A teacher notices students read monotonically; which strategy best develops prosody?

• A. Having students practice reading aloud with no expressiveness.
• B. Having students illustrate scenes from the text.
• C. Having students act out a play from a script.
• D. Having students underline punctuation while reading.

Answer: (C)

Prosody is about the rhythm, intonation, and expression used when reading aloud. When students act out a play from a script, they must bring each character to life, using different voices, emotions, and pacing for dialogue, plus appropriate pauses for cues and stage directions. This naturally trains them to vary pitch and volume, adjust tempo for suspense or humor, and emphasize meaningful phrases, all of which are core components of expressive reading.

Reading aloud with no expressiveness keeps voice flat, which doesn’t practice the shaping of how something is said. Illustrating scenes helps understanding and imagination, but it doesn’t directly build the oral expression used in fluent reading. Underlining punctuation can guide word-by-word phrasing, yet without adopting voices and emotions, students miss the experience of conveying meaning through prosody. Acting out a script gives a concrete, collaborative way to practice and hear expressive reading in real time, making it the most effective choice for developing prosody.