Laura Purdie Salas

Small Reads for Brighters Days

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You are here: Home / Poems for Teachers / Tip #15: Echo Read [Poetry Tips for Teachers]

Tip #15: Echo Read [Poetry Tips for Teachers]

April 21, 2015 By Laura

Welcome to today’s tip in my month-long Poetry Tips for Teachers series.

Tip #15: Echo read.

Try echo reading. You read a line, and then the students echo it back to you. This is great for helping students’ fluency, and I’m always amazed at how quickly and how well they pick up on performance nuances. Kids don’t feel self-conscious reading loud or emphasizing words or whatever, because they’re just doing what you’re doing. Over time, though, they absorb those skills and use them in other reading.

I’ve usually used this technique with rhythmic, rhyming poems, though I think it also has applications with free verse or other non-rhyming forms. If I were echo-reading a non-rhyming poem, I would point out that I was going to demonstrate ONE way to read the poem, and they were going to mimic that way, just as a way to absorb the poem and where I emphasize words, pause, and such. I would also make sure to let kids know, though, that my way is definitely not the only way to read it. Another plus of echo reading is it takes away the intimidation factor.

Two tips: Choose relatively short poems and choose poems with short lines. Otherwise, the reading will get cumbersome and the poem will seem to drag on forever!

Here’s a poem I might use with this technique, from the brand new Poetry Friday Anthology for Celebrations–Janet Wong and Sylvia Vardell’s latest brainchild!

A Paper Bag Is Never Empty

 

And here I am reading the poem with space left for the echoing back.

Tagged With: Laura's books, Laura's poems, National Poetry Month 2015, poems, poetry books, Poetry Friday Anthologies, Poetry Tips for Teachers, rhyming poems

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Related

« Tip #14: Riddle Me This [Poetry Tips for Teachers]
Tip #16: Add Sound Effects [Poetry Tips for Teachers] »

MARCH NEWS

ZAP! CLAP! BOOM! is out, and FINDING FAMILY and PUDDLE SONG are hot on its heels. I'm celebrating all 3 with a storytime book launch party at Red Balloon on April 1st. No fooling! Hope you can come (with or without kids).

Join me on April 1st? Click image for details!

I'm also presenting at a Young Authors Conference, marketing all 3 new books, and doing several virtual field trips for students. Happy almost-spring!

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