Repeated reading

Repeated reading is one of the most widely researched reading fluency strategies, and is often described as a 'bridge' between decoding and comprehension. The idea behind repeated reading is that familiarity with the text builds and deepens engagement, which in turn supports reading comprehension of that particular text through the development of 'automaticity'.

Automaticity and the role of working memory

Automaticity is a key component of reading fluency. Automaticity in reading refers to decoding skills that have aligned with the child’s deeper language processing system. This alignment allows familiar vocabulary to be recognised in written form without resorting to word attack skills. When this happens, working memory capacity is no longer deployed to monitor and manage the processes of decoding graphemes - printed letters and words. Automaticity frees up working memory so that the reader engages with the text at a deeper, more meaningful level. The child no longer feels the weight of decoding, but becomes fluent and free.

Automaticity develops naturally in some children, but not in others, even when they have received explicit phonics teaching. If we think of fluency as the 'bridge' between decoding and the development of reading comprehension skills, it appears that automaticity supports this 'bridge' in many, but not all pupils.

Rate versus meaning and why reading rate alone isn't enough

Rate of reading is faster in fluent readers and slower in readers who are not yet fluent. It's logical to assume that faster reading boosts the development of reading fluency. And yet, there are many children who have learned to decode quickly, but for whom reading is meaningless and thesis why we must draw a distinction between reading at a fast pace and fluent reading. Naming words at a fast pace, versus building a flowing narrative from words are two very different things. Naming words at pace requires effortful control, whereas building a flowing narrative from words uses deeper language processes that feel natural and can be sustained with ease.

When prosody clicks, meaning flows and reluctant readers transform into book lovers.

Reading with ease is enjoyable for children. We can hear this when children read aloud: their expressive intonation in the rise and fall of their voice mirrors the deep grammatical structures of each phrase and sentence. This quality in fluent reading is also known as prosody. Engagement with the text is inherently meaningful for the child and I have seen many reluctant readers become enthusiastic bookworms as soon as their prosody drops into place and grammatical structures 'click' into place.

The stubborn fluency gap

There are many pedagogical frameworks and processes that claim to support the development of reading fluency, but for decades there has been no significant change in the number of children who do not reach age expectation in reading at the end of primary school.

Which of your pupils read quickly but without meaning and which are still reading slowly with the burden of decoding weighing heavily upon them? All of these are children who are most likely to benefit from a rhythm-based approach.

Why rhythm matters

Rhythm is present in the breath, the pulse and all muscular movement, and also helps to organize the deeper structures of communication in all species, including human language processing. This is why a rhythm-based intervention can help to align reading skills within a child's spoken language processes. Let’s take this step by step.

Automaticity requires rapid processing of phoneme / grapheme correspondence. A rhythm-based intervention provides renewed focus of attention as well as increased sensitivity at the front edge (onset) of the smallest sounds of language (phonemes), and facilitates fluency either through automaticity or a similar rhythm-based mechanism that supports rapid and easeful processing.

Finding the 'comfort zone'

When children are not yet reading with fluency and ease, their rate of reading involves effortful decoding, regardless of whether the pace is fast or slow. The demands of the text can vary in many ways, but particularly in terms of:

• familiar or unfamiliar vocabulary

• phonemically regular or irregular orthography

• complex or straightforward sentence construction.

These variables can affect rate of reading, and when children are not yet fluent readers, they often slow their pace of reading for unfamiliar vocabulary, phonemically irregular words and ‘garden path’ sentence constructions.

However, when the children become fluent readers, they are able to infer from contextual cues and decode the more challenging words, phrases and sentences without having to slow right down. They may lose a little momentum, but the overall rate of reading remains comfortable.

This ‘comfort zone’ allows for flexibility around slightly ambiguous words or phrases, but the child continues to use context and the meaning of the passage to help them anticipate what is coming up next in their reading. This type of flexibility is absent among the children who read quickly, but are not assimilating meaning from the text.

The 'comfort zone' is the 'sweet spot', where fluency, language, and meaning align, and reading for pleasure emerges from this state of balance.

Rhythm for Reading in Practice

This 'comfort zone' is what we help children find in Rhythm for Reading, in just ten minutes a week.

Meaning and decoding are naturally coupled together at this ‘sweet spot’, and this is where reading for pleasure and a love of learning can develop. Rhythm-based intervention provides the means to access this ‘comfort zone’, and can often involve faster-paced readers slowing down, whilst slower-paced readers develop momentum in their reading. The destination is a delicate balance where all of the components of reading align within language processing, such that reading feels relaxed, engaging and meaningful.

Although repeated reading involves the child reading in time with a pre-recorded reader, via pair reading or within a larger group and this may work well for some children, who needed support with sustained attention, for children who are decoding superficially (without assimilating meaning) and for children who have become disaffected by reading, an alternative approach is needed.

Rhythm for Reading offers an effective alternative. The approach does not require letters and words, but uses simple musical notes instead. The point is that rhythm serves language and music and gestures, so we can cut across different domains in this modality. Musical notes offer a very light load in terms of decoding and a faster route to fluency that requires only ten minutes of practice per week. Effects are seen after only three weeks.

Join me live this Thursday at 7.00PM BST for “Ten Minute Sessions that Support Transformation.” Together we’ll explore how rhythm unlocks fluency, meaning, and motivation for even the most reluctant readers. Sign up HERE