Prosody instruction intervention as a means to improved reading comprehension

Abstract

SummaryThe relationship between prosody and comprehension, previously demonstrated in K–12 students, was examined in university students enrolled in first‐year writing classes. Students completed the Gray Oral Reading Test‐5 both before and after an expressive reading intervention (ER) or no oral reading instruction (NI). Throughout the semester, the ER students marked an excerpt of text for prosodic signals and read it aloud with a partner. Training and practice in expressive reading led to a significant improvement in the normed Oral Reading Index score. Specifically, ER participants demonstrated improved accuracy, fluency, and reading comprehension in comparison with NI participants. The significant relationship between accuracy and comprehension in the ER condition suggests that expressive reading instruction strengthened student ability to read words accurately and, in turn, comprehend the material better than students in the NI condition. Expressive reading practices are recommended to engage students more deeply with the text.

A Structured Literacy Approach to Support Striving Readers in Secondary Grades

“…Repeated reading is the best way to achieve this highest level of fluency (Cypert & Petro, 2019;Rasinski, 2017). Multiple readings allow for striving readers to overcome…”

“…Striving readers will find increased confidence and strengthened comprehension if these repeated readings are done aloud and together as a chorus (Cypert & Petro, 2019). Choral reading reinforces the correct pronunciation and emphasis of the sentences in a safe environment where no single student's voice is heard above others.…”

“…After several readings, students will read independently with such fluency and begin to build the skill on their own. Even though this practice is a group read aloud, the skill translates to increased comprehension during silent reading (Cypert & Petro, 2019;Rasinski, 2014).…”

“…Moreover, prosody cultivates a reader's "inner conversation" (Harvey & Goudvis, 2017, p. 88), through the necessary analysis and decision-making of how to speak the word. As such, prosodic fluency engenders meaningful transactions and connections with texts (Cypert & Petro, 2019).…”

“…Conversations with middle and high school English language arts (ELA) teachers will reveal that many of these educators chose the secondary level because of an intrinsic love of literature and the desire to impart that love to their students. That passion for literacy easily blends with the fluency strategy of choral reading a poem a week (Cypert & Petro, 2019;Rasinski, 2017). A prosody lesson in a secondary ELA classroom might include exposing students to copious poems with a variety of themes from diverse authors; while students exercise general comprehension techniques, teachers share their favorite poems.…”