I believe that together, as educators on a mission to 'make a difference', we must raise standards in reading. Rhythm is the missing piece of the puzzle and the Rhythm for Reading Programme - a simple and reliable method to achieve transformation for so many children that are otherwise left behind. It provides a cumulative and structured approach that supports inclusive teaching and learning.

For instance, there is absolutely no need to break down tasks. We strive to lighten the cognitive load on working memory as an inbuilt feature, and this is why pupils experience the satisfaction of reading musical notation fluently in the very first week. Although most curriculum subjects encourage progress in speaking or writing or problem-solving, our approach is multi-sensory, and we develop children's rhythmic sensitivity in a range of different ways. On the one hand, the materials and resources are designed to sustain the fluency of the children’s reading, and on the other hand we adapt the level of challenge by working with the children’s ears, eyes, voices, hands and feet in ever-changing combinations and this may remind you of the so-called 'flow' state.

A flow state

A flow state is highly desirable as it is associated with efficiency, well-being and the development of expertise in many different fields. To understand the flow state phenomenon, Csikszentmihalyi interviewed expert surgeons, rock climbers and chess players who had developed their interest in each activity mainly for its intrinsic rewards, but also spoke about the element of risk involved. It is fascinating to consider that these individuals felt compelled to push hard against the limits of their knowledge and skills and actively challenged themselves in ways that forced them to develop their competence further.

A willingness to confront challenging situations, which involved a degree of risk, enabled these individuals to build systematically upon their knowledge, competency and skills, which in turn led to the development of their expertise. There are obvious dangers in surgery and rock-climbing, which put physical safety at risk, whereas in playing chess, the risk occurs at an abstract level involving the mental discipline and strength of each player. However, in each setting, the surgeons, rock-climbers and chess players experienced what Csikszentmihalyi described as a ‘merging of action and awareness’, which enabled them to focus all of their attention on their engagement with the activity (2000, p.149).

In studying the flow state, Csikszentmihalyi discovered patterns such as (i) move and counter-move in chess and (ii) movement and balance cycles in rock-climbing. These patterns of behaviour were key to achieving a state of relaxed alertness, described by one participant as a ‘self-contained universe’ (2000, p.40). Surprisingly, the similarities between the flow state described in high stress activities such as rock-climbing can be compared with the more relaxing activity of reading for pleasure: this is similarly dependent on the coordination and maintenance of multiple skills, but with the addition of fluency of movement across printed words and the deployment of rhythmic sensitivity to the patterns within language.

Challenge and ease

Rhythm for Reading engages working memory and strengthens cognitive control by gradually increasing demands on cognitive flexibility week by week. In each session, children are challenged to build a repertoire of routines and techniques. Ease is maintained all the while, supporting fluency and control in the execution of all the tasks. Most importantly of all, the primary goal is to support an ethos of inclusivity by maintaining the pupils’ emotional security at all times. Fluency is established at the start and it is maintained right through to the end of the ten weeks. Fluency is not just our goal, it's our foundation.

Meet 'Luke'

Of course, there are different ways to define and to measure reading fluency, but here is a snapshot of what I found when using two types of assessment. Luke (not his real name) has special educational needs, and he participated in the Rhythm for Reading sessions with unwavering commitment. Although he was younger than other children in his group, he quickly became their leader. His teacher observed every session and was amazed by his confident approach, saying that this was a side of him that the staff at school had not seen before. When the ten weeks of the programme ended, Luke had gained 7 months in reading fluency (AAB)*(see appendix) and 35 months in sentence comprehension (AAB). His scores on the NARA II showed a gain of 13 months in accuracy, 8 months in comprehension and 38 months in rate of reading.

Luke’s teacher observed his classwork and filled in a survey - he’d made better progress than usual in using punctuation, understanding texts, participating in class and in his attitude towards reading. I asked Luke whether or not he’d noticed a change in his reading since we started the programme.

He replied, “It’s helped me with my reading and my eye focussing and my concentrating.”

When I asked him how that made him feel, his response was heartfelt,

"It makes me feel better. It makes me want to read more.

I never wanted to read. I never used to read. Now I love reading."

Hearing Luke read expressively and effortlessly on that day was wonderful, but to hear him proclaim his enjoyment of reading was such a privilege. I heard from his teacher at the end of the school year, that all of the boys who had taken part had maintained their progress.

The rhythms of flow and fluency

Just as the natural rhythms of move versus countermove in chess and, movement versus balance involved in climbing induce a state of alert awareness, research into rhythm-based approaches to the teaching of reading has shown that developing pupils’ sensitivity to rhythm has allowed them to enjoy and understand what they read at the level of the phrase, the sentence and the narrative (Long, 2014). This state of pure involvement and learned sensitivity has enabled children to make extraordinary progress in only ten weeks - best of all, they now love to read.

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References

Csikszentmihalyi: (1975; 2000) Beyond boredom and anxiety: Experiencing flow in work and play, 25th anniversary edition San Francisco, Jossey-Bass Inc.

Long, M. (2014) ‘I can read further and there’s more meaning while I read’: An exploratory study investigating the impact of a rhythm-based music intervention on children’s reading, Research Studies in Music Education, 36 (1) , pp. 107-124

Appendix

*You might be wondering what the AAB is. The Academic Achievement Battery (AAB), constructed by Melissa Messer, was published in 2014 by PAR. The AAB is suitable for children and adults (4 - 85 years) and offers 15 subtests in reading, writing, spelling and arithmetic. There are two similarities between the sentence comprehension test from the AAB and reading comprehension as assessed by the Neale Analysis of Reading Ability (2nd British Edition), published by GL Assessment. Both tests assess comprehension while the pupil has the text in front of them. In other words, they are not being assessed on their capacity to remember the text. Like the NARA II, illustrations are an integral part of the AAB test, increasing the appeal of the format for reluctant readers with fragile word recognition skills. The AAB measures reading fluency as the number of correct words read in one minute. The obvious advantage of this approach is that it is quick and easy to use. However, it is not designed to capture the positive changes in expression and engagement with reading that we have become accustomed to hearing.