Volume IX Number I

Abstract

This article cum describes, analyses,and discusses the role of rhyming words and jazz chants in developing the reading skills of students, and reports their actual use with grade two children.

Keywords: Reading strategies, rhyming words, jazz chants, development of reading skills.

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Introduction

“The processes of reading (PORs) have been studied for several decades now. Of the four language skills, it is reading that has received maximum attention …. In spite of all such attention, it is still true, however, that large parts of PORs continue to be shrouded in mystery” (Tickoo, M.L., 2003, p 25).

Similar situations motivated and led us to try these two strategies in reading and improvement of reading skill(s) in our classroom on the premise that students' reading skills were not being enhanced as per the desired outcomes in English and that the skills could be improved by adopting certain tried and tested strategies, namely through rhyming words and jazz chants.These two strategies were adopted for three months in order to enhance the reading level of the students of grade two.

1.1. Rhyming words help learners notice and work with the sounds within a word. Being able to break words into smaller parts and recognise smaller parts in words (Bradley& Bryant, 1983) is an important skill required for reading and learning spellings.

1.2. Rhyming also lets children learn to recognise the patterns and structures of language.

1.3. Rhyming is important to reading because it can help children to understand that words that share common sounds often share common letter sequences.

1.4.So, if you can spell pot, you can also spell lot, cot, and not. While reading and learning a rhyme the learners learn to anticipate and predict the rhyming words. The learners are able to make predictions of forthcoming words while reading (Tankersley).

1.5. Our students were seven- to eight-year-olds with different reading levels in the same class. The activities regularly conducted in the classroom were: Read-aloud, Shared reading, Paired reading, and Independent reading, were.

1.6. Students were exposed to these strategies in the beginning and were gradually encouraged to use rhyming words to developtheir reading skills and achieve a considerable and grade-appropriate level of fluency in reading.

1.7. Every day, we would begin with the frequently occurring words in the textbook and helped the learners in recognizing, decoding, pronouncing, and repeating the words already available on the wall charts in the classroom.

1.8. Words were selected from the pasted vocabulary charts and students were set free in smaller groups to find the rhyming words.

1.9. Such group activities proved quite beneficial in enhancing the reading skill of these students.

1.10.There was a lot of fun with words while rhyming words were taken up. The students enjoyed themselves a lot in making pairs of words ending with similar soundsand also created their own rhymes including nonsense rhymes.

1.11. These rhyming words were also added to the list of the most frequently used words.

2.1. Jazz Chants were also included in the process of introducing rhyming words and these chants helped a lot as these proved to be rhythmic expressions of language for the students while enjoying themselves.

2.2. Jazz Chants as known to us now “are Carolyn Graham's snappy, upbeat chants and poems that use jazz rhythms to illustrate the natural stress and intonation patterns of conversational American English” (Oxford University Press website). Jazz chants are instrumental in introducing readers to rhythm, stress and grouping. {Adapted from https://skyteach.}

2.3. The jazz chant of three popular rhymes which were not part of their syllabus included-

a.Jack and Jill went up the hill

b. Baa, Baa, Black Sheep

c. Twinkle, twinkle, little star

2.4. Repetitions, drilling, jazz chants, and chorus singing of these rhymes considerably helped the researcher-teachers in enhancing the reading skills of students in English with fun, joy, and excitement.

2.5. Since learners were accustomed to these chants andtheir pronunciation, they could easily recognise the words in written/print form and read and decode them perfectly well.

Conclusion

● The study proved to be quite fruitful for the two key researchers and the students. We continuously monitored and observed the students for three months.

● The hypothesis that the reading skills of the students in grade two could be enhanced by adopting techniques like rhyming words and jazz chants was proved to be valid.

● Students had real fun while they learnt. Their reading speed gradually increased while they were busy making and singing jazz chants, and creating rhymes following the patterns of rhyming words taught to them.

● They played with the words gleefully and sometimes meaningfully, too.

● Many of them very enthusiastically remarked that it was joy to study that way and that they wanted to study the same way in future too.

● Later, it was decided that these techniques would be a regular feature in grade two in both of our schools.

References

[The following resources were either only consulted or quoted during the study.]

Bradley, L.& Bryant, P. E. 1983. Categorizing sounds and learning to read—A causal connection. Nature, 301, pp.419-421.

Ehri, L. (2005). Learning to read words: Theory, findings, and issues. Scientific Studies of Reading, 9(2), 167-188.

Fountas, Irene &Pinnell, Gay Su. 2007. The Continuum of Literacy Learning, Grades PreK-8: A Guide to Teaching. Heinemann, Portsmouth (USA).

Fountas and Pinnell. 2007. Continuum for Literacy Learning. PDF available at:

https://www.scholastic.com/content/dam/teachers/blogs/genia-connell/migrated-files/text_level_indicators. pdf (adapted).

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/103316/chapters/Readiness~Phonemic-Awareness.aspx

Learning strategies for ELL's website, available at:

https://learningstrategieseng491.weebly.com/word-wall.html&https://spedellreadingstrategies.weebly.com/word-wall.html

https://skyteach.ru/2019/03/03/jazz-it-up-teaching-english-with-jazz-chants/

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/148999973/What-is-the-Meaning-of-Jazz-Chant&ved=2ahUKEwiR4auwlPXjAhVQT30KHR1ICVcQFjAbegQICRAB&usg=AOvVaw3nM-73XxZZypQgfxHpq1di

Learning Liftoff, Jun 26, 2015 (available at:https://www.learningliftoff.com/take-the-time-to-rhyme-how-rhyming-benefits-early-education/)

Linnea, C. Ehri. 1987.Learning to read and spell words.Journal of Reading Behavior, Volume XIX, No. 1. University of California, School of Education, Davis, CA 9561.

Available at Oxford University Press website:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/148999973/What-is-the-Meaning-of-Jazz-Chant&ved=2ahUKEwiR4auwlPXjAhVQT30KHR1ICVcQFjAbegQICRAB&usg=AOvVaw3nM-73XxZZypQgfxHpq1di

Reading Kingdom Blog, available at:

https://www.readingkingdom.com/blog/2011/04/20/how-to-teach-kids-sight-words/

Reading Rockets website, available at:

https://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target/fluency

Stay at Home Educator.com, available at:https://stayathomeeducator.com/letter-identification-why-teach-the-abcs/

Tankersley, Karen. Threads of Reading, ASCD.org, available at:

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/103316/chapters/Readiness~Phonemic-Awareness.aspx