By Nicole Vincent, Office of Curriculum & Instruction

Lewiston teachers learned how to use music to teach reading during a recent professional development workshop. Developing Reading Skills Through Music, facilitated by Carol Huffman, demonstrated how the simple rhyme and rhythm of certain children’s books can be used to enhance the way that students learn basic reading skills. Throughout the workshop, teachers were shown how to look for word families and patterns that can be found in stories and poems. Participants analyzed musical ways to interpret stories through rhythmic speech, and used movement to engage in expressive reading.

For the opening activity, Huffman explained how a simple nursery rhyme like Jack Sprat can be used in a creative literacy lesson in the classroom. She started by having people read silently, then taught them various rhythm exercises, such as clapping and stomping, to demonstrate ways to emphasize specific parts of the verse.

During the next part of the workshop, participants learned to interpret and understand stories and poems by focusing on sound. Teachers were given a short poem starting with the phrase, “Weather is full of the nicest sounds.” They then took each phrase of the poem, such as “it sings and rustles and pings and pounds,” and chose creative sounds to represent it. Later, Huffman showed the group of teachers ways that a popular children’s story such as Crocodile Beat, with its sing-songy beat and rhyme could be used in a music or reading class. Working in small groups, teachers created a sound or movement that represented one of the animals in the story. Their added challenge was to create a sound or movement that also kept time with the beat being used to read the story.

In the final exercise, teachers once again worked in small groups to apply what they had learned throughout the workshop. Using their own books and poems, they made up their own story using rhythms, sounds, and even instruments to convey the storyline. After the performances, the entire group discussed ways they could integrate the new skills they had learned into the classroom.

Elementary music teacher John Nutting found the workshop very useful and took away many skills he will use in the classroom. “We learned several different ways to increase reading skills by incorporating rhythms, instruments, and tunes. It was a fun and rewarding experience.” Elementary librarian Donna Spugnardi also enjoyed the experience. “It was exciting to see teachers having lots of fun while learning a new approach to teaching reading. Students learn more successfully when they have fun too! As teachers model reading poetry and rhythmic stories, students can then experiment with the rhythm and rhyme found in other books. Learning can be entertaining!”

Carol Huffman was made available to the district through the partnership between L/A Arts and the Kennedy Center. She holds degrees from Indiana University and Baldwin Wallace College and is a music teacher for grades K-6 in Parma, Ohio. Huffman travels to school districts around the country presenting this workshop on how music can be used to enhance reading lessons in the classroom.