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After Mr. Eric answered questions from the students, he shared his philosophy of reading and using rhythm, rhyme and music to engage children in reading:
READING is understanding. Books can use higher vocabulary words when they are supported in these ten ways: sight words, phonics, music, movement, call and response, repetition, rhyme, rhythm (cadence) linear and circular patterns, visual cues (art). All are important when reading out loud to children and for them reading joyfully and successfully independently.
When Mr. Eric was a third-grade special needs teacher, he passed by the kindergarten hallway and noticed a little girl grab a book and hold it like a baby. When he went back to third grade, he realized those students did not love books in that way. He asked himself, “What happens between kindergarten and third grade that students caused student to not love reading . He felt that when we teach children how to read we focusing only on sight words and decoding, we are not using the many tools available us to help children read.
Books have to be comprehensible and compelling. What makes his books comprehensible? His books add such things as music, movement call and response, cadence, and visual cues to the traditional tools of phonics, sight words, and structure. His books are fun and joyful. If you are singing and dancing, you are engaging. Children READ Eric Litwin’s books with a combination of methods – memory, rhyme, recognition of some words, and prediction. For example, “Groovy Joe saw something yummy. He rubbed his tummy.” A young reader can figure this out because of rhyme and cadence. It gives the reader control and power.
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I started adding music and movement to engage children, then they started to read and comprehendAfter Mr. Eric answered questions from the students, he shared his philosophy of reading and using rhythm, rhyme and music to engage children in reading:
READING is understanding. Books can use higher vocabulary words when they are supported in these ten ways: sight words, phonics, music, movement, call
Comprehensible text plus a compelling story engage children in reading.
Children who are confronted with frustration because they can’t read quit trying to read. If they are met with JOY, they keep reading. The most important vehicle for academics is reading. The more children read, the better reader they become. Mr. Eric calls this the “Success Circle:
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I started adding music and movement to engage children, then they started to read and comprehend