Shared Reading Poems

These three poems are the ones that are most frequently read in shared reading. What I have been doing with these shared reading is that I read aloud them to the students twice, and then I allow them to read aloud as a class. We then looked at the features of the text more carefully. For example, in Rope Rhyme, we looked at how the poet used rhyming words to make the poem more fun to read. We also worked on envisioning it by making a mental movie in our minds - thinking about what it is like to jump rope. In Good Night Juma, we examined the poet's use of line breaks, and punctuations, which creates a dialogue between the father and the son. In City Child, we discussed what life is like living in a city and made comparison and connections between their lives and the poet's interpretation.

Exhibit 20

By analyzing the observation notes (exhibit 20), one will notice that Jesse was consistently repeating the lines on his own, and tapping the desk to follow the rhythmic pattern of the poem. Throughout the shared reading, Jesse continued to mouth words quietly on his own without disturbing others. On the other hand, Nathan seemed somewhat unmotivated. He was looking at the chart paper with concentration, however, he did not seem to be in the 'flow' of it like Jesse. I am implicating that shared reading may be more of an abstract task for Nathan because the structure of shared reading seems to be more of a 'free flow' and that it is not like a read aloud where he is being read to. In this learning process, Nathan appears to be a more passive learner; as he was not sure when and how to get involved in this type of reading/learning process. My next step with Nathan is to provide him with more frequent one-on-one coaching during readers' workshop, thus allow both of us to read to each other in order to get him more comfortable in reading aloud and understanding the structure of shared reading.

Rope Rhyme – Eloise Greenfield

Get set, ready now, jump right in
Bounce and kick and giggle and spin
Listen to the rope when it hits the ground
Listen to that clappety-slappedy sound
Jump right up when it tells you to
Come back down, whatever you do
Count to a hundred, count by ten
Start to count all over again
That’s what jumping is all about
Get set, ready now jump right out!

Good Night, Juma – Eloise Greenfield

Go to bed Juma
Just one more game?
Go to bed Juma
Just one more show?
Go to bed Juma
Just one more minute?
Juma, go to bed
I said.
Just –
No.
– a hug?
Oh. You bet
Good night, Daddy?
Good night, Juma.

City Child – Louis Lensko

The sidewalk is my yard
The lamppost is my tree,
Up three long flights of stairs,
My home is 4C.

The fire escape is my porch
Where my clothes hang out to dry
All day the noise and rush,
All night the trains go by.

Tall buildings all around
Reach up and shadow me,
Sometimes the great big sun,
Comes peeping round to see.

All day the people pass
They hurry as they go
But when they are my friends,
They stop and say hello.