How to teach reading with expression

Expression is the part of reading fluency that is hardest to count and easiest to hear. It is also the part most children are never directly taught — and it can be.

For parents and teachers · Grades 1 to 3

Reading with expression means reading aloud so it sounds like somebody talking: grouping words into phrases, pausing at punctuation, letting the voice rise and fall, stressing the important word, and sounding different when a character speaks. Teachers call it prosody in reading, and it is one of the three parts of reading fluency, alongside accuracy and speed.

To teach it, you show it before you ask for it. Read a sentence with expression, have the child copy it, point out what the punctuation is telling them to do, and reread the same passage until it sounds like talking. A child who reads too fast or in a flat monotone almost always improves this way, provided the text is easy enough that the words themselves are not the struggle.

What prosody in reading actually is

Prosody is the music of speech. When a child reads with it, you can hear:

• Phrasing — words grouped into meaningful chunks, not delivered one at a time. If phrasing is the main problem, start with our page on word-by-word reading.
• Pausing — short stops at commas, longer ones at full stops, none in the middle of a phrase.
• Intonation — the voice rising and falling with the sentence instead of staying on one note.
• Stress — weight on the word that matters: "I said the red one."
• Pace — about the speed of conversation, slowing for something important or tense.
• Volume and voice — louder for shouting, softer for a whisper, a different voice for a character.

Why reading with expression matters

Expression is not decoration. To read "You did what?" with the right voice, a child has to understand who is speaking and how they feel. That is why teachers listen for it: expression is audible evidence that the reader is following the meaning.

The research backs this up, with honest caveats. When NAEP — the US National Assessment of Educational Progress — listened to fourth graders read aloud in 1992, the readers rated fluent read with greater understanding, and the report noted that researchers still disagree about which way that link runs. A longitudinal study by Miller and Schwanenflugel (2008), which followed 92 children from first to third grade, found that children who developed an adult-like rise and fall in their voice earlier tended to have better reading comprehension later. Its authors concluded that prosody belongs in the formal definition of reading fluency.

How teachers score expression

Two scales come up most often.

The NAEP oral reading fluency scale rates reading on four levels. Level 1 is mainly word by word. Level 2 is mainly two-word phrases. Level 3 is mainly three- or four-word phrases that fit the sentence, with little or no expression. Level 4 is larger, meaningful phrase groups with some or most of the story read with expressive interpretation. Levels 3 and 4 count as fluent. Notice that expression is what separates the top level from the one below it.

The Multidimensional Fluency Scale, adapted from Zutell and Rasinski (1991), is the rubric many teachers use. It rates four dimensions from 1 to 4:

The total runs from 4 to 16. Published versions of the scale suggest that a total below 8 means fluency may be a concern. You can use it at home: listen to a one-minute read and score each row honestly. It is more useful than a speed figure alone, because it tells you which part needs work.

Punctuation is the script

Punctuation is the author telling the reader how to sound. Many children have never been told that, and treat full stops as decoration. Teach the marks explicitly:

A quick game: take one sentence and change the punctuation. "It's raining." "It's raining?" "It's raining!" Then move the stress: "I didn't take the cookie." "I didn't take the cookie." Children find it funny, and it teaches them that the same words can mean different things depending on how they are read.

How to teach reading with expression

1. Pick easy text. Expression is the first thing to go when a child is decoding. Use a passage they can read with very few errors — easier than you would choose for other practice. Dialogue-heavy stories are ideal.
2. Model the contrast. Read a line flat, like a robot, then read it properly. Ask which one sounded like a real person. Children hear the difference instantly, and it gives you both a shared word for it.
3. Echo read. You read a sentence with expression; they read it straight back, copying your voice. Then a paragraph at a time.
4. Hunt the punctuation. Before reading, find the question marks, exclamation marks and speech marks together. Decide how each line should sound.
5. Ask how the character feels. "Is she scared or cross here?" Then "Say it the way she would." This links expression to understanding, which is the whole point.
6. Reread. Expression improves sharply on a second and third read, once the words are no longer the work. This is repeated reading, aimed at expression.
7. Record and listen back. Most children have never heard themselves read. Hearing the flat version is often more persuasive than anything you say.
8. Perform it. Readers theater — reading a short script aloud in parts, with practice first — gives children a reason to reread and an audience to sound good for. There are more ideas like this in our list of reading fluency activities.

My child reads too fast

This is common, especially in children who have been timed a lot. They learn that reading is a race, so they rush past full stops, drop endings and lose the meaning.

• Stop timing practice reads. Measure fluency occasionally, on a fresh passage. Practice reads are for sounding right.
• Check where they actually sit. Compare a timed read against the fluency norms for their grade or our words per minute calculator. Once a child is reading at a typical rate for their grade, more speed is not what they need.
• Use the punctuation table above. Have them read one paragraph stopping fully at every full stop, even if it feels exaggerated.
• Ask a question after each paragraph. A child who has to explain what happened slows down to find out.

The goal on the rubric is conversational pace — the speed of talking, not the speed of skimming.

My child reads in a monotone

Work out which of these it is:

• The words are still hard work. A child decoding every third word has nothing left for expression. Check accuracy first; if it is below about 95% on this text, use easier text. If it is below about 90% on grade-level text in general, look at phonics or what to do if a first grader is struggling.
• They have never heard it done. Model, echo read, and reread, as above.
• They are not following the story. Monotone can mean they are saying words without meaning. Talk about the story first; see reading comprehension strategies.
• They are self-conscious. Some children feel silly using voices. Go first, go big, and make it a joke rather than a correction.

What not to do

• Saying "more expression!" without showing it. Children cannot follow an instruction for a sound they have not heard.
• Rewarding only speed. You will get exactly that: fast, flat reading.
• Correcting expression mid-sentence. Let them finish, model the line, and invite another try.

Where an app can help

Expression is learned by hearing it, trying it, and being invited to try again — the same short cycle many times. Our reading fluency app for kids is built around it: when a child reads a line flatly, Tess reads it back with big, clear expression and asks them to try it like that. Every whole-story read is scored for expression as well as words correct per minute and accuracy, and the recordings are kept so you can judge it with your own ears.

Sources

• National Center for Education Statistics (1995). Listening to Children Read Aloud: Oral Fluency (NAEPFact). Data from the 1992 NAEP reading assessment.
• Zutell, J. & Rasinski, T. V. (1991). Training teachers to attend to their students' oral reading fluency. Theory Into Practice, 30, 211–217.
• Miller, J. & Schwanenflugel, P. J. (2008). A longitudinal study of the development of reading prosody as a dimension of oral reading fluency in early elementary school children. Reading Research Quarterly, 43(4), 336–354.

Free chart from myfluentreader.com — reading fluency benchmarks, a words-per-minute calculator and the full sight-word lists, free and without signing up.