iTouch, step 3 - songs for learning

For my graduate action research I am observing whether singing can produce better fluency than reading. I introduce a new poem or song every week. They kids glue the poem or lyrics into their poetry books to practice reading at home, and we practice reading it every day at school for that week. I do a running record every Monday and Friday, hoping the data I am collecting will show that kids can read more fluently after learning a song than a poem.

I have lots of poems that I've collected over the years; everything from Jack Prelunsky to Robert Frost. The songs presented more of a challenge. What songs should I use and how do I present them? I decided that I could kill two birds with one stone if I used learning songs, like the ones Dr. Jean has created. It's not that I wouldn't rather be using popular music, but I needed songs that were short, simple and to familiar tunes. It's a plus to match them to learning about money, verbs, vowel sounds, contractions, etc.

I came up with the idea to make PowerPoints with the songs embedded, and then turn them into videos. We watch these on the smart board. Here is a short clip of one:

It was a short mental hop to think about how these songs could be used with the iTouch in a way that I can't use them on the Shuffles. The video includes the music and the lyrics, so the kids will be listening and reading at the same time.