Reading
Name That Word
Using Song Lyrics to Improve
the Decoding Skills of Adolescents
With Leaming Disabilities
Sara J. Hines
Many adolescents, especially those
with learning disabilities, lack basic
word identification skills. Finding
motivating instructional techniques to
improve word-ievel reading skills is
increasingly difficult as students move
through the grades. One technique
that holds promise in motivating adolescents involves using song lyrics
from their favorite songs as instructional materials. The rationale is that
the students will be able to read the
printed song lyrics because they
already have stored the words in the
context of the song in their auditory
memories. In this approach, students
learn to read lyrics from favorite songs
in and out of the context of the song,
and then generalize their word identification skills to identify novel words
with similar rime patterns. How can
teachers implement this approach,
with a variety of students?
The current state of adolescent literacy
in the United States is not promising,
especially for students with leaming
disabilities (National Joint Committee
on Learning Disabilities, 2008). More
than eight million adolescents have not
mastered the reading skills required to
successfully meet the requirements of
secondary school or the workplace
(Hock et al, 2009). According to the
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COUNCIL FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN
National Assessment of Educational
Progress (NAEP), 25% of eighthgraders in the United States are below
even the Basic Level of proficiency in
reading, defined as "partial mastery of
the prerequisite knowledge and skills
that are fundamental for proficient
work at each grade" (National Center
for Educational Statistics, 2009, p. 5).
Roberts, Torgesen, Boardman, &
Scammacca stated in 2008 that even
greater percentages of students diagnosed with learning disabilities score
below the Basic Level on NAEP tests.
The most recent NAEP (2009) data
supports this claim, with 63% of
eighth-grade students with disabilities
not attaining even the Basic Level of
proficiency (National Center for Educational Statistics, 2009).
Adolescent literacy instruction often
focuses on comprehension skills. How-
had deficits in word-level skills.
According to the authors, the wordlevel skills of students with learning
disabilities were more than a standard
deviation below those struggling readers at large. Word-level skills iticlude
making letter-sound connections, reading words as a whole, and reading
words fluently (Joseph & Schisler,
2009). Although middle school and
high school students often have weak
basic word-level skills, they generally
lack the educational opportunity to
develop these skills (Boardman et al.,
2008).
Effects Of Adolescent Illiteracy
Students who have iiol developed adequate reading decoding and fluency
skills by middle school are ill-prepared
to meet classroom demands, as they
are increasingly expected to read and
Students who have not developed adequate
reading decoding and fluency skills by middle school
are ill-prepared to meet classroom demands.
ever, a recent study looking at the
component reading skills of adolescent
struggling readers in urban high
schools (Hock et al., 2009) determined
that 64% of those struggling readers
comprehend content area texts as they
advance through the grades (Joseph &
Schisler, 2009). Adolescents who enter
high school without core reading skills
have a greatly reduced probability of
graduating (Hock et al., 2009), with
students diagnosed with learning disabilities and/or low literacy dropping
out of high school at a rate of 32%,
compared with 9% for students without disabilities (National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities, 2008).
The negative effects of adolescent illiteracy extend beyond the classroom to
employment and social arenas. According to Archer, Gleason, and Vachon
(2003), adolescents with reading problems are more likely to
• Struggle in coursework.
• Drop out of school.
• Face unemployment.
• Struggle with social/emotional challenges as adults.
• Forego participation in post-high
school training programs. [% 90-91)
Motivational Issues
The lack of time and attention dedicated to reading instruction for adolescents with disabilities contributes to
and possibly is exacerbated by the difficulty in finding material appropriate
and motivating for older students with
minimal decoding skills (Biancarosa &
Snow, 2004; Guthrie & Humenick,
2004). Students with learning disabilities (LD) often have difficulty flnding
the motivation needed to meet educational demands (National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities, 2008).
Dentón and Vaughn (2008) noted that
because older students with learning
disabilities have experienced repeated
failure in learning to read and write,
motivation must be addressed. Therefore, discovering strategies and materials that motivate and engage students
in reading is an essential feature of literacy instruction for adolescents who
require remedial instruction (Roberts et
al., 2008). To improve motivation,
Scammacca et al. (2007) suggested
making literacy experiences more relevant to students' interests, everyday
life, or cultural events.
Hie Rationale for Using
Song Lyrics
Music is an important part of the
everyday life of adolescents (Olson,
2006). The 2006 Harrison Group Teen
Tïend Survey found that one third of
teens owned an iPod and 75 % of teens
spend 2 to 3 hours a day downloading
music and listening online (Olson,
2006). One way to appeal to and motivate adolescent students with reading
disabilities and to make instruction relevant to their interests is to design a
reading-decoding program using lyrics
from their favorite songs. Moore
(2007), in describing a successful social
studies program using song lyrics, suggested integrating music into other
instructional areas for adolescents
because of its wide appeal and relevance to their lives.
Beyond the motivational arguments,
the rationale behind the effectiveness
of the approach is that the students
will be able to read the printed song
lyrics because they already have stored
the words in the context of the song in
their auditory memory as a result of
listening to the song multiple times.
According to Jensen (2005), the
rhythms, contrasts, and patterns of
music assist the brain in encoding new
TEACHING EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN
SEPT/OCT 2010
17
information, enabling students to easily
learn the lyrics to songs. The lyrics to a
song are, in fact, more easily recalled
than the tune because of their greater
salience (Morrongiello & Roes, 1990).
This prior knowledge of a song's lyrics
allows students to identify the printed
words by matching them to the lyrics
in their auditory memory.
This technique is effective even if
the student cannot recite the lyrics to a
favorite song verbatim, possibly
because of the "tip of the tongue"
phenomenon that impedes some students with learning disabilities. They
cannot produce a specific word that is
on the "tip of their tongue" even
though they have heard and used it
before. Clearly, to be appropriate for a
particular student, the student must
have an approximate knowledge of the
song lyrics. However, the student need
not know the lyrics perfectly. Students
can decode lyrics quite successfully
because of contextual and phonetic
clues, even if they cannot recite them
exactly.
Ccue Study: Jaciyn
1 first used this technique with
"Jaciyn," a 14-year-old student with
learning disabilities, in a small-group
special education classroom where
each child had an individuahzed reading program. Jaciyn had very limited
phonics skills, in spite of several years
of direct instruction in phonics with a
research-based program, and had a
very limited number of words she
could recognize by sight. Jaciyn was
very resistant to reading instruction
and stated that she knew that she
would never learn to read and did not
really care. Although she was a generally enthusiastic and cooperative student, she refused to engage in reading
instruction at the word level. She had
all of her textbooks on tape, had excellent listening comprehension skills, and
dominated class discussions. She had
decided that reading was not a skill
she would ever acquire and she would
adjust her future endeavors to that
fact; in her view, she was "just being
realistic." It was clear that Jaciyn
required a different approach, one that
would not set off her anxieties and
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feelings of defeat and would allow her
to experience immediate success and
resultant optimism that reading might
in fact be a possibility in her future.
I knew that Jaciyn had a keen interest in music and particularly liked the
songs of one singer. I typed up the
lyrics of her favorite song in 20-font
print. To test whether the approach
might be effective, I read the flrst verse
to her, pointing to each word as I
named it. I asked her to do the same,
which she did without error. I then
gave her the printed lyrics of the song
and asked her to practice on her own
until she could read the first two
verses.
The next day she stated that she
could read the entire song. She then
proceeded to do so with minimal
errors, pointing to each word as she
read. This outcome was impressive
because the song had several verses
and numerous very difflcult phonetically irregular, multisyllabic words. She
was very proud of her performance
and willing to pursue additional activities related to the song lyrics.
In the next lessons she continued to
read the printed lyrics orally as I charted her speed and accuracy. She was
pleased to see her fluency improve.
After she had read the lyrics aloud a
number of times on subsequent days
and could read them fluently and
accurately (140 words per minute
without pointing), she agreed to try
something new. She would read 10
high-frequency words, which I had
highlighted in the lyrics. As expected,
she could not automatically identify
most of the words. However, if allowed
to take her time and determine the
word from the context of the song and
phonetic cues, she inevitably came up
with the correct word name. After
reading a particular word correctly she
made a flash card, saying the word
before she wrote, the letters as she
wrote, and the word again as she read
the flash card. After preparing the
flash cards, she practiced reading the
10 words. If she stumbled, she could
refer back to the lyric sheet to find the
highlighted word. Each day we
reviewed the flash cards and I recorded her response, if correct and auto-
matic, with a check on the back of the
card. When she had decoded a specific
word automatically flve times, we
retired the word and added a new one,
so that she was always working on 10
high-frequency words. I highlighted
new words in the text and re-highlighted mastered words a darker shade.
This allowed her to focus on the newly
selected words while reading the song
lyrics, which she did every day for
review, as well as to note her progress
in mastering the words in isolation.
Once she had automatic recognition
of a sizeable number of words from the
song lyrics, to encourage transfer of
skills I introduced a third component
to her program: introducing words
with the same rime pattern as mastered key words from the lyrics. The
rime in a syllable is the vowel and all
that follows. For example, if she could
read the key word take, she would
practice take, bake, cake, fake, lake,
make, rake, wake, shake, brake, and
flake (ake rime).
1 printed the rime family words on
both sides of a page with the rime pattern in bold on the front side of the
page (e.g., take). Jaciyn read the word
lists with the bolded print on the front
side of the paper, and then on the
reverse side in normal print (see Table
1). Jaciyn also prepared flash cards of
the rime family words, which we used
to play a variety of games (e.g., concentration, rime family flsh) with the
cards shuffled so the words were out of
rime pattern order. She initially had the
list of rime pattern key words available
for reference. Jaciyn eventually read
the shuffled cards in flash card drills,
which continued until she could identify the words automatically with 95%
accuracy.
I also incorporated the rime family
words into her spelling program.
Initially, I dictated the words in rime
family order, with each rime family
beginning with the key word from the
song. As Jaclyn's confldence and skills
improved, I dictated the words out of
rime family order, adding a new rime
family as previous ones were mastered.
Eventually, she could spell all rime
family words in random order with an
average of 90% accuracy. (Again, she
initially had a list of key words available for reference.)
Once Jaclyn could read the song
fluently, read the high-frequency
words in isolation, and read and spell
the rime family words, she moved on
to a new song by the same artist. The
song lyrics became her entire reading
prognim for the semester. Once she
gained confidence in her decoding,
learned a sizeable number of words
she could recognize automatically, and
used her knowledge of rime patterns
to identify unknown words, she
moved on to "easy readers" designed
for older students. Jaclyn met great
success with the less controlled text.
As her comprehension was never an
issue, she became a competent reader
(see Table 2).
Use With Other Students
Over the years my colleagues and I
have used this strategy with other students in a variety of settings with
much success, frequently adapting the
program to meet individual needs. For
example, although Jaclyn's program
did not include phoneme-level work
due to her many years of failure and
frustration with phonics programs.
table 1 . Selected Rime Family Words
fake
mess
land
hit
make
less
sand
bit
bake
bless
band
kit
cake
press
brand
lit
rake
stress
grand
fit
stand
skit
sake
wake
grit
shake
split
Note. Key words from song in bold.
sound, and then the new word. Once
May mastered reading and spelling
words with changed initial and final
consonants, I incorporated vowel substitutions into the word ladders (e.g.,
sit, hit, hat, ham, hum, sum, etc.),
creating longer and more complicated
ladders.
Another student "Sam," had excellent phonics skills but was unable to
recognize words automatically or
decode phonetically irregular words.
His reading was slow and laborious.
Reading and rereading the lyrics gave
Once Jaclyn could read the song fluently, read the highfrequency words in isolation, and read and spell the rime family
words, she moved on to a new song hy the same artist. The song
lyrics hecame her entire reading program for the semester.
with "May," another adolescent with
learning disabilities, 1 added activities
at the phoneme-level. May had mastered the rime family words but unlike
Jaclyn was unsuccessful transferring
her skills to read other phonetically
regular words (e.g., bag, ham) whose
rime families were not targeted in
instruction. To further develop May's
phonetic decoding skills, I added a
word-ladder technique to the instructional sequence (see Table 3). I guided
May to read a mastered word from the
song, followed by a word with a different initial consonant, a different flnal
consonant, and a different initial consonant (e.g., sat, rat, rag, bag). She
named the changed letter, the new
him the experience of automatic recognition and fluent decoding, the focus
on high-frequency words helped him
master phonetically irregular words,
and the work with rime family words
encouraged him to look for rime patterns to move beyond sound-by-sound
decoding.
"Juan," a middle school student
with learning disabilities, had extremely weak phonic decoding skills, but
unlike Jaclyn had learned a sizeable
number of words he could recognize
by sight. Because he lacked a systematic approach to word identification, he
attempted to memorize whole words
by their conflguration, thereby frequently confusing words similar in
appearance (e.g,, first for faster; brown
for bom). To meet his needs, I suggested that his teacher adapt the program
to retain the reading of the lyrics, and
the reading and spelling of the rime
pattern words, but eliminate the
instruction of high-frequency words.
The emphasis on rime pattern words
allowed Juan to develop a dependable
word identification approach, encouraging him to decode by analogy and to
use his knowledge of specific words to
decode unknown words.
The program has also proven
effective with students struggling in
reading who were diagnosed as having
disabilities other than LD. For example, with "Maria," a student with weak
word-level skills who also had limited
knowledge of word meanings, a colleague incorporated vocabulary
instruction into the program. The
teacher selected vocabulary words
from the song lyrics and guided Maria
to use the context of the song to determine the meaning of individual words
and then apply a given word to her
own experience.
Adolescents who have motivational
and behavioral problems have also
beneflted from the program. Its novelty
and relevance to their interests encourages students who have been turned
off to more traditional word identification instruction.
Selecting Students
In terms of deciding whether or not the
technique might be effective with an
TEACHING EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN ] SEPT/OCT 2010
19
Table 2 . Instructional Sequence
Reading lyrics
Teacher selects song based on student interest.
I Teacher types lyrics in 20 font (can reduce/enlarge font size).
Teacher reads one stanza, pointing to each word as named.
I Teacher asks student to reread, pointing to each word as named (trial).
If the procedure is effective, teacher reads
additional stanzas to student (number
dependent on motivation/ability of
student) and tells him/her to practice
decoding (independently) until student
can decode accurately.
Student reads orally while pointing to
each word.
If the student encounters difficulty, teacher rereads again and
instructs student to practice on his/her own until ready to read
orally. Student can listen to the song on the computer while
following along for reinforcement.
If the student is successful,
the program is continued,
adding more stanzas until
the student can read the
entire song.
If the student continues
to experience frustration,
discontinue the program.
Student continues to read whole song silently and then orally to teacher (pointing to the words is no longer
required) until the reading is fluent.
Redding highfrequency
words
in isolation
1. Teacher selects 10 high-frequency words (often phonetically irregular) from mastered song (e.g., where, you,
again) and highlights in text.
2. Teacher instructs student to read the song aloud, noting highlighted words.
3. Teacher points to each highlighted word in text of song as student names.
4. If student can't identify a word automatically, teacher instructs him/her to use song context and phonic clues.
Once student has identified the word, he/she prepares flash cards for target word following a specific
procedure: Say whole word, say letters while printing, read flash card. If handwriting is overly cumbersome
for child, teacher prepares flash cards for student and has him/her trace over letters while naming.
After preparing 10 flash cards, student practices reading them, referring to song lyrics for clues as necessary.
Once student has read a word automatically five times, the word is retired from deck of 10 and new word is
added to cards and highlighted in text. Mastered words are highlighted in a new, darker shade.
Mastered words can be reviewed with games and used in spelling dictation.
Generalizing to 1. Teacher chooses key words with common rime pattern (e.g., ring) from lyrics.
rime pattern
2. Teacher selects other word/s from rime pattern (e.g., ring, sing, wing, swing).
words
3. Teacher types rime pattern words on both sides of a sheet of paper (on front side with rime in bold type, on
reverse in regular print).
4. Student reads lists of rimeable words (Side 1 first).
5. Student reads mastered words out of order on flash cards or in games.
6. Words can be dictated for spelling, first in rime pattern, then in random order.
individual student who needs reading
instruction at the word level, the first
thing to evaluate Is whether the student enjoys listening to music and has
a favorite song, artist, or band. If the
answer is yes, the approach should be
introduced on a trial basis, to gauge its
effectiveness. The student should start
with one stanza, pointing to each word
as he/she names, after teacher modeling. If the student is successful during
the trial phase, the program will generally be effective.
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COUNCIL FOR EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN
For students who enjoy listening to
music but do not have a good sense of
the lyrics, it is often possible to download videos of the artist actually
singing a particular song, on their web
sites or from sites such as
YouTlibe.com. The student can listen to
the lyrics prior to or while reading the
song. Also, if this instructional technique is used in a classroom setting,
students can independently practice
their decoding or self-check their reading accuracy by listening with ear-
phones to the song being played by the
artist on a computer. One caution in
using video of artists singing the selected songs is that lyrics vary during different performances. Therefore, it is
important to match the actual printed
text you present to the specific recording (see box, "Internet Resources").
Finai Thoughts
More than eight million middle school
and high school students are considered to be struggling readers who are
Table 3. Sample Word Ladders
run
spell
tale
rug
spill
take
tug
spin
wake
spit
woke
Kamil, M. L , Borman, G. D., Dole, J., Krai,
C. C , Salinger, T., & Torgesen, J. (2008).
Improving adolescent literacy: Effective
classroom and intervention practices: A
Practice Guide (NCEE 2008-4027). Washington, DC: National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance,
Institute of Education Sciences, U.S.
Department of Education. Retrieved from
http://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc
wove
Noie. Mastered word from song in hold.
at risk of dropping out of school with
grave impact on their future (Joseph &
Schisler, 2009): for struggling readers
with disabilities the risks are even
greater. Research has shown that teaching word reading skills to adolescents
provides positive reading achievement
outcomes (Joseph & Schisler, 2009).
However, reading instruction at the
word level decreases as students move
beyond the elementary grades (Kamil
et al., 2008).
Using song lyrics as instructional
material is a promising technique for
adolescents with disabilities who need
remedial decoding instruction but who
may have lost the motivation to engage
in more traditional instructional practices due to repeated failures. This
approach is motivating, gratifying, and
often a welcome respite from the drill
and practice of remedial techniques
that have been ineffective in the past.
If the prospective student is interested
in music and has a favorite artist
whose songs they are familiar with, the
procedure is recommended on a trial
basis. As with any remediation program, if the student is not successful
and a sense of momentum is not
Internet Resources
There are numerous web sites that
offer free lyrics to download. The
following sites are easy to navigate
and have a wide selection of song
lyrics.
http://www.Lyrics.com
http://www.lyricsdot.cotTi
http://www.LyricsPlanet.com
established, it should be adapted or
replaced with another program.
References
Archer, A. L., Gleason, M. M., & Vachon, V.
L. (2003). Decoding and fluency:
Foundation skills for struggling older
readers. Leaming Disability Quarterly, 26,
89-102.
Biancarosa, G., & Snow, C. E. (2004). Reading next—A vision for action and
research in middle and high school literacy. A report to Carnegie Corporation of
New York. Washington, DC: Alliance for
Excellent Education.
Boardman, A. G., Roberts, G., Vaughn, S.,
Wexler, J., Murray, C. S., & Kosanovich,
M. (2008). Effective insiniction for adolescent struggling readers: A practice brief.
Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction.
Demon, C. A., & Vaughn, S., (2008). Reading and writing intervention for older
students with disabilities: Possibilities
and challenges. Leaming Disabilities
Research and Practice, 32, 61-62.
Guthde, J. T., & Humenick, N. M. (2004).
Motivating students to read: Evidence for
classroom practices that increase reading
motivation and achievement. In P.
McCardle & V Chhabra (Eds.), The voice
of evidence in reading research (pp.
329-354). Baltimore, MD: Brookes.
Hock, M. F., Brasseur, 1. F., Deshler, D. D.,
Catts, H. W., Marquis, J. G., Mark, C. A.,
& Stribling, J. W. (2009). What is the
reading component skill profile of adolescent struggling readers in urban schools?
Leaming Disability Quarterly, 32, 21-38.
Jensen, E. (2005). Top tunes for teaching:
977 song titles and practical tools for
choosing the right music every time.
Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin.
Joseph, L. M., & Schisler, R. (2009). Should
adolescents go back to the basics? A
review of teaching word reading skills to
middle and high school students.
Remedial and Special Education, 30,
131-147.
Moore, James, R. (2007). Engaging instruction to captivate students: Popular music
helps students focus on important social
issues. Middle School Joumai, 38(4),
21-29.
Morrongiello, B. A., and Roes, C. L., (1990).
Children's memory for new songs: Integration or independent storage of words
and tunes. Joumai of Experimental Child
Psychology, 50, 25-38.
National Center for Educational Statistics.
(2009). The nation's report card: Reading,
2009 (NCES 2010-458). Washington, DC:
Institute of Education Sciences, U.S.
Department of Education.
National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities. (2008). Adolescent literacy and
older students with learning disabilities:
A report from the National Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities. Leaming
Disabilities Quarterly, 31, 211-218.
Olson, S. (2006, December 7). Teens and
media: A full-time job. CNET News.
Retrieved from http://news.cnet.com/
2100-1041_3-6141920.html
Roberts, G., Torgesen, J. K., Boardman, A.,
& Scammacca, N. (2008). Evidence-based
strategies for reading instruction of older
students with learning disabilities. Leaming Disabilities Research & Practice, 32,
63-69.
Scammacca, N., Roberts, G., Vaughn, S.,
Edmonds, M., Wexler. J, Reutebuch, C.
K., & Torgesen, J. K. (2007). Interventions
for adolescent struggling readers: A metaanalysis with implications for practice.
Portsmouth, NH: RMC Research Corporation, Center on Instruction.
Sara J. Hines (New York CEC), Assistant
Professor of Special Education/Learning
Disabilities, City University of New York
Hunter College.
Correspondence conceming this article
should be addressed to Sara Hines, School
of Education, CUNY Hunter, 695 Park
Avenue, New York, NY 10065 (e-mail:
[email protected]).
TEACHING Exceptional Children, Vol. 43,
No. 1, pp. 16-21.
Copyright 2010 CEC.
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