From digital storytelling, it was time for me to research on Web 2.0 technology. In my search I came upon this article which made me pause and reflect. The article written by Adi Bloom in 2007 was entitled, Sense of rhythm helps reading. Bloom's opening statements suggested that adults should purchase books for children when they ask for a drum kit. He came to this conclusion based on the findings of 'academics' who discovered that children 'with a strong sense of rhythm learn to read easily' while those without rhythm find great difficulty with the printed word. (According to Anil Roberts, WHATTTT!!!!)
If this research were true then every 'Trini' should be a good reader but as SEA results demonstrate year after year we either need to change our definition of rhythm or we just have to wake up to the fact that our children are unable to hear our rhythm. Moreover, In the United States where certain research has shown that the same African Americans and the Latinos, those whom we consider to be extremely rhythmic, are performing below the level of other races like the Chinese and the White population. Do they also have some other 'rhythm' that is yet to be defined?
In musing, I thought about the IBG Phonics programme. Perhaps it is this sense of rhythm that is used to foster the reading progress that the programme claims. Mmmm, this rhythm and reading may be a good research topic...
Although I found this article in the TES newspaper I searched for it on their website so that I could share it with you. Let me know what your thoughts are on the article's content - http://www.tes.co.uk/article.aspx?storycode=2424502
Hi, Kathine,
ReplyDeleteI truly enjoyed reading this article, especially since my five year-old son seem to have a little too much rhythm. He drums everything and everywhere, both his pre-school and his Year One teachers have asked me to speak to him about this constant drumming to little avail. Now when I share this article, we may be able to come up with suggestions of how to use this rhythm in the teaching of reading. (I've tried it with Spelling and it works great!)
I am intrigued by the information in this post. I had no formal training in literacy prior to this programme, but as a mother of boys, I had to find ways to help them with the words for their weekly spelling tests. I used little snips of cardboard with the words syllabicated (wrongly I now know) and we would recite the syllables to a rhythm. They would ace the tests. Whenever we did not use this approach (usually because they forgot to mention the test), their scores fell. I am not claiming scientific proof, but I do believe we should explore and find ways "to ride de riddem" (lol) in literacy and content areas.
ReplyDeleteRegards
Kathine girl, if that was true, you would be a dunce. lol. Seriously now,it is obvious that all studies do not apply to all people in all regions.(...or they may just be untrue-don't tell anyone I said so, though. It works for some but not others. With all our rhythm, many of our children still do not excel.
ReplyDeleteAll lot of these researchers seem to get facts that support their thesis but we cannot use it per say, for many other factors come into play. If rhythm was the basis for reading then we would really have problems. However, rhythm may help at times, for example- in learning the alphabet, in reading our first set of books(Dick and Jane) remember those. They encourage us to learn by rote. The words rhyme and flowed together and we remembered them. Sometimes if a teacher stopped you and pointed to one word and ask a student to identify it and they could not you knew rote learning was taking place. America has a lot of innovations taking place but give me Caribbean learning anytime we teach for depth and superficial learning. So the gist of this is read about what is out there, do not take it wholesale, adapt then adopt. Make it work for you.
ReplyDeleteYou might use rhythm to capture your students' attention but you need concrete steps to teach them how to read. All these games IBG, Phonics , etc have one thing in common, use of color, animation to capture their attention then learning under the guise of a game. So readers be aware all that glitters is not gold. And without technology, several years ago our literacy rate was excellent, so continue what was good and enhance the rest to capture our current learners.
ReplyDeleteHi Junet, Nisha, Jason and Cheryl
ReplyDeleteThank you for your words of wisdom and examples. I will take all you have said with me throughout this reading journey.