Shouldn’t reading involve more?

While it is important for students to be able to decode words and understand the literal meaning of what they read, shouldn’t reading involve more? When I choose a book to read, it is not because I really like just being able to decode the words … I choose books and authors that allow me to make a person connection with the story and establish some type of emotional response. I don’t feel like I am really reading a book if it doesn’t make me feel anything (sad, happy, mad, hopeful, wonder, suspense, excitement … ).
We want students to smile and laugh and get curious and upset and confused and excited … to interact with words and stories they are reading. How can we help children make these emotional connections with what they read?
Using the arts to help children make these personal connections can promote interest in language, build vocabulary, encourage comprehension, as well as reinforce phonemic awareness. But is also just fun!
Here are some ideas of ways the Arts can be used to teach reading from Lively Learning by Linda Crawford:

• Read poetry aloud. It is a great way to capture student imagination. Think of all the ways poetry uses rhythm, sounds, and vivid imagery.
• Use storytelling to involve students in participatory listening. You read part and then stop and let them fill in the words or guess what will happen next. You could tell the same story with several different ending and then let children pick the one they liked the best. Invite the children to tell you how a story could be different, especially if it was told from another point-of-view. Storytelling is also a good way to develop vocabulary skills.
• Don’t forget to use music along with the stories. Did you know that singing songs can help children learn to spell, develop phonemic awareness, and build reading fluency? It doesn’t matter how old a child is, using music with stories can enhance understanding. Even asking children to suggest sound effects to go along with stories helps demonstrate their understanding of what is going on in the story.
• When children draw pictures to go along with stories, they have to think deeply and interact with all the pieces of the story. That is higher order thinking taking place! Having children plan out their drawings promotes thinking even more!
• Challenging children to retell as story using movement really taps into that deeper level of understanding.

Think of all the stories on Big Universe that you could use with any of these suggestions!

image from http://www.flickr.com/photos/86802545@N00/269032594/#