Melissa Anderson Blog #1 Chapter 8 Reading Essentials

           I chose to read chapter 8 in the book Reading Essentials by Regie Routman. As with any professional text, my first thoughts are, “How can this apply to me and my music students?” I believe that music and literacy are very closely connected. We read words in music any time we sing, but we also need to learn how to read and comprehend the music symbols in our pieces we sing and play.                The first topic to catch my attention was the emphasis on word calling, automaticity, and fluency and its effect on the comprehension of the passage being read. Then the testing of this comprehension without first instructing the students how to understand what was read. Reflecting on this issue with my classroom situation, I found that I do the same thing. I push note and symbol recognition, and then just expect them to understand those notes and symbols in the context of a piece of music. I often fail to help make the connection between the symbols and their meaning. Then I ask the students to read or play the rhythm without thorough instruction on how to do so. I need to teach strategies that will assist my students in music reading comprehension.
          Another point that caught my attention in the chapter was the idea of surveying text before beginning to read. This is where the students take a moment before beginning a text to gather important information that my help the students during the reading of the text. Looking at the title, illustrations, and how the text is organized gives the students ideas about what they might read during the text and what they might expect to pull from what they are reading. This could also be helpful when reading a piece of music. Students could look at the title of the song, the time signature, any illustrations around the song, the key signature, the number of measures, the general shape of the melody, and the basic formation of the rhythm before they ever begin to hear or read the piece. This would help the students to prepare for what they are about to hear, sing, or play. This will build their comprehension by front loading information that is important to the piece of music they are about to experience.