Mike Artell
Tongue twisters have come a long way since 'Susie sold seashells by the seashore.' Today’s tongue twisters come in crazy, hilarious varieties like the short and simple, 'Rear wheel rims' (say it three times fast), or the longer and hard to understand variety such as: 'Was who you’re with where you are with you when you were where you were?' (Both of which are found in this book.)Besides being fun to say out loud, tongue twisters can be readily adapted to language arts programs and are are great for developing the sometimes neglected language arts skill of articulation - that is, saying words clearly so they can be understood. After you’ve mastered these English-language tongue twisters, try to recite foreign language tongue twisters. Just do an Internet search on the term, 'foreign language tongue twisters' and you can pick from examples in dozens of languages. Here’s one in Spanish: 'Mi mamá me mima mucho.' (My mother spoils me a lot.)Short writing is real writing and teachers can encourage students to write short humor like this by creating a tongue twister contest. Everyone in the class or school writes a tongue twister (using the technique described in the back of this bookI) and the writer of the winning tongue twister gets to recite the winning tongue twister on the school’s morning announcements. Or for REAL fun, challenge the school’s principal to recite a daily tongue twister on the morning announcements. Ha!Do you want to encourage a reluctant reader to read more? These tongue twisters are short, fun and challenging - and many of the pages include clever cartoons. That’s just about everything you could want if you’re interested in capturing the attention and interest of kids who say they don’t like to read. Give it a try!
