I consider myself a good reader of academic texts. Ever since I was a child, I have noticed that
I read faster and more deeply than my peers in class. As a preface, I do not intend this blog post
to come across as boastful, not in the slightest. In fact, the blog post reveals my judgmental
nature of other readers that I am currently dispelling.
As a child, I specifically remember that reading scriptures aloud
in Sunday school classes was an exercise in frustration. This frustration was not a result of
confusion, but frustration with others reading styles. I assumed that others reading styles were a
sign of laziness or apathy. I now
realize that isn’t the case. A recent
experience will explain what I mean:
I was in a small group in a class, taking turns reading an article
out loud. The other members of the group
seemed to be having trouble understanding what they were reading, and hearing
them read aloud illuminated why. Their
inflection and emphasis was equal for every single word, making a monotone
inflection. I also noticed that they
didn’t take pauses for commas and periods, slurring all the phrases together
into a paragraph-long string of words.
When they did take breaks, it was only for a break in the line on the
page. I found myself having a difficult
time understanding the content when they read in this fashion. In contrast, another member of our group read
differently. She gave inflection
emphasis to key words in the sentence.
She grouped together important ideas by not taking a breath. She also took a pause when the sentence began
a new idea. When he read, I could understand the content. If there
are students that are reading to themselves in the monotone, pauseless fashion
I described, no wonder they can’t understand the content; they are reading just
to sound out the word. This experience
was illuminating, and gave me a new perspective on struggling readers who will
be my students.
Through my education classes, I realize that my comfort
in reading was not a result of my natural ability, but parents and
teachers. Reading was a part of my home,
and my parents read a loud to us often as children. I didn’t know it at the time, but I must have
had teachers that really worked with my learning style to help me understand
reading at a deep level. I’m grateful
that I was raised that way at home and at school.
Reading is rarely a part of the choir classroom. However, I know that music teachers can reach
out to students more deeply than other teachers can. I hope my future students can ask me for help
on assignments from other classes because of this deep connection. When I was in high school, my choir teacher
acted as a school counselor, tutor, and faux-therapist for my peers and I.
If I understand a bit more on
how to support struggling readers, I can help my students, no matter what
subject.
I want to take my response to this blog posting in another direction. I know that it is not a good idea to ask students to read outloud in a class because they might feel self-conscious. (Reading outloud in a group is somewhat different because there is not as big of an audience to feel embarrassed in front of.)
ReplyDeleteCan the same principle be applied to chorus or band? That is, it is not a good idea to ask students to play or sing outloud without giving them a chance to practice first? I remember when I was in my seventh-grade chorus class, which had 80 students in it, including the boy I had a crush on. I was so painfully shy then. The teacher made us sing out loud, as individuals, in front of the whole class. I was so nervous that I totally bombed the singing. The chorus teacher graded our individual singing in front of the whole class, and I got the lowest score out of everybody. I was humiliated. Prior to that experience, my family and my babysitters said I sang all of the time, but after that, I stopped singing almost all together. So I think, just like teachers have to be careful before they ask students to read in front of the class, they should likewise be careful before they ask students to sing or perform in front of the whole class.
Thanks for your posting.
Although you've pointed out that "reading is rarely a part of the choir classroom," I think it's interesting that you have connected effective reading to elements of the voice - diction, pitch, breathing and phrasing, and so on. I've often wondered if a background in voice (I took voice lessons as a girl) and piano enabled me to see phrasing, to identify important words, and ultimately made reading out loud easier for me. In that context, maybe reading has everything to do with choir. ;)
ReplyDeleteHaving the ability to read with voice and personality will be grate if you are a parent in your future. My mom read like that and I still to this day can listen to her read for hours. The words flow and make the story much more interesting.
ReplyDeleteI think reading happens in choir more than we notice. There is a lot to read on a piece of music. Each part having a different line. Not to mention the markings. If we didn't take notice to these or read them, music would be just as monotone. Would there be any interest in listening to music if everything was monotone?