Middle School Gets Students Pumped About Reading

I work in the Reading Center in the College of Educational Studies, and, the other day, my boss told me about a video called "Gotta Keep Reading." Teachers at a Florida middle school were brainstorming ideas on how promote reading in their classrooms. According to the Orlando Sentinnel, the school's reading coach said that "Students have a lot of other interests. Oftentimes, reading takes a back seat to that." Therefore, teachers and staff decided to take the lyrics of the popular Black Eyed Peas song "I Gotta Feeling" and change it to a song called "I Gotta Keep Reading." They then taught all 1700 students plus faculty and staff dance moves so that they could create a flash mob video. Oprah Winfrey heard about the video and talked about the school on her talk show. Not only did it give the school some well-deserved publicity, but creating the video has also sparked students' interest in reading just as the school's teachers hoped it would.

This video reminds me a lot about what we're reflecting on in our Tapestry class. Integrating core subjects with the arts is a great way to inspire students to learn. Not only will we be creating lesson plans that incorporate the arts, but integrating different subjects within our classrooms has been a theme throughout many of our Liberal Studies courses. I think "I Gotta Keep Reading" is a great example of how music can inspire students and how little ideas that teachers have can make a huge, nation-wide impact.

You can read more information at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/education/os-oprah-ocoee-middle-video-030510-20100305,0,3588100.story