Summary Of Fantastico

If you step into an elementary grade classroom you might see the morning message on the board. Some might take a glance at it and think nothing of it. Some do not realize that the Morning Message is a powerful literacy event that invites meaningful dialogue, introductions to new concepts and creates opportunities for modeling and practicing reading and writing.

The article, “Fantastico!”, written by Christina P. DeNicolo, highlights the value and benefits of using the morning message as a teaching tool. The article generates buzz by starting with a specific observation in the classroom. As the article progresses, Christina generalizes the idea behind the morning message and ends with the results of her quantitative case study. In her case

The purpose of the article was not just to answer these questions but to express a growing concern to the audience and educators. The article reveals that although many teachers are familiar with the rationale of the morning message few use it to its full potential. Christina answers her questions by the end of the article demonstrating the power behind the morning message. She highlights how well Ms. Ortelli provides embedded feedback in her lessons, encourages risk-tasking by speaking your mind and modeling bilingualism by interchanging between English and Spanish. Educators should take note that these are effective and clearly successful ways to help students grow and become better readers and speakers. Anyone working with children can benefit from this article because it provides a depiction of a successful style of communication among adults and students. The benefits of using the morning message and following Ms. Ortelli’s footsteps can lead to more fluent

The research information is thorough and evaluated seamlessly. I do think the conclusion ended on highlighting Ms. Ortelli’s teaching style rather than the main topic which was the morning message. It is quite clear that the topic of the article, the morning message, is a great way to teach vocabulary. In the article, many bilingual students did not know what “grandchildren” meant, but through critical thinking and accessing prior knowledge they broke the word down and figured it out. In chapter 6 of Morrow’s work, it talks about fluency, comprehension and vocabulary and how they all tie together. The morning message helps students strengthen their vocabulary. This is exactly what the morning message helps students do, especially in Ms. Ortelli’s bilingual classroom. Even in our classroom, Dr. Koitz highlights how essential vocabulary is, after all it is one of the 5 areas for reading instruction identified by the National Reading Panel. Dr. Koitz talked about that fluency, comprehension and vocabulary go hand in hand. The more vocabulary a student knows the more time is focused on understanding what is being read rather than decoding a single