Mid-Prairie teacher for over 21 years, Diane Miller, has been pioneering a new approach to teaching reading fluency by bringing music into the classroom. Miller is a third-grade teacher at Mid-Prairie West Elementary. At the third-grade level, reading fluency is highly prioritized in the reading instruction curriculum. Reading fluency measures the rate and accuracy as a student reads aloud. Along with classroom teaching for many years, Miller is also an accomplished piano player. These two gifts have recently collided in her classroom, and to the benefit of her students.

Due to space, Mid-Prairie West and East Elementary Schools have needed to bring in portable classrooms to house Music and Spanish classes for students. Unfortunately, these portables are still being finished a handful of weeks into the 2021-22 school year. However, this was a positive mishap in timing for Miller’s classroom. At MP-West, the music room’s piano needed a home until the portable classroom could be finished. With her passion for music and the ability to weave this passion into teaching, Miller was thrilled to bring the piano into her classroom.

According to Miller, music is one of the most natural ways of teaching reading fluency. With so much emphasis on fluency in third grade, there are great opportunities to introduce fluency through song.

Miller has been able to incorporate the piano and her musical ability into what is already going on in her classroom. When working with fluency through song, students are provided with all song lyrics in three-ring binders. The class listens to the song first, then students talk along with it.

The students are not required to sing. They are only asked to speak the part. This allows all students to stay within their comfort level as they work on reading fluency. After some introduction, students are able to track the words along with the song. Miller incorporates one to three songs into her classroom day for the students.

Miller has found some favorite music to use when teaching reading fluency through song. The music of Tom Chapin, a leading children’s music artist, is used quite often in the Mid-Prairie Elementary schools. He has won many awards for his children’s lyrics, and recently Mid-Prairie purchased his music for their Social Thinking curriculum.

Some of Chapin’s piano music is available online for Miller to play behind the piano. Many more are available on YouTube. All lyrics for Chapin’s songs are available on his website, making it possible for Miller to prepare lyrics for students.

Miller’s teaching superpower is her ability to match a song with a lesson. Pairing great music with a powerful lesson in the classroom is priceless. At a time when many students and schools have struggled through school closures and getting back on track, reading fluency in third grade at Mid-Prairie has thrived.

Miller believes all students are innately musical. However, sometimes it can be more difficult to find the best way to encourage a student to connect with music. With this method of teaching, even students who may seem “non-musical” have fully embraced this method of working on fluency. Another powerful part of this method of teaching fluency is that all students are exposed to the “hard words” in these song lyrics. Working with these more difficult words in their fluency pushes students in their learning.

Other teachers have started to follow Miller’s lead and dabble in using Tom Chapin’s music in their classrooms as well. YouTube has been a great resource for teachers without a piano available to start incorporating music into their fluency teaching.

Overall, Miller is grateful to be able to use her musical gift in the classroom. She feels that Mid-Prairie affirms her in her musical gifts, and that her administrators are readily cheering for her.