Collier music teacher puts reading skills to music

COURTESY PHOTO Forrest Nichols For educators and parents challenged to make reading relevant and fun, "Dolch Dogs!" is a multi-media method that combines reading skills with music. The DVD program combines music, text-animation, movement and illustrations to help students learn the 220 most common words in the English language, referred to as "highfrequency" or "sight" words.

The concept of sight words was created by Edward William Dolch in 1948 and has since become a highly effective standard for teaching young children to read. Mr. Dolch identified 220 "service words" that children must recognize in order to read fluently, many of which cannot be sounded out and must be learned by sight.

Collier County educator Matthew Nichols, a teacher at Calusa Elementary School, developed "Dolch Dogs!"after observing children's positive reaction to learning when music was embedded into lesson plans.

"I've observed hundreds of students in the classroom, and I've seen cognitive abilities increase when children are enthusiastic and engaged," said Mr. Nichols, a 17-year veteran music teacher. "Research backs up my observations. Data shows that students learn and retain information better when the content is delivered through a variety of techniques.

"Experience tells me that if it's fun, it gets done," he added.

Mr. Nichols, who has a masters degree in music from the University of Miami, spent a year in a recording studio writing, composing, arranging and developing the score for the 55 songs contained in "Dolch Dogs!"

"Even my 5-year-old daughter and her friends helped out, lending their voices to many of the songs," he said.

Although the Dolch Word List was originally created in the context of teaching English speaking children to read, it is now being considered as a teaching method for English as a Second Language (ESL) students as well. In addition to the 55 music videos, the program includes: 44 "Big Books" videos, 12 games and activities, and printable resources for teachers (student progress reports, certificates, etc.). Mr. Nichols has piloted "Dolch Dogs!" in several classrooms and reports the response has been overwhelming. "Children who had

been struggling for months were able to remember their sight words when they could see them, say them and sing them," he said.

For more information, e-mail Forrest Nichols at frnichols@curriculalala.com.