Kids Learn to Read Through Song

Now I knew that I could learn faster when I heard a song performed by The Fifth Dimension many, many years ago. It was from their "Portrait" album and was titled, "The Declaration" part of a trio of songs. As it aptly states, it's a song derived from the words in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence. Which to this day, I can recite because I hear the tune in my mind and the words come with it - "We hold these truths to be be self-evident, that all men are created equal. That they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights. That among these, are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. And to secure these rights, governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..."

Not to bad for an old broad who hasn't thought of that song in decades!

But enough about me - this is about kids learning to read.

I heard a news story about this earlier today and went looking for the actual program. The link below takes you the website of the company that created the program and has a video that explains how it works. Unfortunately, I'm not computer savvy enough to figure out a way to post the video directly so you'll have to click the link on their website.

Fascinating concept don't you think? Kids learning to read by putting the words to music? I always wondered why kids could repeat every nasty little verse in a gangsta rap song but couldn't read their textbooks if their life depended on it.

So now we know. In some way, in some manner, the music (again back to my original post about why I decided to do this blog) seems to have some deep meaning for us. Not the lyrics but the actual tones and melodies. And isn't it great that, although I still don't have an answer as to why we love music, someone has figured out a way to take our love of musical tone and use it to help kids learn to read faster and with better comprehension? I for one think it's great. And I hope more educators take a look at this program and consider it for their curriculum!

http://www.elpcorp.com/content.cfm?page_id=191