using poetry to build fluency and reading comprehension

Running Head: USING POETRY TO IMPROVE READING COMPREHENSION

Using Poetry to Build Fluency and Reading Comprehension

Critical Response to Literature and Instructional Plan

Kari Hoffman

San Francisco State University


Abstract

Fluency and reading comprehension are areas of weakness for students with

dyslexia due to the phonological nature of the disability. This paper ponders the

question, how does poetry improve reading comprehension and fluency? Research

surrounding phonemic awareness, decoding, and fluency and their implications for

reading comprehension are explored and analyzed. The theoretical framework is

followed by an analytical summary of the poetry, which will be used in a one-week

lesson, and background information about the students involved.

Key words: poetry, dyslexia, reading comprehension, fluency

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Introduction:

Poetry is a genre that, unlike many other forms of written expression, is not

confined by traditional norms or conventions. When reading poetry, students may

encounter words that evoke consciousness, emotional intensity, imagery, insight

and unique elements of sound. Some poets write with a rhythmical cadence that

can be appreciated by the reader before he or she may even truly understand the

meanings of the words. Other poets write more formally, blurring the line between

prose and lyrical speech. Poetry is not limited to one principle or style; it is a way

to share experiences, feelings and thoughts (Gill, 2007).

Temple, Martinez, Yakota and Naylor (2002) provide a powerful definition of

children’s poetry

as, ...a concise and memorable case of language, with intense feeling,

imagery, and qualities of

sound that bounce pleasingly off the tongue, tickle the ear, and give the

mind something to

ponder (quoted by Gill, 2007, p. 623).

My goal is for students to use their creativity and imagination to bring these poems

to life while honing these essential skills for reading. Students will learn to read

poetry using rhythm and rhyme to read each line and stanza fluently and with

expression. I have chosen to take advantage of National Poetry Month and utilize

poetry in my small reading group in order to provide exposure to the genre and

also as a tool to help students build their decoding skills, sight word recognition,

fluency, and ultimately build vocabulary and comprehension.

Theoretical framework:

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Prior to an introduction to Ehri’s four phases of reading, Ehri argues that we

must understand how readers process and remember the written form of words.

Because each student is unique, the process may vary from student to student.

Readers learn each skill and eventually become capable of reading words in all five

ways (Ehri, 1997):

1. By sounding out and blending letters, referred to as decoding or phonological recoding.

2. By pronouncing common spelling patterns, a more advanced form of decoding

3. By retrieving sight words from memory.4. By analogizing words already known by sight.5. By using context to predict words.

The process of learning to read sight words relies heavily on the phases

involving phonemic awareness.

Any word that is read sufficiently often becomes a sight word that is read

from memory…

The process of learning sight words involves forming connections between

graphemes

and phonemes to bond spellings of the words to their pronunciations and

meanings in

memory. (Ehri, 2005, p. 169)

Ehri (2005) theorizes that there are “…four phases [which] characterize the

course of development of sight word learning” (p. 167). Readers move fluently

between these four phases throughout the process of learning to read. Based on

the phases laid out by Ehri (2005), most of my students are reading at the partial

alphabetic phase and are able to use letter–sound cues to remember the words and

are growing into the full alphabetic phase. “Children become full alphabetic phase

readers when they can learn sight words by forming complete connections

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between letters in spellings and phonemes in pronunciations” (Ehri, 2005, p. 171).

Ehri’s developmental theory is important for teachers to understand in order for

students to learn to transition between decoding words and reading sight words

from memory. At this point, students can use context and previewed knowledge to

read challenging words and will begin to commit these words to memory in order

to read them as sight words. When reading poetry, it is my experience that

students have opportunities to predict what word might come next due to context

and to rhyming pattern. They can also commit the text to memory due to the

rhythm and fluidity that the rhyming pattern creates at the end of each stanza.

According to Samuels (1976), the need for automaticity in decoding is

important for students to build reading fluency and comprehension. LaBerge and

Samuels (1974) argued that human beings could only do one thing at a time. “If

attention is drained by decoding words, little or no capacity is available for the

attention demanding process of comprehending. Therefore, automaticity of

decoding - a critical component of fluency - is essential for high levels of reading

achievement” (Pikulski & Chard, 2005, p. 511). Due to the rhythmic and musical

nature of poetry, students can more easily remember the pattern and structure of

each stanza and rely less on decoding when reading independently. Because

students are less preoccupied with decoding, they are able to read the words in the

text and recognize sight words while pointing to the text while reading. According

to Ehri (1998), the term ‘word family’ applies to word sets that contain a commonly

spelled and pronounced rime; for example, hall, ball, tall, call. When reading in

the full alphabetic phase, students learn word families when reading poetry and

recognizing rhyme patterns at the end of each line or stanza. This is important to

my practice because my students typically struggle with reading comprehension,

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reading fluency and expression due to the lack of phonological awareness and

decoding skills.

My students have a particular curiosity in learning about animals. In our

science class, we have studied animals and habitats. Students have also had the

opportunity to research an animal at home and write a report to share. Due to this

interest in learning about animals, my students can access their prior knowledge in

order to connect to the text and build comprehension. Accessing prior knowledge

is a fundamental aspect of the act of comprehending and remembering (Bransford,

1984). This interest in learning about animals can also build intrinsic motivation

for students to read more literature on the topic. My goal is to develop student

enthusiasm and passion in reading poetry incorporating animals in order to build

their fluency and comprehension skills and broaden their vocabulary.

The Text:

In this lesson I am using poems that focus on animals. The theme of the first

poem Baby Chick (Fisher, 1991) revolves around new experiences. The language

of the text is simple due to the decodable nature of the text and the limited use of

basic, grade level sight words. The decodable words in the text are mainly C-V-C

words, which include short vowels, r-controlled vowels, vowel teams and digraphs.

Students will segment sounds in these C-V-C words, then blend together to read

words. For first grade, the sight words are appropriate for the readers including:

brown, how, come, does, out, and about. The most difficult word, “discover” will

be broken down into syllables and the vocabulary will be understood through

discussion and context. Students will be able to recognize the word “Dinosaur” as

they build fluency when reading the poem because it starts with a “D” and through

understanding that the context involves reptiles and dinosaurs.

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Slow Sloth’s Slow Song (Prelutsky, 1990) is a poem that revolves around the

theme of being content who and where one is. The spaces between the words

allow the reader to take time to read the text without the stress of reading at an

appropriate pace. In fact, the slowness of the text makes the poem fun and

enjoyable to read. This poem is also written at an appropriate level for first

graders due to the decodable nature of the text and the limited use of basic, grade

level sight words. The decodable words in text are mainly C-V-C words with short

vowels, digraphs, consonant blends. The sight words include: I, a, trees, can’t,

slow, where, and fly. The more challenging aspect of the poem is comprehension.

The end of the poem, “But I am where I want to go.” (Prelutsky, 1990) will be

better understood through discussion and the opportunity to connect by reflecting

on personal perspectives. Students can talk about their favorite place to be, and

discuss how the language describes students’ desire to stay.

The Lizard (Gardner, 1983) is a poem about longing to be something

different. The text is slightly more challenging than those aforementioned. There

is an increase in sight words and the addition of multisyllabic words. For my

students, the word Lizard is a sight word in itself. Many of the sight words will be

more easily understood within the context and as students draw upon their prior

knowledge. For example, students can read the words dance, fly, and sing by

thinking about the actions other animals can do, and what a lizard cannot. They

can also build an understanding of the words that talk about how the lizard finds

bugs to eat. Students will learn the word “dinosaur” through their understanding

of the relationship between lizards and dinosaurs (they are both reptiles) and the

differences that make being a dinosaur desirable. Students who enjoy learning

about reptiles and dinosaurs will be able to connect to the text and build an

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interest in memorizing sight words though intrinsic motivation. There are limited

decodable words in the text, including words with glued (or welded) sounds, suffix

-s and long vowel sounds. The vocabulary is also more advanced. Students will

need to discuss the meaning words such as: timid, cannot, beneath, longs.

The Little Turtle (Lindsay, 1999) is a poem about the possible relationship

between the reader and a turtle. The text is also slightly more challenging

considering the use of sight words and more complex decodable words. The sight

words and more challenging decodable words will be more easily understood

through discussion and the opportunity to illustrate the poem and the events that

unfold. Students can discuss the events in the first stanza and create an

illustration or mental image of the story to read challenging words within context

to build reading fluency. Students can associate the repetitive nature of the text

and use the anticipation of rhyme to read words such as snapped, caught,

mosquito, flea, and minnow. The revelation at the end of the repetitive poem

allows students to connect to the text because they will anticipate the element of

surprise.

The theme of Can You Hop Like a Rabbit (Traditional) is how different

animals move. The text is simpler than those mentioned above due to the

decodable nature of the text and the use of grade level sight words. The decodable

words include C-V-C words, glued (welded) sounds, long vowels using V-C-E, and

consonant blends. The sight words are appropriate for first graders, including:

you, a, walk, fly, as, and this. The animal words in the poem are made easier to

read due to the movement described in the text, the use of rhyme at the end of

each line, and the illustrations I have added at the end of each line.

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The full alphabetic phase, which I aim to guide my readers into, “requires

systematic instruction in phonemic awareness and phonics. Progress through this

phase is enhanced when students are provided with text that is well matched to

their decoding skills and that does not cause undue frustration.” (Farrall, 2012)

The poems I have analyzed are at an appropriate difficulty level for my students in

this sense. Students can decode words within the text using phonemic awareness

and context clues. They can also apply their knowledge of sight words to read new

and familiar words within the context of the text.

The Readers:

My readers are in first grade at a school for students with language-based

learning differences such as dyslexia. Dyslexia is a specific learning disability that

is neurobiological in origin, and impacts the way in which an individual processes

and acquires language (International Dyslexia Association, 2007). Dyslexia is

characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word recognition and by

poor spelling and decoding. Developmental dyslexia is characterized by an

unexpected difficulty in reading in children and adults who otherwise possess the

intelligence, motivation, and schooling considered necessary for accurate and

fluent reading (Shaywitz, 1998). A deficit in phonological processing impairs the

ability to decode and identify meaning from written word (Shaywitz, 1996).

Deficits in the phonological component of language are thought to be the cause of

these difficulties, and these deficits are not consistent when compared with other

cognitive abilities.

Reading fluency and phonological short-term memory characterize the

“phonological nature” of Dyslexia (de Carvalho, Kida, Capellini, and de Avila, 2014,

p. 7). Compared to normally developing readers, students with dyslexia have more

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difficulty learning to read words and acquiring sight word vocabulary due to

limited knowledge of decoding and analogizing strategies (Ehri & McCormack,

1998). This deficit in decoding, or “lower-order linguistic function” (Shaywitz,

1996, p. 100), poses a challenge for gaining meaning from text.

Reading comprehension, reduced reading experience that can result in

impaired vocabulary growth and background knowledge are secondary

consequences of dyslexia. Children with dyslexia may perform lower in aspects of

written language including phonological processing and vocabulary development,

however many students with dyslexia have excellent verbal reasoning,

comprehension or other language skills (Thompson 2009). This deficit in

phonological knowledge and decoding, or “lower-order linguistic function,” poses a

challenge for gaining meaning from text. Dyslexia is a specific learning disability

that is neurobiological in origin, and impacts the way in which an individual

processes and acquires language (International Dyslexia Association, 2007).

Dyslexia is characterized by difficulties with accurate and/or fluent word

recognition and by poor spelling and decoding. Deficits in the phonological

component of language are thought to be the cause of these difficulties, and these

deficits are not consistent when compared with other cognitive abilities. Reading

comprehension, reduced reading experience that can result in impaired vocabulary

growth and background knowledge are secondary consequences of dyslexia.

Each of my students’ learning profiles is somewhat similar to one another,

although of course all students are unique. My students are incredible at making

inferences and using their creativity to build understanding and to solve problems.

They enjoy learning about the world around them and connecting stories and

lessons to their own lives. The students in my reading group have a particular

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interest in learning about animals and habitats in science class and in exploring

books, websites and films about animals and completing research projects with

their families at home. Some students came into my reading group having weak

phonemic awareness and without knowing basic sound-letter correspondence.

Many of my students struggle with processing language in different forms such as

reading and listening. My students have learned to acquire language skills

through a multi-sensory approach to learning. They have been taught to segment

sounds in a word by “tapping” one finger for each sound, then blending the sounds

together to read words. My students also segment sounds in words with glued

sounds and are able to identify rhyming words based on their knowledge of these

sounds. They have also been taught multisensory strategies for learning common

sight words and use their hands and fingers to scoop phrases to assist in building

fluency.

The Context:

The information presented by the articles previously mentioned by support

the idea that poetry can be a powerful tool in the classroom. When reading poetry,

students can explore language through a creative lens, finding a multitude of

meanings within the text and can engage with the text by creating mental images

and connections to the subject and evoking feelings. Poetry can be presented in

many different ways and comes in many different formats and subject areas. It can

be used as an instructional tool for the diverse classrooms that so many teachers

have today.

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Figure 1, shown below, is a diagram, which lays out the process of reading a

word and building meaning in order to comprehend text:

Figure 1

When students come across words they do not know in the poems, they can

decode the word and use prior knowledge to build vocabulary and word meaning

in order to understand the text. In Ehri and McCormick’s (1998) full alphabetic

phase:

Students should use sight word memory to read familiar words. They should

apply decoding or analogizing strategies mainly to read unfamiliar words.

They should use a prediction strategy to confirm the accuracy of the words

that are identified by the other strategies. (p. 153)

Phonemic awareness plays an important role in the ability to decode words that

will eventually become sight words read by memory. Ehri and McCormick (1998)

caution in order for students to gain sight word recognition and build fluency

without relying too heavily on context, students should, have a “working

knowledge of the alphabetic system sufficiently so that graphophonic connections

in words are processed spontaneously during text reading” (p. 151).

Consequently, a working knowledge of the alphabetic system is necessary for

students to look at words in text and match graphemes to phonemes. Using

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Phonemic Awareness, students learn to decode words by segmenting individual

sounds and blending them together to form words. Ehri and McCormick continue,

“Students who have practiced reading new words in this way...retain the new

words in memory and can read them by sight. As a result, the learner's sight

vocabulary grows steadily and rather substantially during the full alphabetic

phase” (p. 151).

Ehri and McCormick (1998) describe the shift from reading individual words

by decoding to reading words by sight in context as “analogizing.”

[Students] store the sight words in memory in sufficient letter detail to

recognize that the

new words resemble but are not identical to the known words and to adapt

their knowledge

of known words in blending sounds to form new words. (p. 151)

Reading sight words, which Ehri (2005) calls the full alphabetic phase, allows

students to read with fluency. “It is important for students to practice reading

words in connected text in a way that combines graphophonic processing with

comprehension” (p. 153). Samuels (1976) states that reading text with fluency and

automaticity allows readers to focus on comprehending text. Students can build

sight word vocabulary and reading fluency through repetitive, structured reading

of the words on a word wall or flash cards to build automaticity. As students build

sight word fluency, thus reading fluency, they can more quickly comprehend the

text by skipping the step of decoding. There are a number of multi-sensory

approaches for connecting to the text, including: following along while connecting

to the text by tracking with their finger, choral reading (reading aloud together),

reading aloud individually, and illustrating the poem using key images within the

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text. Through practicing these approaches, students can build sight word fluency

to move from the partial alphabetic to the full alphabetic phase (Ehri, 2005).

According to Staudt (2009):

Combining intensive word study with the repeated reading of poetry proved

a successful

plan for improving the reading fluency, word recognition, and

comprehension skills of my

students with learning disabilities while at the same time improving their

understanding of

how our language works. The poets' love of language presented a bounty of

new and

interesting words for my struggling readers to study. The rhythms, rhymes,

and nonsense

made their reading fun. (p. 150)

Poetry is a format, which allows students to focus on theme, details, emotions,

rhythm, and rhyme rather than to focus on decoding skills. This ability to focus on

fluency rather than decoding is essential for reading comprehension (Samuels,

1976). Students can connect to the themes in poetry and build fluency through

reading text, which has natural rhythm due to the structure of language and use of

rhyme.

In order for students to build fluency, thus reading comprehension, they

must be introduced to text which is appropriate for their individual reading level

and which does not create frustration due to the inability to read words from sight

or seamlessly decode words. It is imperative that teachers assess students’

reading abilities and analyze the difficulty of text introduced. Students with

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dyslexia may have deficits in not only phonemic awareness and decoding skills, but

working memory, which effects the ability to hold on to information in the brain

and switch between tasks while reading (de Carvalho et al., 2014). Through

reading poetry at the appropriate difficulty level, students will build sight word

vocabulary and fluency, and will learn to use word families and rhyme to read both

familiar and new words.

Because I have chosen to use poems about animals in my classroom, I will

build upon my students’ previous interests in learning about animals in science

class and on their own. My students can build upon their prior knowledge and

learn new information about animals through videos, images, and resources for

learning scientific animal facts. Think, Pair, Share, Reflective Discussion, Read

Aloud (several times with focus on rhetorical devices- rhyme, meter, line etc.), and

Think Alouds are all cognitive strategies that I have found to be particularly

successful when teaching poetry in addition to direct instruction in decoding and

sight word fluency in order to build reading comprehension. When supporting

students' access to the text, activating or developing their prior knowledge is

included on my list of comprehension strategies. According to Bransford (2004),

reading comprehension is:

a fundamental aspect of the act of comprehending and remembering….

some children may

appear to have poor comprehension and memory not because they have

some inherent

comprehension or memory ‘deficits,’ but because they lack, or fail to ac-

tivate the background

knowledge that was presupposed by a message or a text. (p. 608)

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My students will use their growing understanding of the context through accessing

prior knowledge and thinking aloud about the text with the goal of building

reading fluency and comprehension.

I will assess my students’ learning through closely observing students

during Read Alouds and prompting questions to assess their understanding of the

context. While a student reads aloud, I can better understand their comprehension

of the text by asking questions about the images they are creating, asking students

to identify key words within the text, and asking questions about the structure of

words with elements such as digraphs, suffixes, and long and short vowels, and

word families or rhyming words. For some poems, students can even demonstrate

their understanding through movement prompted by the text. Students find

reading poetry to be a creative, fun, and nonthreatening experience while building

their abilities to decode, read with fluency, and comprehend texts on many

different cognitive levels.

TitlesBaby Chick (Fisher, 1991) is a poem about a chick hatching from an egg. Fisher who wrote a large variety of children’s books including history, poetry, plays, and biography.Slow Sloth’s Slow Song (Prelutsky, 1990) is a poem about a sloth that lives in a tree. Prelutsky has written a variety of children’s books and writes poems for both children and adults.The Lizard (Gardner, 1983) is a poem about a lizard that longs to be a dinosaur. Gardner wrote novels, essays, and literary criticism and is possibly best known for his novel Grendel, a retelling of the Beowulf myth.The Little Turtle (Lindsay, 1999) is a poem about a turtle that lives in a box. Lindsay is an American author who was once a kindergarten teacher, commonly wrote poetry to be sung or chanted.Can You Hop Like a Rabbit? (Traditional) is a poem about different animal movements.

Topic: Poetry Grade Level: 1 Subject: ReadingEstablished GoalsDerived from Common CoreGrade 1CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.10

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With prompting and support, read prose and poetry of appropriate complexity for grade 1.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.L.1.5.BDefine words by category and by one or more key attributes (e.g., a duck is a bird that swims; a tiger is a large cat with stripes). CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.3.BDecode regularly spelled one-syllable words.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RF.1.4.CUse context to confirm or self-correct word recognition and understanding, rereading as necessary.CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.SL.1.5Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, thoughts, and feelings.

Essential QuestionsHow does reading poetry improve fluency and reading comprehension?

UnderstandingsStudents will understand that...poems often use words to describe feelingsrhyming words end in the same soundrepetition of words and phrases is often used in poetrywhen a sentence ends with a question mark, readers can read with inflection (or the voice going up) so it sounds like a question“don’t” means “do not” “who’s” “who has”

Students will know that…point to words to keep track and to connect to textcan sound out words by tapping out sounds and blendingread words then read through phrase fluentlydifferent facts and characteristics of animalsProcedural - skills

Students will be able to…read common grade level sight wordspoint out common sight words in the textsound out C-V-C words, words with digraphs, blends and vowel-consonant-eread phrases fluently and with proper rhythm and prosodyread words with suffix -s -ing - edread common contractions words such as who’s don’t and cannotread common animal wordsdescribe the difference between animals, categorize into different attributeslist words in rhyming families

Assessment EvidencePerformance Tasks:What is a task that you are assessing?Reading out loud - fluency, accuracy, prosodyComprehension - vocabulary, meaning, connecting to text

Self Assessments:How are they going to assess their learning?Read aloudIdentifying vocabulary words in the textExplaining vocabularyusing vocabulary words in a sentenceThink, pair, share, Think AloudsReflective discussion

Other Evidence:Classroom artifacts, conversations, anecdotes, etc.Poetry coloring bookWriting assignment “I long to be a…”

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Learning PlanDay 1Inquiry Hook: What do you know about poems? they have words that rhyme, they are short, they are funny, they use words to describe feelings, they can be about animals or people, or about anything!

Step 1: introduce the poem Baby Chick and show illustration in order to activate prior knowledge through discussion.

Step 2: read the poem aloud with the class.

Step 3: write key sight words on the board and discuss rhyming words and vocabulary.

Step 4: direct students to color the illustrations for this poem in their poetry book.

Step 5: read the poem together.

Step 6: students read aloud on their own or with partners, teacher assess reading abilities and skills.

Step 7: discuss and reflect on the poem and lesson with the class.

Day 2Inquiry Hook: What do you know about sloths? they are animals, they live in the rainforest, they are slow, they are mammals, they live in trees

Step 1: introduce the poem Slow Sloth’s Slow Song and show illustration in order to activate prior knowledge through discussion. Show YouTube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4MOnqjm42U

Step 2: discuss the structure of the poem, slowly read the poem aloud with the class.



Step 5: read the poem together. Discuss “I am where I want to go.”



Step 8: read poem from previous day.

Day 3Inquiry Hook: What do you know about lizards? they are animals, they live in the desert, they have a tail, they are reptiles, they eat bugs, they have four legs, they

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have scaly skin

Step 1: introduce the poem The Lizard and show illustration in order to activate prior knowledge through discussion.

Step 2: read the poem aloud with the class.



Step 5: read the poem together. Discuss “I am where I want to go.”



Step 8: Writing assignment “I long to be…”

Day 4Inquiry Hook: What do you know about turtles? they are reptiles, they have four legs, they have a tail, they have a shell that is their house, they can swim and walk on land

Step 1: introduce the poem The Little Turtle and show illustration in order to activate prior knowledge through discussion.

Step 2: read the poem aloud with the class, discuss repetition and surprise at the end.






Step 8: read poems from previous days.

Day 5Inquiry Hook: Do all animals move the same way? No! Name an animal, show how it moves.

Step 1: introduce the poem Can You Hop Like a Rabbit? and show illustration in

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order to activate prior knowledge through discussion.

Step 2: read the poem aloud with the class, students move like animals in the text.






Step 8: read poems from previous days.

MaterialsFacilities:An open space to move aboutTable and chairs for teacher and students

Equipment (non-tech):Poetry book with illustrationsColoring toolsWhiteboard and markersPaper and pencils

Equipment (tech):Smartboard/Smart NotebookComputerAccess to YouTubeSearch engine for images

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References

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Richard C. Anderson's

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de Carvalho, C. , Kida, A. , Capellini, S. , & de Avila, C. (2014). Phonological

working memory and reading in

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Ehri, L. (2005) Learning to read words: Theory, findings, and issues. Scientific

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Fisher, A., & Sandin, J. (1991). Always wondering. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Prelutsky, J. (1983). The random house book of poetry for children. New York, NY:

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Hall, D. (1999). The Oxford illustrated book of American children's poems (p. 44).

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Staudt, D. (2009). Intensive word study and repeated reading improves reading

skills for two students

with learning disabilities: By combining intensive word study with the timed

repeated reading of

poetry, this teacher was able to improve the reading skills of learning

disabled students. The Reading Teacher, 63(2), 142-151.

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using poetry to build fluency and reading comprehension

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