Comedy Hour: Using Audio Files of Joke Recitations to Improve Elementary Students’ Fluency

The purpose of this study was to measure changes in fluency components in three struggling readers. Intervention strategies were implemented over a span of four weeks in a second grade classroom. Strategies included teacher modeling, self-rehearsal, and audiotape analysis. Automaticity and prosody in initial audio recordings of joke recitations were compared to the final readings of the same jokes. Progress was also monitored by students’ engagement in a class-wide weekly performance to present their jokes to peers. Results of this study indicated an increase in automaticity and prosody as well as an increase in confidence in oral reading. Please access the audio files that accompany this article by clicking here .