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Some books written solely on the topic of rhythm are in the current literature and are

described in Section 1.7. Overall, the books found do not meet my objectives of having a variety

of learning opportunities with a focus on developing a sense of meter and understanding time

signatures. One book taught students to see rhythmic notation in terms of “play” and “don’t

play.” Quarter notes would equate to the word “play,” and half notes would require the word

“play” on the first beat and “don’t play” on the second beat. This was one of the more egregious

examples of poor rhythmic instruction. Most books or methods taught that the time signature 6/8

had 6 beats, a definition which misses the fundamental rhythmic concept of compound time; the

6, 9, or 12 on the top is the number of divisions in the measure, not the number of beats. Any

time signature with 6 on top is in duple meter, with two strong beats per measure.

One benefit of having a book with multiple drills on a particular unit topic (dotted quarter

followed by single eighth, for example) is that students can develop a mental database filled with

the sounds and visual images of common rhythm patterns. If students see and practice rhythmic

topics in a variety of combinations, more mastery and fluidity of reading will result. I enjoyed

watching my own children learn to read during their kindergarten years. During that time period,

I was impressed by how many mini-books the young children made during school every week.

They cut and taped squares of paper, pre-printed with story lines using the consonant or syllable

that was being studied in a particular week. By the end of the year, the students had a large,

gallon-sized Ziploc bag filled with mini-books that they had been making and reading for the

previous nine months. Being able to read aloud fluidly was one of the goals of the year for the

kindergarteners. These mini-books helped students achieve that goal by giving young children a

multitude of word combinations to be utilized during quiet reading as well as reading aloud in