HIT: Nursery rhymes - final hit

[Douglas Heath <elnheath@WORLDNET.ATT.NET>]

Dear Netters,
    Joan Kimball's response was so useful that I asked her permission to
post it to you all.  There are some interesting links near the end.
    Ellen Heath

I'm so glad you brought this up.  I found two years ago, when I had nursery
rhyme characters hanging on my Christmas tree in the library that about the
same number, maybe 8 or 10 first graders out of 75, recognized the
characters.
I think it is important for English-speaking children to know the most
well-known nursery rhymes for an understanding of literature in English,
but few language arts curricula include them.  They are also humorous,
mind-stretching and perfect for reading readiness.
It is possible that elementary librarians, in the U.S. at least, will turn
out to be a crucial resource in schools for classic children's literature.
The greatest difficulty is how to choose what to emphasize.  The Core
Knowledge Foundation has been studying this issue since the late 1980's and
enlisted a large group of educators to draw up a list of titles no child
should miss.  Core Knowledge has published a set of books that list
important literature at each grade level as well as history, math, music,
art, and science that all elementary children should be exposed to.  I
recommend their books beginning with "What Your Kindergartener Needs to
Know", "What Your First Grader Needs to Know", etc. up to Eighth Grade.
They also have a fine bibliography called "Books to Build On" by E. D.
Hirsch, 1996.  Their web site has lots of in-depth lesson plans, by grade
level that can be printed. See:
http://www.coreknowledge.org/
They have some nursery rhyme plans on the PreSchool list. Go to:
http://www.coreknowledge.org/CKproto2/resrcs/lessons/Prek.htm
At the above page I clicked on "Laura Smolkin's Rhyme a Week" and got a
change of URL to:
http://curry.edschool.virginia.edu/go/wil/rimes_and_rhymes.htm
This site is frustratingly slow loading, but it has an interesting approach
with laminated cards that should work for kindergarten as well as
preschool.
And there, under Instruction I found this rationale for teaching the rhymes.
(I quote):
"Why Use Classic Nursery Rhymes?
"When I've been asked why I decided to use the classic nursery rhymes as
the basis for WIL's phonological awareness
program, the first answer that always comes to my mind is simply that the
rhymes are fun. Children for generations have
enjoyed the silliness of the characters' antics. But there's much more to
these rhymes than simply their good humor and
their aboundingly enthusiastic rhythm. The rhymes are the canon of our
youngest set.
"Nursery rhymes introduce young listeners to story structure in its most
basic form. There's an orientation -- Peter Pumpkin
eater has a wife. There's a problem -- He's having trouble keeping her.
And, there's a resolution -- He puts her in a pumpkin
shell and there he keeps her very well.
"Nursery rhymes also introduce children to a cast of characters who are
likely to reappear throughout their school lives. You
can't enjoy the Ahlberg's delightful Each Peach Pear Plum if you don't get
the allusions to the nursery rhymes.
"Nursery rhymes also greatly enrich young children's vocabularies and
supply some early lessons in the ways our language
works. Jack Sprat is lean; when we read this rhyme to children, we have to
explain that word. And children add another
word to their developing vocabularies. When a child asks, "What does it
mean -- Molly my sister and I fell out?", you explain
that "fell out" is an expression we don't use much anymore. It used to mean
"had an argument". And children get a glimpse of
how words and expressions work in English.
"Then, too, nursery rhymes encourage thinking skills. Particularly
entertaining are the riddle rhymes like Little Nancy
Etticoat or Hick-A-More, Hack-A-More. Children like the challenge of a
riddle. We've followed Mother Goose's lead,
including riddle rhymes as part of our weekly instruction.
"Finally, the nursery rhymes provide short, simple texts. While their
uncontrolled vocabulary may occasionally make them
tough to decode, their unrelenting rhythm makes them perfect for emerging
readers who are developing their concepts of
what a word is."
Joan Kimball

Ellen Heath, Librarian, Orchard School, Ridgewood, NJ
    elnheath@worldnet.att.net

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