Mining For Hidden Gems

I use poetry and songs every day as a way to build reading fluency in my students. It takes no more than 5 minutes to read a poem or sing a song two or three times.Through poems and songs I also fill their heads with beautiful language; beautiful language that later shows up in their talk and in their writing. Because words also get stuck in their heads, I try to use selections that carry a positive messages, affirmations that can hide in some corner of their brain and raise their voices when most needed. Last Spring, I came across a performance by Andy Grammer and the PS22 choir of his song: "Don't Give Up On Me". I showed the video to my class as an example of feeling the words you sing or recite. I also told them that if a song was going to get stuck in their head, I'd rather it be one that said: I will fight I will fight for you I always do until my heart Is black and blue . . . I'm not givin' up I'm not givin' up, givin' up No, not me...

There are ten minutes in my teaching day that I will not give up or exchange for some other activity no matter what. When fire drills, assemblies and assessments interrupt my regular schedule, I still try to find ten minutes to read aloud to my students. These are the most joyful moments of my day but I also know that there is a high rate of return on this little investment. Last year, we read nine books together. When I ask my students to write book recommendations, they often choose one of the ones I have read aloud to them. When I run into them years after they have left my classroom, what they remember are the books I read to them. Here are some of the reasons I safeguard my read aloud time: The voice of the fluent reader becomes imprinted on the text - I have been listening to Malcolm Gladwell's podcast Revisionist History. When I picked up his new book Talking to Strangers  I realized I was hearing his voice as I read the text and it flowed easily and rapidly. Right after f...