I really liked doing the choral reading that was done in class last week. It was interesting to see how the poem had different meanings when it was read differently. I suppose I never really realized that this would have an impact on the meaning of a piece of writing, but it does. I think choral reading is helpful to the students for a variety of reasons. I feel like the repetitiveness of the process is a good way of recycling the vocabulary- this is very helpful for Second Language Learners because it exposes them to new vocabulary and then reuses it (as the poem is repeated) so it eventually becomes instilled into the Second Language Learns memory. I think this style of reading also allows students to have the opportunity to ask what words mean if they do not understand them- I think by repeating the poem more the once, it gives the students more room to think about the words they do not understand and ask about them (because they are given more time to think about the words and more time to ask about them in between readings, it will enable the students to understand the vocabulary better). I also think this type of reading helps all of the students with comprehension. The various styles of choral reading give the students a chance to express their different ideas about what they thought the poem means. This also shows Second Language Learners that words/sentences/statements can have different meanings and that there isn’t always one right answer.
Overall, I feel like choral reading is a very good experience for the teacher and the students- I think it allows classroom interaction as well as promoting a better classroom community and environment.
-Nicki Lendo
2 comments:
I think that your ideas of having ELL students use poetry for vocabulary work is interesting. I think this may be difficult because one word in a poem can carry the entire meaning of the poem. I find this difficult because for me when I am reading and come across a word I don't know I will highlight it or circle it then look it up. However when I go back to reread the passage it was from I plug that meaning into where the word should go instead of the word. I feel that it is good to do vocabulary work at all times which includes poetry work. On the other hand, if you are using poetry in a lesson beyond learning about poetry (i.e. a science poem to spark interest in new science lesson). Then I think I would be careful of which poems I would choose for an ELL student to be able to use so that it is not a constant vocab battle. So that they do not loose the meaning that you wanted them to get from the piece. But if you are allowing for diverse readings of a poem then I think your ideas would apply well. I hope this makes sense if not please let me know and I will try to explain my thought better.
-Tasha
I really like how Nicole focuses on how choral reading benefits ELLs. She mentions how reading together promotes vocabulary recycling which I had not thought of until reading this post. Vocabulary recycling is very important to ELL especially as they are introduced to new words. Hearing new words repeatedly, hopefully in the context of other words that they already know, will help the ELLs in a classroom to get a sense of what those new words mean. When those words are used in a familiar context (familiar words) the students will be more apt to remember what those words mean and to start using those words themselves. This not only will work for ELLs but for mainstream classroom students as well.
Nicole also mentioned how choral reading can help to develop a sense of classroom community. I agee! I also think that it will help ELLs or even students who have difficulty reading, when they read with the whole class during choral reading. I feel as though the pressure of reading will be lessened as students try to read with their peers. Instead of the frustration faced when not knowing how to read a word by ones self, choral reading will allow all students to "read" words they might not know. If they don't know how to read a word, they will be able to hear it from their classmates. Repeated choral readings of the same passage will help the students to remember how to read those words that they may have not known how to read before the choral reading.
*Lisa*
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