gardners: Existential, Mathematical, Kinesthetic and Spatial]Â Â [Blooms: Creating, Evaluating, Applying, Understanding, Remembering]
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It was the weekend before Thanksgiving I remember that. I was on a bus returning from Phenix City Alabama to Green Bay Wisconsin and a friend of mine, John Heckenlively counted 22 Wafflehouses that we drove by. That was only the ones where you can see their signs from the road or they have a listing in one of the roadsigns along the highway! I’m sure there were many more.
So in between counting we crafted this parody of Arlo Guthrie’s classic hit, “Alice’s Restaurant.” John also called a friend of his at Z Studios in Milwaukee and purchased studio time on a 2 inch master. We did this on almost no sleep the minute we got there. I already had a guitar along for the trip so we walked right in there and recorded it. I’d say unrehearsed but we probably went over this song several dozen times on the bus instead of trying to sleep!
The last big memory I have of that session was that the song was almost exactly the time length of a 2 inch master tape. The engineer said afterwards he was stressed out at the very end because he was thinking any second now he would have to stop us and back up a tiny bit, then continue on trying to punch that in without too many noises between takes. He figured he’d just let us finish to not ruin our momentum and then just ask us to do the last part one more time. You see a traditional reel or spool is set for just a little bit more than 16 minutes. And this song came in at 16 mins and 40 some odd seconds. Back in the analog days they gave you 30 seconds or so of extra tape just to be safe but you shouldn’t count on it.
I held the last GÂ chord out for a sustain and natural fade, and just then tape machine started slapping that last piece of leader tape around and around at the first part of complete silence.
Perfect timing.
sincerely,
marco
ps:
Here’s the whole audio as an mp3 if you’d like that:
Just How Does Music Hit All 8 of the Other Gardner Intelligences?
1. Naturalist: sensitivity to natural world features.
3. Logical-Mathematical: 32nd? 64th? 128th note. Think about the 8-bit computer chip!
4. Existential: Why are we… how’d we get here? Synthesizing idioms, metaphor, myth.
5. Interpersonal: Plays well with others. We be jammin!
6. Bodily-Kinesthetic: Fretboard logic, sound holes, air, pitch, breath.
7. Linguistic: Applying complex nuance, entendre, evaluating the inferred.
8. Intra-personal: Compare/Contrast self to others, community actualized.
9. Spatial: Analyzing time/space, abstract and concrete. Reasoning on the fly.
Follow The Drinking Gourd – An Integrated Inquiry Based Social Studies Lesson by Marc Frucht
Content Standards:
INQ 3–5.4 Determine the kinds of sources that will be helpful in answering compelling and supporting questions, taking into consideration the different opinions people have about how to answer the questions.
INQ 3–5.5 Gather relevant information from multiple sources while using the origin, structure, and context to guide the selection.
INQ 3–5.7 Identify evidence that draws information from multiple sources in response to compelling questions.
CT Core Standards: CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.5.1, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.5.7, CCSS.ELA-Literacy.SL.5.1
Students have been comparing and contrasting primary and secondary sources. Earlier this year they went on a field trip to a museum where the director taught them a bit about Oral Tradition’s role in Colonial America. Next week they will visit New London, CT’s Joshua Hempstead House where some slaves rested a while along their way toward Niagara where many found freedom.
Student Learning Objective(s):
Students will show understanding of the Underground Railroad through the secondary source of Folk Hero Peg Leg Joe’s song, “Follow the Drinking Gourd,” and a primary source such as Lee Hays’ letter to Pete Seeger with the lyrics to the song. Students will evaluate the folksong to determine whether it is a primary or secondary source; additionally whether it is history or oral tradition. Each student will show proficiency and participation in a team completed research paper to better than 85% achievement.
Assessment:
Students will use the “chalktalk†method to brainstorm and create their own writing prompt. Some will do alternative related research and present a short TEDx styled talk to the class which can be used by each small group as an additional source for their one-page paper they will complete and sign off on.
Materials/Resources:
1. Birdhouse Gourd or Dipper Gourd
2. “Follow The Drinking Gourd” song.
3. Facsimile of original document, Letter from Lee Hays to Pete Seeger with song lyrics.
4. Underground Railroad episode of LeVar Burton’s “Reading Rainbow.”
Standard classroom for most of the lesson, differentiating for one student who is twice exceptional and two slower learners then we will move to small groups and presentations.
Initiation:
Paper and pencils will be set out before students arrive They know they’ll have a writing prompt of some kind whenever they see that. They always set it to the side and keep it there knowing they’ll be told when to write. Students and teacher will share many methods to find North such as looking at the Sun, observing moss on trees and rocks, seeing shadows on the ground, as well as using compasses and modern day GPS. Students will compare a birdhouse gourd to a picture of the Big Dipper and discuss how the Big Dipper and Little Dipper got their nicknames.
Lesson Development:
Discussion: Finding Your Way Out If You’re Lost in the Woods.
Snippets of LeVar Burton’s “Reading Rainbow.” Pass around a dipper gourd while they watch.
Based on the song “Follow the Drinking Gourdâ€, this show explores an infamous chapter in America’s history centered around the song “Follow The Drinking Gourd.†Burton introduces the heroes, stories and music of the African-American culture which emerged from slavery.
Closure:
I will sing verse and two choruses of a parody of Tom Paxton’s “What Did You Learn in School Today,†with some takeaways from the day’s lessons; then before they’re even fully engaged I’ll put the guitar down and ask them to help me dream up an additional verse while I’m note-taker at the whiteboard.
Individuals Needing Differentiated Instruction:
Which students do you anticipate may struggle with the content/learning objectives of this lesson?
Student name
Evidence that the student needs differentiated instruction
How will you differentiate instruction in this lesson to support student learning?
Brendan
(Names Fictitious)
He does great work when not stressed out. Shuts down quickly with most written assignments.
Brendan, Tyla and Dylan will form a cohort researching oral history, so will not be pressured to write any “finished copy†today.
Small group will search online for rumors and legends of Harriet Tubman having stopped in New London, CT staying with escaped slaves at the Joshua Hempstead house on their way to Niagara Falls while others are finishing writing prompt. They’ll relate their work orally to teacher having taken turns as a group.
After research is cleared, these students may either present to the whole class or join other small groups and share what they’ve learned from memory in case others want to use some of “their oral tradition†in their written work. They may add their name to the other groups’ work.
Tyla
She loses focus often. I believe her biggest difficulties come when she finds a lesson boring.
Same.
Which students will need opportunities for enrichment/higher level of challenge?
Student name
Evidence that the student needs differentiated instruction
How will you differentiate instruction in this lesson to support student learning?
Dylan
G/T and LD.
Often refuses to write.
Same.
Reflection:
My students met 100% proficiency if I assess the three differentiated students’ work the same as those who did actual writing. If I’m not allowed to do that they still met the 85% mark because 24 of the 27 were able to show an ability to complete this as the primary composers of the written work. I will attempt to make a strong case for the helpful research shared orally being just as important as the written work, as per the prior field trip where the museum’s director showed how important Oral History was to Colonial America’s history, especially regarding longstanding Native American traditions.
All students met the spirit and letter of Inquiries 4, 5 and 7 from the 3-5 content standards as stated in today’s Lesson Plan.
Additionally each of these students can now share many different methods to finding their way out of the woods both day and night without modern technology such as a compass or GPS on their phones. So some life skills as well cross disciplinary skills have been acquired, gaining much self-efficacy. For example learning about moss on rocks can be everything from Geology to Health, not just Social Studies or American History. The work with primary and secondary sources will help them their whole lives whether they’re writing a scientific research paper or a memo to a coworker.
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How Do We Go Beyond Instilling a Love of Reading toward Sustaining It as a Habit for the Lifelong Learner?
by Marc Frucht
“Kids will learn reading skills in school, but often they come to associate reading with work, not pleasure. As a result, they lose their desire to read. And it is that desire—the curiosity and interest—that is the cornerstone to using reading and related skills successfully.”
RIF. Reading Is Fundamental [Getting Your Child…]
Just how can we keep young people so excited about reading that they never want to stop? When I grew up reading was such a central part of my family’s culture that my sister and I were asking to read right from the beginning; but it’s been my observation that many kids feel like reading is such a chore that they come to dislike it from an early age. In fact, I guest teach in many different schools and students everywhere are quite outspoken saying they “dread” and “hate” moments they are told to read something for content. I never felt that way but some of my own friends have. My parents subscribed to both the Hartford Courant and New London Day newspapers as well as half a dozen magazines. It was commonplace to see any of these in their hands around the house; but summers always saw my mom and dad sitting right next to each other in beach chairs reading sections of the papers or People magazine and conversing about it! At five or six years old, I wished to emulate them. As I look back on those times, I recognize that not only did my parents love to read, they had developed their own habits for reading during just about every spare moment they had. They went beyond that too in modeling the same thing for my sister and me.
Let’s explore some “tricks of the trade” for distilling a love of reading into a completely sustainable habit.
In Donalyn Miller’s “Education Week†magazine article entitled, “Five Teaching Tips for Helping Students Become ‘Wild Readers'” Miller lists five characteristics that students need modeled for them. They are dedicated reading time, self-selected reading material, shared books, reading plans and an acquired strong preference for certain genres, authors and topics as the
“It is necessary to model, explicitly teach, and reflect on students’ development of lifelong, avid (or, as I call them, “wildâ€) reading behaviors to ensure that students remain motivated, engaged readers.” [Donalyn]
She suggests encouraging students to keep a book with them at all times, essentially having it handy everywhere they go, creating customized “preview stacks” of books for each student in the classroom, and also promoting that the children read a book series now and then which establishes its own “schedule” since students will look forward to each next book.
Having words surrounding a young person’s environment can be helpful in sustaining the desire to read no matter what age the reader is. You might discuss everything from street signs to promotional signage for a store. This is a compelling way to keep young people curious. “A child cares a lot more about seeing the word ‘open’ when she knows she can play in the park,†says Sally Moomaw in her book “Get Ready To Read!†[Moomaw,132] With a baby or toddler, you can point to signs such as that park’s ‘Open’ sign, and just tell them what it says. Perhaps ask them what it says the next time he or she sees it. Then as they get older, you could ask some rather engaging questions about signage around them. Maybe ask them why the sign says ‘Open’ rather than ‘welcome’ or ‘come on in.’ While pumping gas, ask questions about the percentage of ethanol mixed with unleaded gasoline. This leads quickly to an inquiry as to just what ethanol is, and why a car needs both ethanol and gasoline instead of 100% ethanol. Let the child guess on their own that maybe 10% is the most flammability that will still work with today’s engines. As soon as you are near the Internet, you could ask him or her to look it up and make even more educated guesses. Without sounding too preachy, try to remind them that they are discovering all these things by reading. They love to read, right? One would hope so.
Moomaw’s book embraces Kindergarten and Pre-K; but some of her tips and suggestions apply to older children too. I have seen the “word wall†concept work just as well for fourth and fifth graders too so it’s not only for the lower elementary grades. The reader will never forget new vocabulary if they see the words right on the walls around them for a few days at a time. For the same reason it might even be helpful in middle school or high school years. I’ve certainly seen the UConn English and International Baccalaureate teachers at Fitch High School keep a column of newly acquired words on the white board for weeks at a time. “Environmental print serves as a wonderful example of using all parts of the environment as potential curriculum content to teach reading and writing.†[Moomaw,63]
Dan Rearick at Preston Veterans elementary school utilizes word walls and book nooks and the other usual fare to keep his 4th graders engaged; but he also does something I haven’t seen in any other schools yet. Years ago, he brought three large trophies in from home that he keeps on a mantle throughout the year. They are three different sizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. His students compete on how many books they have devoured but also on how compelling their short essays are as they review each book. He judges all of that periodically and once a month places three new names on the trophies. When I have subbed in his classes, the kids always ask to read when they completed each task while waiting for their classmates to catch up. None of them need to be assigned SSR (sustained silent reading) time and they need no reminders to look for new books. Their desks are busy with everything from “Captain Underpants†to “Harry Potter†and books of all page counts in between.
On a website called MinimalStudent.com a writer named Jessica Dang published a tip that I simply must include from this paper even though the current wisdom says never cite someone from his or her own personal web page.
“5. Balance and diversify. Almost everyone has a subject/genre that they are really interested in. It doesn’t have to be an ‘academic’ subject either. Whatever it is, choose it and read as many books as you can find about it.” [Dang] She also recommends balancing “depth and breadth” by picking up a random book once in a while from a different genre and reading the first couple pages just to see if that genre interests you as well. She then sums up all her tips saying, “…try not to think of reading as a chore. It’s not homework. It’s not work at all. It expands your horizons, pushes your imagination and can change your life.” [Dang]
Feeding an obsession over a topic or genre sounds like a wonderful way to keep a student reading more and more books. I recall fondly when I was in elementary school that no one ever needed to talk me into reading about soccer, baseball or guitar. These were my personal enthusiastic fascinations and I can tell you the Biography section of every library was my home away from home. I wanted to know so much more about Pele, Carlton Fisk and Jimi Hendrix than any one library or bookstore could tell me, that’s for sure. Occasionally, my mom would have make suggestions such as reading about Arthur Ashe’s tennis career or Albert Schweitzer’s piano playing in an attempt to nudge me just a little bit wider from my obsessions. In addition, my dad was always surprising us by insisting I read “Little Women,†or that my sister had to leave the “Nancy Drew†books for a little while to try just one from my “Hardy Boys†collection no matter how “icky†she assumed they were going to be. I might digress a tiny bit to mention anecdotally that my parents were among the last generation of American homeowners to answer their door for an Encyclopedia salesman and actually follow through by purchasing one alphabet letter each month. On rainy weekends if I told my dad I was bored with all the other possibilities around the house he often picked a random page number and letter name and told me to read a full page and get ready for an informal quiz. I’ll never know how he got me to believe that would be fun. I think I just looked forward to him showing me where I was right and wrong.
Now, a song lyric caught my eye at SongsForTeaching.com while I was researching this paper.
“Make Reading a Habit” by Ben and Elizabeth Stiefel
The very best thing that you can do
If you wanna do great in school, it’s true
Take some time each day
every single, silly, seriously, super n’ spectacular day
To read n’ read n’
Read n’ read n’
Read n’ read some more
The lyrics feel similar to “You’ve Got To Be Carefully Taught” from “South Pacific,” even before you listen the song’s audio track which they provide right there on their webpage in an embedded music player. An MP3 of the song itself might even serve as a tool teachers could use by playing a snippet before a “book talk” or a read aloud. I might even consider it for the beginning of a daily SSR timeslot since it would serve as its own mini pep-rally of sorts.
When discussing a long-sustained love of reading who can leave out LeVar Burton? Public Television’s “Reading Rainbow†series kept me engaged throughout my entire youth. Burton begins each show with inquiry questions about topics such as the Underground Railroad, or “How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World.†Then he pairs it with an entire book reads to the television audience. It had a 20 year run and trailed off a bit but now there’s a brand new revived series with a modern digital-age app that began less than a year ago. His group is currently working on moving all of the archives from PBS over to their very own webpage at http://www.readingrainbow.com. Reading Rainbow’s success shows that children who dislike reading still love when someone reads to them. Burton’s slogan “you don’t have to take *my* word for it,†will always gently nudge them toward reading things in a book for themselves. Often times the show ends with three or four similar books, the viewer can ask about if they want to teach themselves even more.
In her book, “Elementary Children’s Literature: Infancy through Age 13,†Nancy Anderson lists several specific “benefits children derive from reading and listening to books†as bullet points. I will include a few of them here:
Developing a favorable attitude toward books as an enrichment to their lives
Gaining new vocabulary and syntax
Becoming familiar with story and text structures
Stimulating and expanding their imaginations
Stretching attention spans
Developing an interest in new subjects and hobbies
Understanding the heritage of their own and other cultures
None of these tips alone will have someone identify as a habitual reader. Nevertheless, with many of these factors in play early in a young person’s life there is a greater chance they too will keep the reading habit forever.
Works Cited
Anderson, N. (2009). Elementary Children’s Literature: Infancy through Age 13 (Third ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson.
Dang, J. (2010, August 1). 5 ways to kick start and feed your reading habit. Retrieved May 8, 2015, from http://www.minimalstudent.com/5-ways-to-kick-start-and-feed-your-reading-habit
Donalyn, M. (2014, March 26). Five Teaching Tips for Helping Students Become ‘Wild Readers’ Retrieved May 8, 2015, from
Getting Your Child to Love Reading. (n.d.). Retrieved May 11, 2015, from http://www.rif.org/us/literacy-resources/articles/getting-your-child-to-love-reading.htm
Moomaw, S., & Hieronymus, B. (2006). Get ready to read!: Making child care work for you. St. Paul, MN: Redleaf Press.
Stiefel, B., & Stiefel, E. (2012). Make Reading a Habit: Song For Teaching About the Importance of Reading. Retrieved May 8, 2015, from
An old blog note I found in google cache. I don’t want this one to ever disappear and it looks like a database went away where this entry used to sit. Bummer.
Monday, 12 August 2013
The most serendipitous kismet I’ve had this side of the Millenium happened yesterday afternoon. I was looking around Danbury for Marian Anderson’s famous homestead. Not the studio, I’d already seen that, and I found a building I thought might’ve been it. I asked a guy in a station wagon near me if he knew if that building was the famous growing up home, and he said he wasn’t sure, but his granddaughter was about to have her cheer-leading camp and the instructor might know so I should wait and ask her.
“He’s a famous baseball player,” said the granddaughter. Well it turns out the fellow I asked was Gilbert Black who played professionally in the “Negro Leagues” in ’56!
He gave me an autographed photo and I gave him a copy of my newest CD, etc. He was delighted to meet a young folksinger because it turns out he went to grade school with Josh White’s daughter and he was shocked when being asked if I knew who Josh White was, I quickly recalled the name even though never knowing actual songs I could say I knew he got famous in the ’40s. He said he listened to nearly the entire NPR stream of this year’s folk festival for three days straight and almost none of the people there knew who he was. Pete Seeger sure, Woody Guthrie, Leadbelly, etc., but almost no one knew who Josh White was. Well, Mr. Black, I’ve heard of him, and now I’ve heard of you, and thank you for pointing that out so I can go find his renditions of “Joshua Fit,” and “Dying Bed” and stuff. Wow. Amazing.
The results are in. Thank you all! It was tough, but the search is over.
We are excited for this year and promise an EPIC showcase!
Be sure to tell your friends and family! Bring joy this Holiday season. Tickets go on sale SOON!
1) William Nieves
2) Denny Ward
3) Eric Jones
4) Kairo Castillo
5) Lions Den
6) Jeni Flo Band
7) Ryder Singer-Johnson
8) Dance Infusion
9) Sara Coley
10) Moe Steele
11) Caroline Tanner
12) Jonas Picinich
13) Todd Belcher
14) Naomi Jones
15) Zak Ackart
16) CJ Thibeau
17) Juan Moscol
18) Anna Dozier
19) Carlos Rosario
20) Andrew Barnes
21) Ramon Mendez
22) Sara Maynara
23) Michael Okoasia **
24) Iyanla Page
25) Casey Flax
26) Rebecca Reyes
27) Rhythm ‘n Sync
28) Miquel DeJesus
29) Zionna Williams
30) Brian Johnson
31) Mykela Parker
32) Maria Bonanno
33) Joseph Salcedo
34) Ra’anna Clark
35) Serenity Davies
36) Kathianna Celestin
37) Aliyah Slater
38) Dina Erie
39) Crystaliz Sanchez
40) Brianna Brown
41) Kathy Liz
This show is going to be so off the chain, over the top, other worldly, out of the park, amazingly wild and wow, what else to say that begins with a “w” or an “o” did I say Wow? Yeah, wow, just wow.
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