It was my tenth birthday. Ten was the age when we graduated from birthday parties with paper hats and streamers and playing ‘Pin the Tail on the Donkey’. For my birthday I had the choice of taking three friends to Camden Park, an amusement park, or taking one friend to see Oklahoma on stage. I picked Oklahoma. I chose wisely.
I never knew music could be so wonderful. I was swept away. Suddenly music was more than a song. It made me want to dance, spread my arms wide, and sing out loud. It had feeling. It opened the whole world wide.
Thank you, Rodgers and Hammerstein. They brought to music what Charles Dickens brought to literature – real people, and a sense of understanding.
Many weekends I spent with my good friend Kirk, who also loved musicals. We played Rodgers and Hammerstein record albums, dressed up in costumes, and became part of the story. We sang with abandon. This would become an important part of my teaching later on – bringing heart and soul into music, and eventually into reading aloud.
I vividly remember The King and I, and also South Pacific.
Like Oklahoma, I saw the stage performances. Now, I was latching onto specific songs as if they were a lifeline. “Shall We Dance” and “Whistle a Happy Tune” were powerful songs from The King and I.
The tears came with “Some Enchanted Evening” from South Pacific. It ripped at my heart. An older man and a younger woman, children he had previously fathered – all come into play with this song. This was my first introduction into an unconventional love relationship. Rodgers and Hammerstein went even deeper, with a love affair, racial prejudice, and the issue of social consequences. That was strickly taboo in the early 50’s. Yet, it was natural and welcoming in the Broadway show. When young Navy Lieutenant sang “Carefully Taught”, it was my first introduction to diversity and acceptance. I have never forgotten.
The first time I saw my Mother cry I was fifteen. Imagine that. Even after my Father died, she never cried in front of her children. She was ever strong. You can grasp the shock when I saw her cry. Back then, television aired a movie after the 11 o’clock nightly news. My sister and I stayed up to watch the movie, Carousel. Mother must have heard it and came downstairs to join us. Apparently she had seen the Broadway show and loved it.
The end of the movie is high school graduation. Bad Billy Bigelow, who was killed in a fight and left behind a young woman he loved and their daughter, is allowed to leave heaven and visit his daughter at her graduation. He sings to her “You’ll Never Walk Alone.” My Mother cried. I cried. My sister cried. To this day, this is the song. It’s more than the tears; it’s ‘Life 101’.
The Sound of Music is probably the most well known and popular of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s musicals, and rightfully so. It is music and a storyline that everyone loves and remembers. Most people grew up on this movie. I’m lucky to have grown up on so many more.
Fast forward to today. Rodgers and Hammerstein did more to teach me about the world, people, relationships, life and death, and right and wrong. It was the story they told, and of course the music.
I wasn’t a strong reader, so these were often my ‘books’. When I began teaching, music became an important part of what I did with children. Not the children’s songs that teachers teach, but real music, from classical to Broadway to soul – the real stuff. Oh, it has made a big impact.
It was only natural that the passion for telling all the stories Rodgers and Hammerstein told transitioned to my reading aloud. I grabbed every good book and read it to children in the same way their music did. I stand, cry, sing, cheer…it’s a long list. It’s what I do to make books come alive for children.
Thank you, Rodgers and Hammerstein. You gave me my roots.
Jennie
I wrote about our Tree Walk on a windy day in Part 3. This walk was just one part of the blog post on Children’s Words. Little did I know at the time that the walk, and their words, would grow.
Explode is more like it.
The tree walk was windy. After the walk we brainstormed words. Nothing formal, just words about what they saw or felt.
We asked the children to write a poem, using these words, their words. The words would remind them of the Tree Walk and bring to life the adventure, once again. And it did just that! Words are powerful, especially through poetry.
~ OUTSIDE ~
The trees and leaves are moving.
Leaves are falling off.
Prickly evergreen.
Bare deciduous.
Spiders crawling on the tree.
Woosh
The wind blows the leaves away.
Wow! I will never underestimate the power of words and the natural creativity of children.
Jennie
The importance of play doesn’t end after preschool and kindergarten. It becomes even more important when students are older and face more academic challenges. Play stimulates the brain and triggers creative thinking. It’s a recipe for success.
Teachers get so much pressure to meet standards and prepare students for state mandated tests, that I believe they forget their students are just kids. Because of this pressure, too many teacher education and professional development strategies stress the concept of time on task. For example, see Identifying (and Engaging Students in), Time-on-Task Activities, Increasing Time on Task, and Time on Task. This has some importance in teaching and learning but it shouldn’t always be the professed key to good instruction. This leaves little time for play. Play is important for students of all ages and grades.
This week I was reminded of the importance of playing and having fun; and that play and fun are determined by the kids, themselves. I planned a math lesson based on visual patterning, The concluding activity was for them to make a Fractal Tetrahedron, a marshmallow-toothpick tower. I…
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“A day without laughter is a day wasted.” -Charlie Chaplin-
Jennie
In Part 2 I talked about children telling their stories in their own words. Without a visual or help from a teacher- no crutch, it’s not so easy. Welcome to the deep end, not the shallow end. Children wrote and illustrated stories about their neighborhoods. They were wonderful. After one hundred days of school, children have conquered bravery and critical thinking. It’s all about words.
Part 3
These were today’s words:
We love learning new words. After a tree walk on a windy day, these were words that described what we saw and felt, so we wrote them on the chalkboard. Can three and four-year-old children read? No. But, if I write the words they liked and remembered, seeing that word connects hearing that word.
If you want to know how important words are, this is it:
There was a study done on National Merit Scholars. Surely there was a common denominator among these bright high schoolers. Right? Were they all class presidents? Captains of the debate team or sports team? The study was surprising. Yes, there was a common denominator, a surprising one.
Every National Merit Scholar had dinner with their family at least four times a week.
That was it. It may sound simple, but it speaks to the power of words- all those dinner conversations with added thinking and conversation, year after year, four or more times a week. That was their golden key.
I was floored when I learned this. It inspired me to tell “Jennie Stories” at lunch time. After all, we’re a family, too. If I can spur great conversation with stories, I am adding vocabulary words, one pebble at a time.
Chapter reading is the next level, as thinking is critical. Children have to make the pictures in their heads. Comprehension is tested whenever we stop to ask questions. This week we started reading Little House in the Big Woods, by Laura Ingalls Wilder.
After Pa hunted for deer and hung it in the big oak tree, I stopped and asked, “Why didn’t Pa just go to the store to buy his meat?” You can imagine the long conversation we had. Oh, it was very long.
Emmett kept interrupting. “Jennie, they ate the deer?” He was not feeling good about this at all. Finally Delaney said, “Emmett, they just ate the meat, not the whole deer. They didn’t eat the fur.” I talked about deer skin, how it was not fur, and all the things Pa could make out of that skin. And so it goes, the conversations when we chapter read, every single day. It is my favorite part of the day.
When children speak or sing in front of a group, there is power deep inside. It’s not easy to be in the limelight in front of others. We do play performances. This is always a favorite. Words + bravery + speaking = academic success + confidence + happiness. It’s a tried and true formula.
The more words I pile on in many different ways work! Just like the words la lectura piled on in the Cuban cigar factory worked.
The Cuban cigar industry understood this. That’s why they make the finest cigars.
They have la lectura, who reads aloud for up to four hours to the factory workers, from the daily news to Shakespeare to current books. This is both brilliant and common sense; the workers are entertained, happy and productive.
Jim Trelease writes about this in his million-copy bestseller book, The Read-Aloud Handbook. He is a master writer and has it nailed on reading aloud. Here is an excerpt from the chapter about the history of reading aloud and its proof:
Then there is the history of the reader-aloud in the labor force. When the cigar industry blossomed in the mid-1800’s, supposedly the best tobacco came from Cuba (although much of the industry later moved to Tampa, Florida area). These cigars were hand-rolled by workers who became artisans in the delicate craft, producing hundreds of perfectly rolled specimens daily. Artistic as it may have been, it was still repetitious labor done in stifling factories. To break the monotony, workers hit upon the idea of having someone read aloud to them while they worked, known in the trade as ‘la lectura’.
The reader usually sat on an elevated platform or podium in the middle of the room and read aloud for four hours, covering newspapers, classics, and even Shakespeare.
As labor became more organized in the United States, the readings kept workers informed of progressive ideas throughout the world as well as entertained. When factory owners realized the enlightening impact of the readings, they tried to stop them but met stiff resistance from the workers, each of whom was paying the readers as much as twenty-five cents per week out of pocket.
The daily readings added to the workers’ intellect and general awareness while civilizing the atmosphere of the workplace. By the 1930’s, however, with cigar sales slumping due to the Great Depression and unions growing restive with mechanization on the horizon, the owners declared that the reader-aloud had to go. Protest strikes followed but to no avail, and eventually readers were replaced by radio. But not in Cuba.
The Cuban novelist Miguel Barnet reports, “Today, all over Cuba, this tradition is alive and well. Readers are in all the factories, from Santiago to to Havana to Pinar del Rio. The readings have specific timetables and generally begin with the headlines of the day’s newspapers. After reading the newspaper, the readers take a break and then begin reading the unfinished book from the day before. Most are women.”
Used by permission of the author, Jim Trelease, 2013, The Read-Aloud Handbook (Penguin)
No wonder Cuban cigars are among the finest. This story is one of my favorites and illustrates the effect reading aloud and words has on people. Thank goodness I get to do this multiple times every day with children.
Jennie
(Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com)
I recently reblogged a post about National Compliment Day, so I thought a good follow up to that wonderful idea was to create the unofficial Be Kind To Someone day! I recommend kindness every day, but take a moment to do something for someone else. They will appreciate it, and the world needs more kindness.
Let’s all find someone to be kind to. It doesn’t matter if we know them or not; simply spread a little decency in the world!
(Photo by Matthias Zomer on Pexels.com)
You’re never too old, too wacky, too wild, to pick up a book and read to a child.
~ Dr. Seuss ~
Read Across America week, appropriately kicks off today, on Theodor Geisel’s birthday. Started in 1997 by the National Education Association, this observance promotes reading, particularly for children and young adults. It’s widely celebrated in schools, libraries and community centers across the country. To find out more, please visit: https://www.readacrossamerica.org
In Part 1, I talked about writing thank you letters to the people in our neighborhood, our community helpers. As a group, we planned the words, and children decorated the letters. This was fun! They felt excited and proud. They knew the importance of words, their words. They also knew the importance of saying thank you.
Part 2
It is one thing to come up with words in a group. It is another thing to tell your own words, your own story. No one is there to help you. Children wrote stories about their own neighborhoods. Imagine being three and four years old, and your teacher says,
“Tell me about your neighborhood. Tell me your story.”
This isn’t answering a “W” question (who, what, when, where, why) which has a place to start. That takes words, but you have a directive to build upon. This is the deep end, not the shallow end.
We’re more than halfway through the school year, one hundred days in fact. I have read aloud more than two hundred picture books, and we’re finishing our fourth chapter reading book, pouring words into their brains. They’re ready for the deep end.
“I have three houses next to me, trees, a pool, two dogs, and a black dog.”
“I have the sun, a big pool, lots of dogs. Julie and Katy are in my neighborhood. They have chickens.”
“I have lots of cats, two dogs, one dorm, and a pool next to Brady’s. I have friends.”
“I have one dog, lots of houses and trees. My house is very gray. There are friends, too.”
“I have trees, a teddy bear who is really little, houses, no cats, and only a dog named Abby.”
“I have trees but no pools. There’s a big road. There are kids and one baby.”
“I have trees, a bouncy slide, a mom and dad, a backyard, and houses.”
“I have dogs, trees, a blow-up pool, houses. I like to play in the backyard with my brother.”
Aren’t these stories remarkable for very young children? In order to get to this point – to be able to think, visualize, process, and execute – a child has to hear hundreds and thousands of words. You see, the hearing vessel in the brain must be filled before it overflows into the speaking vessel.
So now, after a hundred days of school, children have conquered bravery, vocabulary, detailed words, and critical divergent thinking. Words are the golden key, and the surest way to give children a plethora of words is by reading aloud. I still find it amazing that children who know the most number of words do the best in school, in all subject areas. All.
I am raising future readers, and thinkers, in my classroom.
“By words we learn thoughts, and by thoughts we learn life.”
-Jean Baptiste Girard-
Stay tuned for Part 3.
Jennie
Writing a thank you letter is a favorite activity in my classroom. First, children ‘write’ the words – this isn’t so easy. Every writer knows that. For children, they need to think about who the letter is for, and what words are the right thing to say. Children want to express their feelings, too. A thank you letter may be simple, but those words – every word- have been voted upon and debated before pen has met paper. Or before marker has met chart paper in the case of preschoolers.
Today we began writing thank you letters to our neighbors, the people in our community who help us. We wrote to our public library:
Dear Groton Library, Thank you for sharing your books with us. We love the books.
The children didn’t see that we borrowed the books. They saw that the library shared the books. Two very different perspectives.
We wrote a letter to our firefighters:
Dear Firefighters, Thank you for saving us. We love the firetrucks.
Truer words were never spoken. The children knew that saving people was the most important thing firefighters do. They wanted that to be first and upfront on their letter. And of course, they love fire trucks.
Wait till I show them their letter is hanging in the fire station alongside the firetrucks.
Children’s words are important. They need to be aknowledged. Teachers and parents need to ask children questions. Questions stimulate thought, and thought stimulates words. Words bind us together. When we help children write those words, we are giving them tools for life. The feelings and excitement that accompany those words are the icing on the cake.
Stay tuned for Part 2
Jennie
A Teacher's Reflections 