Got Prosody? Ensuring that students comprehend what they read aloud.

Got Prosody?

Years ago, I traveled to Cincinnati for an early literacy conference. The night before the conference started, I took in a Cincinnati Reds baseball game. And there she was…a woman wearing a black t-shirt that read, “Got Prosody?”, in the style of the “Got Milk?” campaign. Instantly, we became kindred spirits, in the concession line waiting for our Cincinnati chili. (Yes, it was served atop spaghetti, covered with toppings.) Since this encounter, I have dreamed of finding that shirt for myself or starting a cheer at an all-staff meeting where we chant, “We have prosody, how ‘bout you?”

This begs the questions: What is prosody? Why is it important?

In short, prosody is intonation – the rhythm and sound that give words read aloud more meaning. Early readers are typically tested for how many words correct per minute (WCPM) they can read aloud. If you have administered a few screeners during your career, you know the difference between WCPM and WCPM with prosody. Outside of testing situations, when students read with prosody, they are achieving the ultimate goal of literacy: growing their literacy skills and shifting to automaticity, allowing for deeper reading comprehension and a rich experience.

Struggling to sound out words is frustrating for a child learning to read. We know with certainty that students need to be taught to read using a program that is underpinned by the science of reading. Having fidelity to a high-quality reading program is essential for educators. This helps them ensure that students learn to decode text by accessing reading content that is challenging, but not difficult enough to overwhelm beginning readers.

Studies show that passages used to test students differ in difficulty, which can lead to WCPM being inaccurately inflated or deflated (Toyama, et al., 2017¹). In the Toyama study, he and his colleagues investigated the complexity of 167 passages, leveled for grades 1 through 6, used for reading assessments in four classrooms of children. After exploring these evaluations, using four analytical tools of text complexity, researchers found considerable cross-assessment variability in the size of the increase in complexity from grade to grade, the overall range of complexity, and the within-grade text complexity.

In addition, studies demonstrate that it is important to test the difficulty of the passages.² This is where the Lexile® Framework for Oral Reading comes in. In 2020, MetaMetrics’ psychometricians, data scientists, and machine learning team developed a new way to measure and level oral reading passages. Studies have found that text complexity and various component features accounted for about half of the text-based oral reading fluency (ORF) variability of middle school students.³

Empirical studies have shown that ORF is strongly related to text complexity. Another study found that “evidence continues to point to less-controlled passage sets, or the difference in passage text difficulty, as the most pressing threat to valid interpretations of R-CMB (Reading – Curriculum-Based Measurement) and includes correct words read scores…the utility of the number of words read correct as an indicator of overall reading competence is dependent upon the assumption of equal passage text difficulty of within-grade-level passage.”⁴

Issues of passage equality are addressed by the Lexile Framework for Oral Reading, which offers broad insight into a student’s literacy skills. Using a scientific approach, the framework measures both students’ oral reading ability (Lexile® oral reading measures) and the oral readability of text (Lexile® oral readability measures) on the same Lexile scale. The framework for our oral reading fluency provides a true scale, measuring each student’s growth. Since Lexile measures precisely evaluate the oral readability of texts that students read aloud, this evaluation instrument offers more precise measurements of students’ abilities than typical, teacher-administered oral reading assessments. A student’s accuracy and speed in reading aloud is measured alongside the text’s oral readability providing a more accurate understanding of the student’s oral reading performance.

To ensure that students can read aloud fluently—allowing them to focus on the meaning of the words—the Lexile Framework for Oral Reading measures are integrated into tests, including NWEA’s MAP Growth and Readable English assessments. Parents and educators can help students improve their oral reading fluency skills with help from the Lexile Framework for Oral Reading map. This resource, which can be put into action immediately, allows readers to build confidence with leveled passages for reading aloud. The Lexile map identifies passages for oral reading practice for new to advanced readers.

Thanks to these great resources that support students, educators, and parents in ensuring that students gain fluency and ease as readers, I am even more excited to find one of those “Got Prosody?” t-shirts.

1. Toyama, Y., Hiebert, E. H., & Pearson, P. D. (2017). An Analysis of the Text Complexity of Leveled Passages in Four Popular Classroom Reading Assessments. Educational Assessment, 22(3), 139–170. https://doi.org/10.1080/10627197.2017.1344091
2. Liceralde, Van & Loukina, Anastassia & Klebanov, Beata & Lockwood, John. (2021). Beyond Text Complexity: Production-Related Sources of Text-Based Variability in Oral Reading Fluency. Journal of Educational Psychology. 114. 10.1037/edu0000532.
3. Ibid.
4. Yi, Esther H., “Impact of Passage Effects on Oral Reading Fluency Administration and Scoring” (2021). Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations. 7799. https://huskiecommons.lib.niu.edu/allgraduate-thesesdissertations/7799