It all starts with talk…
Where does oral language fit in early reading acquisition?
The teaching of reading has been widely re-examined to align with the National Reading Panel (NRP) Report (2000) and other significant reading research which cohere with the NRP Report (Australian Government, 2005; Rose, 2006), advocating five pillars of early reading acquisition; including phonemic awareness, phonics, fluency, vocabulary and comprehension. Added to these 5 key components, is oral language. In 2014, Desley Konza published an influential article, ‘Why the Fab Five should be the Big Six’, in which she defended a case that oral language should have been included as a separate pillar in the NRP report. Her reasoning was that many studies on the role of oral language were omitted due to the limiting search criteria used in the research. Although oral language is included in several of the pillars of the NRP report, specifically vocabulary and comprehension; the paper by Konza put forward the case that the Fab Five framework should have incorporated oral language due to ‘the underlying importance of oral language to the development of reading’ (Konza, 2014, p.155). Higher accountability/ high stakes testing has resulted in educators ensuring that children are taught to read explicitly and systematically based on solid scientific evidence, the culmination of which are the six pillars of early reading acquisition.
Oral language is ‘the ability to produce or comprehend spoken language’ (Shanahan, 2010, p.282). Rich, structured talk is the bedrock of language development and a well-established means of developing vocabulary (Stanovich, 1986), yet many students are disadvantaged by a lack of talk. Children need to be competent listeners and speakers before they can become competent readers and writers.
The crucial importance of talk is evidenced in Coady’s beginner’s paradox (Coady, 1997), which describes how children need to know some words from which to learn new, related words. Similarly, Stanovich (1986, p.391) uses the Matthew Effects to rationalise how the word-rich get richer, and the word-poor get poorer, which can result in a language and vocabulary gap that impedes beginning reading acquisition. These two paradoxes demonstrate the importance of building word consciousness in young children.
Identified educational benefits of integrating music in early reading teaching include improved rhythmic abilities, sound to symbol correspondence, phonemic awareness and reading prosody (Wennerstrom, 2001; Collins, 2020; Godde et al., 2020). Socially, music has the propensity to calm and engage reluctant learners, facilitate cooperative group learning, and ensure students feel comfortable and confident in the classroom, increasing engagement in learning (Curtis 2007; Saefudin, 2019; Debreceny, 2021).
The aim of this Storytime session 5 and related blogpost is to increase understanding of the intersection between music and literacy, with a focus on the high gravitas of oral language in reading acquisition.
Learning Intentions
To orally recount a favourite holiday (who, what, when, where, why)
To discuss sights and sounds that made the holiday memorable
To learn and perform (sing and play) a song together
To share favourite holiday books; focusing on the rhyme and the rhythm of texts.
Curriculum Links (AC V-9)
English
AC9EFLA07 explore the contribution of images and words to meaning in stories and informative texts
AC9EFLE02 respond to stories and share feelings and thoughts about their events and characters
AC9EFLE04 explore and replicate the rhythms and sound patterns of literary texts such as poems, rhymes and songs
AC9EFLY07 create and deliver short spoken texts to report ideas and events to peers, using features of voice such as appropriate volume
The Arts: Music
AC9AMUFD01 use play, imagination, arts knowledge, processes and/or skills to discover possibilities and develop ideas.
During this lesson, we orally share favourite holiday adventures.
Learning Sequence
-Begin lesson with a musical sequence by introducing and playing an unfamiliar instrument to garner attention (e.g. kalimba, or anything that is available).
-Introduce the topic of the upcoming holiday season/ My Favourite Holiday. Make the point that not all cultures celebrate Christmas, but many do.
-Discuss personal recounts- their purpose and structure. Their purpose is to inform and entertain an audience. Their structure usually includes:
Title
Orientation- who, what, where, when
Series of events in a chronological order or sequence
A final evaluative comment.
-Teacher provides a simple PPT or pictures and orally recounts a favourite holiday, as an oral text model for students. Focus on memorable sights and sounds to fire students’ imaginations and help them create pictures in their minds. Teacher shares a song with the group related to their holiday. Participants keep the rhythm using claves or body percussion. Teach the rhythm pattern prior to performing the song. e.g. ta, ti-ti. Have beat circles drawn on a little white board so children can play/ follow the rhythm whilst singing/ performing the song.
-Sharing session- ‘My Favourite holiday’. Children will be drawing on the receptive modes of listening, reading and viewing and productive modes of speaking, writing, representing and singing; to recount a favourite holiday with the group. Participants are invited to recount their favourite holiday. The group responds by asking questions to participant presenters e.g. who, what, when where etc. Teacher encourages sustained student conversations (formative assessment).
-Teacher shares a child’s written recount about a favourite holiday. Encourage children to practise their writing/ write about their holiday adventures during their upcoming, lengthy vacation.
-Discuss (show and tell) favourite holiday texts we love and why. Overview some well- known holiday stories from around the world e.g. A Christmas Carol (UK), The Christmas Miracle of Johnathon Toomey (US), A Bellbird in a Flame Tree (Aust.), Baboushka (USSR), The Nutcracker (Germany).
-Ask children to share any favourite holiday texts they have brought along. Encourage participants to ask each other questions about the texts.
-Teacher concludes by sharing their favourite holiday text with the group. Encourage children to use body percussion to keep the rhythm of the text while the teacher reads, modelling prosodic oral reading. Discuss story (likes/ dislikes, theme, characters, interesting vocabulary).
-Summative assessment: Children create their own rhythm sequence using body percussion of choice to match the rhythm of the modelled text reading. Share rhythm sequence with the group following read-aloud.
