Music and poetry are two of the earliest and most natural ways children experience language, rhythm, rhyming, and expression. This article explores how songs, poems, and repeated musical reading support fluency development while offering practical ways teachers can use music and songs to strengthen reading and writing in PreK and elementary classrooms.
Why Songs Belong in Reading Instruction
Songs are often a joyful part of the elementary school day, but they are also a powerful literacy tool. When children repeatedly sing and read lyrics, they naturally build reading fluency, strengthen concepts of print, and develop early writing awareness. Research and classroom practice show that rhythm, melody, and repetition help young learners move from decoding words to reading with confidence, expression, and ease (Iwasaki et al., 2013; Rasinski, 2014).
How Songs Support Reading Fluency Development
Reading fluency includes accuracy, automaticity, phrasing, and expression. Songs naturally support all four components because they combine rhythm, repetition, and predictable structure.
When children sing
- words are automatically chunked into meaningful phrases
- rhythm supports pacing and phrasing
- repetition builds memory and automatic word recognition
- melody reinforces prosody (expression and intonation)
Because songs must be performed in real time, students learn to keep up with the beat and text together—an early form of fluent reading.
Research on fluency instruction highlights that repeated reading improves both accuracy and comprehension, and performance-based approaches like reader’s theater, poetry performances, singing, and reading aloud can strengthen fluency outcomes (Hudson et al., 2005; Young et al., 2016).
Songs for Literacy Development: Building Early Concepts of Print
Repeated singing and shared reading also strengthen essential early literacy skills, especially concepts of print.
Through shared song experiences, children learn
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directionality (left to right tracking)
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one-to-one word correspondence
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understanding that print carries meaning
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recognition of spacing, lines, and return sweep
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awareness of punctuation and rhythm in text
As students sing and follow along with text, they begin to internalize how print works in a natural and developmentally appropriate way.
Songs for Phonemic Awareness and Early Word Learning
Music also strengthens phonological awareness, the ability to hear and manipulate sounds in language.
Songs support this by
- emphasizing syllables through rhythm
- highlighting rhyme and alliteration
- slowing language into melodic units
- reinforcing sound patterns through repetition
Research indicates that musical rhythm and language processing share overlapping neural mechanisms, supporting early literacy development (Fiveash et al., 2021; Patel, 2010). These features make songs especially effective for early learners developing foundational sound-to-print connections.
In addition to songs, rhythm-based language experiences such as raps and beatboxing can further deepen students’ phonemic awareness. Like songs, these forms of expression rely on rhythm, repetition, and sound manipulation—but they also invite children to actively create language patterns using their voices and bodies. Beatboxing, for example, uses the mouth, breath, and articulation to produce drum-like sounds and rhythmic sequences, helping students become more intentional about how speech is formed. Because every sound can be shaped, repeated, and varied, students naturally explore phonemes in a highly engaging and embodied way. These experiences support the same foundational skills as early reading instruction—hearing, isolating, and blending sounds—while making sound play interactive, creative, and deeply memorable for young learners.
A Unique Approach: Teaching Songs to Build Fluency
One innovative classroom method used by Stephen Thompson, an elementary music teacher in Eugene, Oregon, begins with music before text, allowing students to internalize rhythm and melody before encountering words.
A typical lesson sequence includes
- Students listen to a short melody with no lyrics
- They identify steady beat and movement
- They explore pitch changes through gestures
- They hum or sing on neutral syllables
- Lyrics are introduced visually for the first time
- Students track text silently while listening to the melody
- They progress to whispering, then singing aloud
This structure aligns with findings that repeated exposure and scaffolded reading improve fluency and memory retention (Shanahan, 2020). By the time students see the text, the musical structure already supports their reading fluency.
First grade teacher Rebecca Iwasaki from Danbury, Connecticut found that introducing and practicing two to three new songs each week with her students (always with the lyrics presented visually) resulted in all her students reading at grade level or above by the end of the year.
Reading Fluency Activities Using Songs and Poetry
Teachers can use songs in simple, repeatable ways that build fluency over time.
Daily Repeated Song Reading
- One song per week
- Daily shared reading with decreasing support
- Builds automaticity through repetition
Choral Singing with Tracking
- Students follow lyrics with a finger or pointer
- Teacher models phrasing and expression
Echo Singing and Reading
- Teacher sings a line
- Students repeat while tracking print
- Supports accuracy and prosody
Song-to-Writing Extension
- Students rewrite or adapt lyrics
- Songs function as mentor texts for writing development (Bintz, 2010)
Performance-Based Fluency Practice
- Small group performances
- Focus on pacing, phrasing, and expression
- Builds confidence and oral reading fluency (Young et al., 2016)
Why This Works: The Science Behind Song and Reading
Research in literacy and cognitive science suggests that music and language share overlapping neural pathways. Rhythm, timing, and pitch processing in music are closely linked to phonological processing in reading development.
Key findings include
- Musical rhythm discrimination predicts literacy development. (Gordon et al., 2015)
- Music training improves phonological awareness. (Flaugnacco et al., 2015)
- Performance-based reading improves fluency and expression. (Young et al., 2016)
- Repeated reading strengthens comprehension and automaticity. (Hudson et al., 2005)
Songs naturally integrate these elements into a single, engaging instructional routine.
Concepts of Print Through Repetition and Joy
One of the most powerful outcomes of song-based reading instruction is how quickly young children develop print awareness.
Through repeated singing and reading, students begin to
- predict text patterns
- track words automatically
- notice spacing and punctuation
- understand reading directionality
- self-correct based on rhythm and structure
Research shows that repeated exposure to shared texts supports early print concept development in preschool learners (Galeza, 2021; Uhry, 2002).
Bringing Songs into the Literacy Classroom
Songs can be used across grade levels.
- PreK–K: nursery rhymes, chants, echo songs
- Grades 1–2: patterned songs, predictable texts, short poems
- Grades 3–5: complex lyrics, multicultural songs, irregular phrasing
Even without formal music training, teachers can use repetition, modeling, and shared reading routines to support fluency development.
Making Fluency Come Alive Through Music
Songs offer a powerful bridge between early literacy skills and fluent reading. They help children move from hesitant decoding to expressive, automatic reading through rhythm, repetition, and joyful engagement. When students sing, they are performing music and practicing reading fluency in its most natural, social, and memorable form.
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Flaugnacco, E., Lopez, L., Terribili, C., Montico, M., Zoia, S., & Schön, D. (2015). Music training increases phonological awareness and reading skills in developmental dyslexia. PLOS ONE, 10(9).
Fiveash, A., Bedoin, N., Gordon, R. L., & Tillmann, B. (2021). Processing rhythm in speech and music: Shared mechanisms and implications for developmental speech and language disorders. Neuropsychology, 35(8), 771–791.
Galeza, A. (2021). Singing as reading: How singing may improve young children’s concepts of print. Kent State University Action Research Study.
Gordon, R. L., Shivers, C. M., Wieland, E. A., Kotz, S. A., Yoder, P. J., & McAuley, J. D. (2015). Musical rhythm discrimination explains individual differences in grammar skills in children. Developmental Science, 18(4), 635–644.
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Iwasaki, B., Rasinski, T. V., Yildirim, K., & Zimmerman, B. S. (2013). Let’s bring back the magic of song for teaching reading. The Reading Teacher, 67(2), 137–141.
Patel, A. D. (2010). Music, language, and the brain. Oxford University Press.
Rasinski, T. V. (2014). Delivering supportive fluency instruction—especially for students who struggle. Reading Today, 31(5), 26–28.
Shanahan, T. (2020). Everything you wanted to know about repeated reading. Reading Rockets.
Uhry, J. K. (2002). Finger-point reading in kindergarten: The role of phonemic awareness, one-to-one correspondence, and rapid serial naming. Scientific Studies of Reading, 6(4), 319–342.
Young, C., Valadez, C., & Gandara, C. (2016). Using performance methods to enhance students’ reading fluency. The Journal of Educational Research, 109(6), 624–630.
