Reading Fluency Through Alternative Text: Rereading with an Interactive Sing-to-Read Program Embedded With in a Middle School Music Classroom

Vol. 4 No. 1

Year: 2008

Issue: Jun-Aug

Title: Reading Fluency Through Alternative Text: Rereading with an Interactive Sing-to-Read Program Embedded With in a Middle School Music Classroom 

Author Name: Marie C. Biggs, Nancy A. Watkins 

Synopsis: 

Singing exaggerates the language of reading. The students find their voices in the rhythm and bounce of language by using music as an alternative technological approach to reading. A concurrent mixed methods study was conducted to investigate the use of an interactive sing-to-read program Tune Into Reading (Electronic Learning Products, 2006) embedded within a heterogeneous music classroom. Measured by the Qualitative Reading Inventory-4 (QRI-4) (Leslie & Caldwell, 2006), the fluency, word recognition, comprehension, and instructional reading level of the treatment students n=32 were compared to their counterparts n=32 who sang as part of the regular music program. Concurrently, this investigation also provided a description of the peers’ interactions during the literacy tasks assigned by the music teacher. The study findings indicated that the middle school students of varying reading levels significantly improved in their reading scores through the use of this technological approach. Students using the interactive sing-to-read program Tune Into Reading significantly outscored their counterparts who were rereading through singing in the regular music classroom. Furthermore, the use of the interactive program provided opportunities for differentiated reading level achievement. This in turn highly influenced the early adolescent’s motivation, engagement, participation, and successful outcomes in reading fluency.