Language Comprehension Interventions

Phrasing is another key component of reading fluently. In addition to reading accurately and automatically in texts, students must demonstrate appropriate phrasing. Intervening for phrasing should only occur after students have shown that they can read connected texts with accuracy and at the appropriate rate for their instructional level. This page includes intervention strategies that you can use to develop your student's understanding of appropriate phrasing while reading. As you read, consider which of these interventions best align with your student's strengths and needs in the whole learner domains.

Dr. Kate Garnett, a professor at Hunter College and a leading scholar on learning disabilities, advocates for Phrase Work as a means of building reading fluency. This strategy is for readers who have strong word recognition skills but demonstrate clunky or disrupted oral reading behaviors. Garnett recommends focusing on the following strategies to improve phrasing:

• Practice connector words (e.g., the, and, of, in, at, up, but, over, out)
• Practice reading phrase cards (e.g., in a pot, up the hill, into the water, he is coming, she is going, we are waiting)
• Make large phrase cards; hold them up, one at a time, each for 3 seconds. Have students read them (when they are out of sight) from short-term memory
• Find appropriate practice sentences and passage. Have students practice “scooping” by penciling a “scoop” line beneath phrases
• Find or create phrased cue text: Thomas Alva Edison / invented many things / that are still in use / today.// He had / good ideas.// When Edison had ideas, / he worked on them.// He would try / many things.//

Birsh, J. (Ed.). (2011). Multisensory teaching of basic language skills (3rd Ed.). Baltimore, MD: P.H. Brookes Pub.

Explicit Instruction

If you are intervening to support your students' ability to read sentences with appropriate phrasing, you should start by explicitly teaching the skill. This sounds like:

• Explain the Skill/Concept. Define phrasing and explain activity. ("Appropriate phrasing means that when we try to read smoothly, we want to put our words together and not read them separately." "Today, we are going to practice reading phrases of words...")
• Model Skill with Examples. Think aloud about how you figure out how to read phrases smoothly. ("When I read the words 'up the hill,' I'm going to put them together in the same breath. Watch: Up the hill. See how I made the three words go together smoothly?")
• Model Skill with Non-Examples. Think aloud about reading a phrase in an unnatural way, and then fix your mistake. ("Listen this time as I read the words up the hill. Up. The. Hill. Does that sound smooth and natural? No. I'll try again: Up the hill.")
• Practice the Skill. Engage in one or more of the activities below to practice the skill with your student, providing feedback as necessary. ("Now you try. I'm going to show you...")

Activity A: Phrase Work Cards
The Phrase Work Cards activity requires students to read short phrases (two to four words) and to repeat the phrase so that it sounds smooth and natural. Give the students phrases on cards and ask them to first say the phrase the 'bumpy' way, and then repeat the phrase, saying it smoothly. "We are going to practice reading phrases of words. First, read it bumpy, and then smooth it out. Make. It. Smash. Make it smash." 

Phrase Work Cards Artifact

 Download a resource of phrase cards to use in your classroom when implementing this strategy. 

Phrase Work Cards in Action

Watch this clip to see how to execute Phrase Work. Notice how the teacher includes Make it Move to make the strategy more effective.

Another method for improving phrasing is scooping. This supports the idea that ideal sentence reading is smooth. Begin with a written sentence. As a fluent reader, model how you would identify several words to string together, and visually mark those “scoops” with curved lines. Tell students that they will be grouping words together (or scooping) in appropriate phrases. As they read the sentence aloud, they move their finger along the scoops. Depending on your students’ needs, you can pre-scoop sentences for them or have them mark up sentences on their own. "You will be reading sentences and scooping as you read. This activity helps you know when to pause when you are reading..." 

Scooping in Action

Watch this clip to see how to execute Scooping. Notice how the teacher models the strategy first and gives the student feedback throughout her practice.

Think about the following scenario, which takes place after a teacher has explicitly taught a lesson about how to break sentences into phrases: 
     Teacher: "Scoop this sentence: Jack had a cat hidden in the barn." 
     Student: "Jack had (scoop) a cat (scoop) hidden (scoop) in the barn (scoop)." 

In such a case, what might you do? 

When you are planning your lessons, you should anticipate that your student will make errors throughout the activity. Here are a series of prompts that you can use to respond to errors. Keep in mind that all students are different, and some students might respond better to different types of feedback than others.

If your student struggles to meet your objective, there are various techniques that you might try to adjust the activity to your student's needs.