The Reading, Signing, Writing Connection Info - Product 6 / FPF-007

FPF-007 Suggested Use: Songs are a valuable resource.  Through songs, children are able to develop a self extending system that includes strategies such as relying on pattern, predictability, and memory to aid in reading readiness.  Songs help children to extend vocabulary and remember long strands of language.  Words to songs are no longer just words, because they can then be used to represent clues that assist children in unlocking print in other contexts.  Song lyrics can be used to help teach beginning reading strategies and concepts such as phonemic awareness, one to one matching of words, directionality, return sweep, searching for unknown and known words, etc.  It is important that children learn a song by singing it multiple times before it is used for teaching purposes.

• Use these songs and chants for shared reading, singing, and Participation Writing Activities.
• Make individual song sheets or song books.
• Use at home for familiar reading/singing material.

The songs and text in this collection are appropriate for English Language Learners and beginning readers for the following reasons:

• Purposeful and meaningful songs can be selected to suit the needs and interests of primary level students.
• Familiar singing and reading material enhances automaticity, fluency, intonation, and phrasing.
• Songs provide multiple opportunities to incorporate response through speaking via singing.
• Selected songs provide multiple opportunities to incorporate action and movement to facilitate the enhancement of long term memory.
• Rhymes, echo songs, chants, picture cues, and follow up coloring activities provide added support.
• Repetitious, predictable songs, and patterned text offer extra support to both beginning readers and English Language Learners.
• Authentic, natural language containing contemporary vocabulary, idioms, and common expressions are promoted throughout this collection of songs.
• Repeated high frequency words (HFW), words most often found in texts, as well as words most often spoken and written in the English language (120 repeated HFW), are found in this collection of songs.
• These songs can be chosen as language experience selections to correspond with themes contained in most English Language Development (ELD) or reading programs.
• Music and singing help to incorporate active learning and participation.
• Songs and music energize.
• Singing songs help children remember long phrases of words at a time. The song lyrics are internalized and stored, and can later be retrieved to be used as a guide for language, reading, and writing.
• Songs help to create a climate of joy, understanding, and acceptance.

Listening: Repeated listening and participation in a song allows children to master the language, melody, rhythm, and imagery of the song. Repetition, regular patterns, and predictability are evident in every song selection. Tempos were written in order to adjust to the pace and rhythm for beginning readers and English Language Learners, thus allowing more time for processing.

Speaking Through Singing: Student response activities include fun and engaging sing alongs, echo songs, and chants that reinforce syntactic and semantic formulas as well as common expressions. The Benjamin Franklin Elementary School Primary Choir, composed of 50 first and second grade students, sing on a number of sound tracks found on the included CD. Choir members did not audition in order to participate; they simply met after school each week because of the joy and love of music and singing. Benjamin Franklin Elementary School, a 2010 International Baccalaureate (IB) School, as well as a 2010 California Distinguished School, is located in La Quinta, California.

Predictable and Patterned Text: The songs and chants contained in this collection include repetition and predictable patterns, offering added support to early readers. Familiarity with repeated patterns and predictable phrases make it possible for children to anticipate what is coming next as well as to sample and attend to the visual symbols. Take for example, the popular children's song, "The Wheels On The Bus". The words build in a predictable and repetitive pattern, "The wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round, 'round and 'round, 'round and 'round, the wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round...".

Familiar Text: Use the songs in this collection as familiar text. When songs are used as familiar text, material that is listened to and read multiple times, the reading task is still new and challenging. Each time through, children may notice things that they failed to attend to on previous readings. For example, when familiar with a rhyming song such as "The Itsy Bitsy Spider", children can then use the knowledge gained through their ears to guide their eyes in reading the same song. They are not confined to reading haltingly in a word for word manner, but rather they are able to process and read words and phrases in a more fluent manner, utilizing expression and intonation.

Repeated High Frequency Words (HFW): Lyrics were purposefully written by the author to incorporate a substantial number of these high utility words repetitively throughout the songs. The HFW contained in each song are in bold print, and are listed at the top of each song page. There is a close correlation between the HFW most commonly found in text and the HFW most often used in speaking and in writing. For example, the words (a, and, the) constitute approximately 10% of the words found in reading. Research by Ernest Horn, pioneer of spelling research, shows that three little words (I, and, the) account for 10% of the words we write. When readers are able to automatically recognize HFW at a glance, without having to stop to decode them letter by letter, their reading becomes more fluent. When beginning readers are comfortable with enough HFW, they can focus their attention more on meaning, or higher level thinking. The HFW in these songs can be found in the Dolch, Fry, or Read Word List of High Frequency Sight Words. There are hundreds of thousands of words in the English vocabulary, and comparatively speaking, a very small group of HFW constitute approximately 50% of the words we most often read. The songs in this collection give children an in-depth experience with 120 important HFW, a substantial number of words used in speaking, reading, and writing. The majority of HFW found in this collection are likely to be found in Reading Recovery  book levels one through seven.

120 Repeated High Frequency Words (HFW) found in this collection: a, about, again, ago, all, also, am, an, and, are, around, as, at, be, better, but, can, child, could, day, did, do, done, down, eight, family, father, five, for, four, friend, from, get, go, goes, good, he, her, here, his, how, I, I'm, in, is, it, it's, just, learn, left, like, little, long, look, make, me, more, mother, move, my, need, new, next, nine, no, now, of, oh, on, one, our, out, over, part, play, put, read, right, run, said, saw, see, seven, six, she, such, tell, ten, that, the, their, then, there, these, they, this, three, to, together, too, turn, two, up, very, walk, was, we, well, went, what, when, where, whole, why, will, with, yes, you, your, you're

Participation Writing  (See pages 28 - 31 for directions and examples): Participation Writing is an interactive writing approach and teaching method in which children and teacher negotiate what they are going to write, and together construct the message. By using Participation Writing, writing activities are meaningful, relate to other language skills, and help to teach mechanics and spelling in context. Participation Writing helps students to learn skills that will transfer to independent writing and and support the development of reading skills as well.  The songs in this collection can be used for Participation Writing activities.