L-literature M-music N-naming O-oral language P-phonemic awareness,/picture imaging MyLMNOP are the building blocks used to engage early learners in the promotion of expressive language and vocabulary building skills.

Thursday, March 8, 2012

My Process__My Journey

My Process with MyLMNOP, must begin by unpacking My Journey from its inception:  

I’ve always loved words.  My earliest memory of this relationship can be traced back to a specific summer day.  In rural Louisiana, the front porch was the hub of family activity.  We would gather round my mother’s feet while she read from the  Natchitoches Times. “Yall, listen to this word, Antidisestablishmentarianism.”  Honestly, I think we (including my mom) repeated that word the entire summer.  My grandmother would read aloud from the Farmer’s Almanac (Do people read from the almanac, anymore?  Do people even know what a Farmer’s Almanac is?)   I digress.  There, she found her daily bible verse and that too became a read aloud session for us kids.
  
As the oldest child, I entertained my younger siblings by reading to them.  I’d sit on our green, paisley chair and my siblings sat crossed leg on the shag while I read, The Raven, by Edgar Allen Poe.  It was one of our favorites.  We did not understand many of the words.  Yet, we were affected by the mood of the poem.  There was a sorrow being shared.  Of what, we did not know.  Not at first. Some time back, our  Tante’ Lula had warned us about ravens.  "They were a sign."  Being from the rural south,  signs or superstitions are taken seriously.  Tante’ called them isms:  “Quote the Raven, Nevermore!”  Nevermore!  So that was the sorrow being shared__Death. This ism  took on a whole new meaning for us and we read that poem quite often.  Holding up our cassette player to the television, we once taped the music of the soap opera, The Dark Shadows.  The music from our cassette player lent itself perfectly.  Now, we were a very musical group.  So of course we even made up a song that we sang before reading.  We couldn't go outside while our parents were at work, so we had a lot of time on our hands, yall: 

It was a cold dark night when the black bird came     
He was very very still on our picture frame.  
We said go away bird, go away from my door.  
And the bird said back Nevermore, Nevermore.  
The bird just said back nevermore.  
 Hey, we were in elementary school! Crude but effective__ for us (smile). 

 Cut to me thirty years later.   I still sit in front of a group of eager listeners, who all sit criss cross apple sauce.   I still look for music that will aid in expanding conscious thinking in my early learners. I still make up songs and even use background music to enhance a story.  Just as it did for my siblings and I that special summer, music seems to fine tune the absorption of abstract concepts.  For example, I used the music from A Winter Solstice as background for the reading of, The Tree in the Ancient ForestIt lent a sense of mystery to the reading.  The children at Legacy Academy  at Camp Creek in Atlanta, Ga., LOVED it! I love to hear stories from the teachers about parents asking about this book and the music Ms. Pam plays with it. Their children are demanding that their parents read the story with Ms. Pam's music.  I love it! This book proved to be a great home/school connection tool.    The Tree in the Ancient Forest Additionally, Christopher Canyon's beautiful illustrations allowed students to apply newly introduced vocabulary (predator, prey, ancient, and although not specifically mentioned in the book, dependent) in their discussions during our literacy & music session. Enhancing expressive language through music and literacy is easily achieved.  The use of complex, low frequency words become second nature to early learner if presented in a manner that engages effectively. Well written and illustrated picture books allows for just such an engagement.  Audrey and Dan Wood allowed us to examine synonyms in, The Napping House The repetitive and lyrical lines in this book, allowed for the students' recall of descriptive words used for the characters. This book's wording and brilliant illustrations blend seamlessly. This story was a great tool for sequencing as well.  My students had no idea they were learning about synonyms and adjectives. There are many language activities that can be extracted from this story.  All of these examples show that picture books are amazing tools.


For World Read Aloud Day ,   The children at  Legacy Academy explored various habitats that allowed creatures to hide from predators and prey and "become part of what we see" in Phyllis Tildes',  Animals in 
Camouflage.   To expand our learning, McMillan's Sing and Learn, "Animals that Camouflage" was a perfect partner for our dramatic play activity.  The children would peek out from their hiding and whisper "I'm hiding, I'm hiding, you can't see me, you can't see me."  I use McMillan Sing and Learn as my go to music library.  There's a song for every theme.  Again, vocabulary and expressive language development were at the forefront of planning.  The dramatic play activity encouraged active conversation as we learned the meaning of:  Camouflage, habitat, arctic, grassland, and rainforest.  We revisited the terms predator and prey in this session as well. 

“Quote the Raven, Nevermore!”  These four words from my childhood became part of a series of events that set me on my current path to create MyLMNOP__the building blocks of Literacy.  The building blocks used in my program are:  Literature - Music - Naming - Oral Language - Phonemic Awareness and Picture Imaging.  These building blocks are used to assess what the students already know and knowledge gained during the literacy session.  Promoting skills of comprehension with early learners increases vocabulary, a sense of self-regard, and confidence. Children that begin the session shy and withdrawn become fully engaged.  Their enthusiasm and excitement gives them an "I Can" sensibility.  I've seen it time and time again.  Good books opens up more than a world of wonder.  Good books build a foundation for strong language skills that is empowering.  That is why I love what I do.

I've only recently created my blog and am still learning the process.  However, my intent is to use this blog as a teacher's lounge for early childhood educators.  Here, I'll share my literacy lesson plans accompanied by photos, videos, suggested and reading material.  The feedback from my early learners continue to motivate and inspire me to bring them the best in children's literature and I am having a ball!   

I'd like to thank Terry Doherty of Share A Story/ Shape A Future for allowing me to share my story on this year's literacy blog tour.  I've learned so much and the posts have been a tremendous resource.  Thank you very much.


24 comments:

  1. Thank you for participating in SAS*SAF with this wonderful post. I am smiling and chuckling a bit at the mention of The Napping House...headed to see my grandchildren for four days and I will read it many, many times. Thanks again!

    Carol Rasco
    Reading Is Fundamental

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  2. Have a wonderful time with your grands. How fun is The Napping House? Thank you for your support. I've had fun and have learned a lot from this event. Thanks for visiting.

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  3. I so enjoyed your post and your music connection! I can just see the kids sitting there "criss cross apple sauce" totally enrapt with your storytelling! I also love how you grew up with your mom and grandmother reading to all of you--what great memories you must have!

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    1. Thank you so much Sandra! This post brought back a lot of memories. I forced my siblings to listen to me read the Raven. I demanded they repeat, "Quote the Raven..." They still tease me about this. Thanks for dropping by. You're my biggest supporter!

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  4. I enjoyed reading your post! It taught me what LMNOP stood for - which for some reason, I hadn't caught on to before. I wish you luck with your blog -- keep at it. You learn with practice. Looking forward to following you.

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    1. Thank you for visiting Eric and thanks for the support! Your author birthday blog is great! I am learning so much and gaining more confidence. Again, thanks for dropping by.

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  5. Great post Pam. Thanks for sharing you book.

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    1. Thank you Cheryl for visiting my blog. I've seen the level of support you give writers. Also, I love how you share with your students. Great work,Cheryl!

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  6. I think it's wonderful, Pam :) what a great idea you have with My LMNOP :) nice and easy to remember

    Great job!
    Love,
    Denise of Ingleside

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    1. Thank you so much Denise of Ingleside! Sounds like a great title for a picture book. Although, I loved your last two pieces. Hope all is well. See you in the group!

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  7. Thanks, Pam, for stopping by my blog! We gals from rural Louisiana gotta stick together...;0)

    I'm from the swamps between Lafayette and Lake Charles although I live in Tennessee these days...and I'm one of your new followers!

    Take care,

    Donna

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    1. Hello, Donna. I'm on your blog a lot. Love your posts. Thank you for the follow and welcome! I'm from a small college town. You may have heard of it__Natchitoches.

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  8. I used to read entire books out loud to my little sister! This blog is turning into a great resource, as you intended.

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    1. I loved reading to my siblings. They on the other hand, did not always like my selections. As for my blog, I hope to learn more and become better. It's been three months and I am getting some good feedback. Thank you very much for taking time to drop by.

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  9. Wow! This is not a blog post. It's a tome.

    You were lucky to have someone who read to you as a child. There is a lot of research showing the direct correlation between being read to as a child and adult literacy. My good friend Wally Amos, founder of Famous Amos cookies, has been a longtime advocate of literacy through reading to children. His foundation, "Read it Loud!" goes all over the country trying to persuade parents to commit to reading to their children a minimum of ten minutes ever day. He also works closely with a nonprofit whose entire mission is giving books to low-income children. You would like Wally, I suspect.

    Teaming pictures with words to create added value has been around a long time. Here it appears that you are going one step beyond (maybe several steps beyond) by adding the additional element of music to enhance the experience. This is an ambitious project and I wish you the very best of luck! I assume that this blog will allow us to keep up with your progress.

    Warmest aloha,
    Kay in Hawaii

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    1. Hello Kay in Hawaii. Yes, I write the way I talk...TOO MUCH! I hope to learn to edit myself better. This is the kind of feedback I long for, so thank you so much. Yes, this blog will feature my engagement with early learners and the picture books and music,I choose for them. So I hope you'll visit me again and bring feedback with you to! Thank you Kay!

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  10. Great post!
    You had me at "I've always loved words." That resonated with me not because I talk a WHOLE lot, but because when I talk like to use fun words. I subscribe to dictionary.com's word of the day. When I receive those words, it causes me to want to look for opportunities to use my "new found" word of the day. I even challenge my Facebook friends to use it too. Some words I keep, some I discard after a few days, like a child's Christmas toy, but I do enjoy them at the time when I select them.

    Maybe I can send you a list of my dictionary.com words and you can compose a song for me too...maybe? :-)

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    1. LOL! Coretta, my work is quite crude indeed; however, the kids seem to enjoy my efforts. Thank you for your support, Coretta. I look forward to you feedback/critique (if you don't mind). Again, I loved your post on Oscar Wilde's quote!

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  11. What a great post! Some of my earliest memories involve reading and my favorite character has always been Sherlock Holmes. I know this blog may be mainly geared towards early childhood educators, but I think parents will benefit from it as well. I've already bookmarked it so I can come back as often as possible!

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    1. Karen, thank you for your support! Yes, I hope to make this blog a resource for parents, early childhood eds., unpublished and published pb writers, anyone who loves children and how they learn. So please come back for a visit. I look forward to your feedback.

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  12. Pam, I think you might be interested in this literacy connection at: http://twowritingteachers.wordpress.com. We write in Comments with our post links on Tuesdays and every day in March.
    BTW: When you mentioned music with reading - which I think is awesome - ...way back in the 70's I taped myself reading a book about going to the moon as I played a Moody Blues instrumental in the background. The kids made a rocket out of a refrigerator box and could go in there and listen to the cassette tape with a copy of the book. Boy, did they love that!

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  13. Donna, I'm picturing your rocket actitivty and can imagine your youngsters had! Thank you for the link, I'll be visiting it today. Thank you so much for your support.

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  14. Books are such a powerful tool for teachers and parents. I taught for 17 years and books were always the heart of my classroom.

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  15. Thanks for stopping by Sharon. I love it when my early learners ask for books by name or by the author. Even the toddlers can say, "Brown Bear, Brown Bear!" I love what I do!

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