Music and Fluency

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Music and Fluency

• How music helped improve an ELLs reading fluency
• An Intervention By Tara Warwick

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The School

• K-6th grade elementary school
• Large student population 894
• 329 ELLs (38.7)
• 404 students receiving free/reduced lunch (44)

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The Classroom

• Second Grade self-contained
• 21 total students
• 8 ELLs (38)
• Education focus mainly on language arts and math
• Houghton-Mifflin curriculum used

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The Student

• Maria
• 1 of 8 ELLs in the class
• One of the lowest readers in the class
• Loves school
• Vibrant and enthusiastic

CELDT Scores
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Research Question

• How will using songs and singing as a form of
• repeated reading affect the reading fluency
• of an English language learner?

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Purpose and Rationale

• Purpose

• Rationale

• To help an ELL increase her reading fluency
• To do so in a fun and engaging manner
• To use music and song as a strategy for teaching
  an ELL as they are a universal media across
  cultures and languages

• Neurologists have found parallels between music
  and linguistic syntax in the brain (Maess
  Koelsch, 2001)
• Music and singing will lower the affective filter
  making the subject more open to acquiring new
  knowledge (Steven Krashen, 1982)
• Involves repeated reading a strategy that helps
  to build fluency (Laberge and Samuels, 1974)
• For ELLs, music can increase vocab., build
  listening comp., enhance speaking and reading
  skills, and expand cultural knowledge (Kristen
  Lems, 2001)

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Design and Schedule

• Design

• Schedule

• Pre-teach key vocabulary, make predictions
• Sing and read along, choral singing Lots of
  practice!
• Teach song to the class in a concluding
  performance

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The Song
The Rainbow Connection By Kermit the Frog
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The Song

• Why are there so many
• Songs about rainbows
• And whats on the other side
• (new slide)
• Rainbows are visions
• But only illusions
• And rainbows have nothing to hide

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Lyrics and High Frequency Words

• Why are there so many songs about rainbowsand
  what's on the other side?Rainbows are visions,
  but only illusions,and rainbows have nothing to
  hide.So we've been told and some choose to
  believe it.I know they're wrong, wait and
  see.Someday we'll find it, the rainbow
  connection.The lovers, the dreamers and me.Who
  said that every wish would be heardand answered
  when wished on the morning star?Somebody thought
  of that and someone believed it.Look what it's
  done so far.What's so amazing that keeps us star
  gazingand what do we think we might see?Someday
  we'll find it, the rainbow connection.The
  lovers, the dreamers and me.All of us under its
  spell. We know that it's probably magic.Have
  you been half asleep and have you heard
  voices?I've heard them calling my name.Is this
  the sweet sound that called the young
  sailors.The voice might be one and the
  same.I've heard it too many times to ignore
  it.It's something that I'm supposed to
  be.Someday we'll find it, the rainbow
  connection.The lovers, the dreamers and me.

• 45 high frequency words in the song
• 14 of which Maria could not identify in isolation
  before beginning the intervention
• Key
• Green identifiable
• Red unidentifiable

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Home School Connection

• Consisted of
• Personal Cd
• Personal Lyric Sheet
• Letter Home
• Encouraged Maria to practice reading and singing
  the song at home with her family

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Assessment Data

• Cold Vs. Hot Reads

• High Frequency Words

• Cold Read
• 44 WPM
• Hot Read
• 68 WPM

• High Freq. Words
• Of the 14 H.F. words that Maria was originally
  unable to identify, she could identify 11 of them
  in the middle of the intervention

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Fluency Assessment

• Pre

• Post

• Reading Passage 7
• Book 3, Pigs in Mud
• By Barbara Nicholson (2001)

• Reading Passage 7
• Book 4, A Nice Bite of Rice
• By Barbara Nicholson (2001)

• RW 216
• Errors 21
• Accuracy Rate 89

• RW 247
• Errors 8
• Accuracy Rate 97

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Reflection

• Made me more aware of the fact that there are
  many different ways to reach struggling students
  that are both fun and beneficial
• Research is a vehicle for discovering beneficial
  teaching strategies and formatting them to fit
  the needs of each child

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Aha Moment

• Gazing? Oh! Thats like when you love somebody
  and you look in their eyes a lot.

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The End