Running Head: THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUND MUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 1

The Effect of Background Music on Reading Comprehension

Stevie Morga

Franciscan University
THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 2

Reading scores in the United States, according to the U.S. Department of Education’s

National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), stressed the severity with which teachers

should respond to reading instruction (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2017).

Every two years the NAEP puts out a report card exhibiting the national average of academic

achievement. For the purpose of this study, the only national average viewed was the fourth-

grade national reading achievement. In 2017, thirty-seven percent of fourth grade students read

at a proficient level (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2017). To better understand,

this data should be compared to the national reading achievement in 1992 which was a mere

twenty-seven percent (National Assessment of Educational Progress, 2017). The growth seen

here is so low that teachers should view reading instruction as a top priority. I chose to conduct

this study because I see how lacking the ability to comprehend what is read is a detriment to each

student’s future. This is one strategy that I think could assist in reading comprehension, that is

the use of background music, that teachers can easily implement to increase reading achievement

in the elementary classroom.

Purpose

The current generation faces many distractions that generations before did not have to

face. One of these is the distraction of technology during homework and study time. Ming Chou

(2010) conducted a study to determine if the technology available, particularly that of

background music, is a distraction to reading comprehension. Since reading comprehension is

such an important skill to have, this study aims to understand how reading comprehension can

improve with the assistance of instrumental background music of various genres. The reading

scores have unveiled a national crisis on reading ability among the students today. It is vital that

teachers look into all possible ways to assist their students in reading and comprehending in
THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 3

order to ensure their success in school. Allowing background music may be one strategy that

teachers are able to implement to achieve this goal. The purpose of this study is to answer the

question what are the effects of background music on reading comprehension?

In this study, a class of first graders will be assessed on their reading comprehension

skills during reading times with various genres of background music. The goal of this study is to

determine if, as well as which type of, background music enhances reading comprehension skills.

While all music is instrumental, the genres include techno, classical, and pop. Students will be

reading and completing a comprehension activity with a silent background as the control.

Students will be given time to read a text then write about the information they are able to recall.

Students are scored in number of pages read as well as number of details included, words used,

and characters named in retell. Students’ comprehension skills will be scored against a rubric

based on common core state standards and the Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills

(DIBELS) Next benchmark standards.

The hypothesis for this study is two-fold. First, I hypothesize that students read and

comprehend better with background instrumental music than in silence. Second, I hypothesize

that students will learn best with techno music than pop and classical. The reason behind this is

that techno lacks a pattern therefore will not be distracting for the brain, however it does engage

the brain in activity which focuses the mind. The reason behind this is the drainage effect. This

means that the brain has less energy to focus on the reading when listening to hip hop music than

classical music because there is much more activity in hip hop music (Chou, 2010).

Review of Literature
THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 4

When considering the effect of background music on reading comprehension, the

research question usually has to do with the type of music. For Thompson, Schellenber, and

Letnic (2011) the question was not about the proper genre of music but rather the tempo and

volume of the music. The purpose of this study was to determine which combination of volume

and tempo would be most effective in arousing an enjoyable emotion when reading. Thompson

et al., (2011) determined that the study has less to do with which musical genre increases

cognitive ability and more to do with making reading desirable therefore increasing reading

comprehension ability. The participants used in this study were 25 undergraduate students. These

students were given reading comprehension assessments in four experimental environments. The

four environments were fast-loud, fast-soft, slow-soft, and slow-loud. The results of the study

showed that reading comprehension was disrupted most during the fast and loud music. This

caused greater intensity, therefore resulting in more attention going to the music than the book.

The study also concluded that students were more likely to be successful if the music was soft no

matter the volume. This showed that the feeling the music causes for the reader is more

important than the distracting volume.

This article was the most interesting because Thompson et al (2011) questions if the

music is distracting from the reading or if the environment is just unpleasant for reading. The

important thing that this study focuses on is that reading needs to be something that students

enjoy before they are able to not only partake in the task, but also understand and engage in their

reading. A good thing about this article is that all the charts are clearly explained as well as very

easy to read and comprehend. A difficult aspect of this article is that there are two pilot studies

that happen before the principal experiment. These are experiments that could have been easily

incorporated into the principal experiment which raises the question as to why these were
THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 5

separated. This is relevant to my study because it helps me to determine which songs to choose

for students to accompany their reading. The study helped me become aware that the pace of the

music chosen for the experiment is an important factor to consider. Future research should

further explore if the volume has any effect on cognitive ability. While this study came to an

inconclusive conclusion about this, it was a mere side effect of the study.

A common understanding is that the brain cannot focus on more than one thing at a time.

For example, it is generally understood that reading and listening to music does not warrant high

levels of reading comprehension. Johansson, Holmqvist, Mossberg, & Lindgren (2011) went

deeper into this school of thought. These researchers posed the hypothesis that it is not if music

inhibits reading comprehension, but rather if the type of music inhibits reading comprehension.

The purpose of the study was to determine if music preference affects comprehension. The

researchers used a technique to observe eye movement and assess with pen and paper

comprehension tests. Participants in this study were twenty-four university students in various

conditions consisting of silence, preferred music, non-preferred music, and background noise.

This was an experimental study performed in a short period of time with a very structured

environment. The findings of this study revealed that silence was the environment most

conducive to high levels of reading comprehension. Preferred music and background noise had

no significant impact and non-preferred music hindered reading comprehension in comparison to

the three other environments. This study shows that while non-preferred music resulted in poor

reading comprehension, preference does not vastly affect reading comprehension.

The article presented by Johansson et al (2011) was a two part study. The first determined

the effect of different sounds in the background on reading comprehension. The second part

determined how the music affected eye dilation to determine if the various background sounds
THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 6

showed obvious effect in terms of engagement with the literature. The first part of the study

provided helpful information for the future study. The second part, while interesting, did not

contribute to future research that will be done nor did it have any conclusive evidence that

supported their hypothesis on this topic. Johansson et al (2011) provided many different

resources and other studies that will be helpful when creating a hypothesis for research in the

future. While lengthy, all information was helpful and descriptive for the study put forth. The

tables and charts embedded throughout the article were clearly explained. This researchers

provide through the article guidance for future research and narrows specific research questions.

Some improvements might be a longer time frame for the study. This particular study was only

done over the course of a day and in the discussion the authors talked about the time constraint as

an inhibiting factor. Another improvement might be having the students take their reading

comprehension test with the same background sounds as the students had while reading the

passage.

In most studies about the effect of background music on reading comprehension, the

students are college age. Bloor (2009) decided to perform a study with students ages 10-11 to

determine if reading, mathematics, and behavior is affected by having background music on in

the classroom. The purpose of the study was not only to determine the effects of background

music, but also to determine if students who claim to be musicians tend to be more distracted by

the background music. The participants in this study were 47 students ages 10 and 11 with

parents who gave consent. Slightly over half of these students stated that they play an instrument

and a little under half of these students had not played an instrument. The author used an

experimental method for this study in the form of mathematical and reading comprehension tests.
THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 7

The conclusions found that there was no correlation between if a student played an instrument

and the level of distraction the student had with background music.

This article had many interesting points to it such as the idea that little research has been

done with young students and the effect music has on reading comprehension. It should also be

noted that the author talks about how students who play an instrument could be more affected by

the background music because they recognize the rhythm. In this case the idea of brain

functioning with two stimuli would confirm the theory. However, this was not found to be true in

the study. The difficult thing in this article was that the author referred to himself in the third

person all throughout the article. It is relevant to my study because I will also be exploring the

idea of background music in an elementary level classroom. Future research should explore if

playing an instrument does affect reading comprehension with background music. This study

was set up poorly and with more structure could possibly have some validity.

Often studies focus on high school and college age students when it comes to researching

how students learn best. Anderson & Fuller (2010) however, decided to conduct a study on how

music affects reading comprehension. The goal of the study was to determine the detriment of

background music on reading comprehension for junior high students. The researchers studied

the idea that the brain cannot multitask with two cognitively similar tasks such as listening to

lyrical music and reading. The hypothesis addressed reading comprehension in environments

with and without music while exploring any gender difference of reading comprehension scores

in the two environments. Participants of this study included 334 seventh and eighth graders from

five different public junior high schools in Arizona. Among the 344 students, 172 were boys and

162 were girls. The authors chose to perform the study with a survey. The study began with a

preferential survey, this determined if students preferred to read with music or without music.
THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 8

Students then read a passage in a music environment and a non music environment with a survey

at the end to determine reading comprehension. Results of the study supported the general idea

that music with lyrics is distracting when reading. In conclusion, listening to lyrical music was

more detrimental to students’ reading comprehension than reading in a quiet environment.

The article by Anderson et al (2010) was an informative article because it was about the

effects of music on young readers. The article addressed the fact that little research has been

done regarding young students, but due to the fact that results came out inconclusive, further

research should be done on this topic with this age group. Some important and wise choices

made through this study were having a short time span for students to complete the study, having

fewer environments, and pre-determining if preference has an effect on reading comprehension.

Further explanation on the discussion would have been beneficial since there was much data

provided in charts but little explanation given about the proper way to read the data. A benefit of

this study was the extensive information on the data collection procedure, however explanation

of how to read the data was missing. The study is relevant to my future field of study because it

is about young students, which is the central focus of my research. This is beneficial because

younger students are less likely to be set in their study habits meaning it is possible that students

at younger age might comprehend reading better in a non lyrical music environment. Future

studies should address how social implications affect students study habits.

Methodology

Participants The participants in this study were a class of first graders from an

elementary school in the midwestern region of the United States. In this class was a total of

twenty-four students. While there were more girls than boys, the class was well balanced

between boys and girls. Students are ages six and seven in the class. Out of the twenty-four
THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 9

enrolled students, only ten students’ data was used in the final analysis. This is due to the fact

that all data must be from students who completed the entirety of the study. Some students

entered the room late and others left early. These students were able to participate, but their data

did not count towards the final average. Other students were either absent or missed pieces of the

study for various reasons. Of the ten students who completed the study, eight were girls and two

were boys. These students varied in their reading level, however for the purpose of this study the

student is compared to their own data as well as the benchmark standards.

Process The process of this study was inspired by the study conducted by Ming Chou

(2010) on college age students. It was modified to fit the objectives of my study and the

appropriate level of my participants. Students entered the classroom, were asked to clear their

desk and take out a writing utensil. To begin the lesson, students were told they would have three

minutes to read their book. Students should not begin until told to do so and should stop reading

immediately once the time is finished. There were three minutes allotted to read as much as

students were able to. Once the three minutes were done, students were told to take a provided

post-it note and stick it on the final page they read. Students should then close their books and

were allowed four minutes to write about what they read. Students were encouraged to write for

the entirety of the four minutes. All materials were collected and the process was repeated for

each environment.

The first environment was a control with no background sound. Home with a Cold (Rice

& Livingston, 2003) was the book used in this trial. The second environment was with classical

music in the background. This music was chosen because there is a common theory called the

Mozart effect. The book used with this trial was Slippery Steps (Old & Rice, 2003). The

background music for trial number three was techno music. This was chosen because the music
THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 10

lacked pattern which would engage brain waves while not being the primary focus of the

activity. The text associated with this environment was The Ice Storm (Livingston, 2003).

Finally, the students were given the text Did That Tree Eat My Kite? (Livingston, 2003). The

music for this final environment was instrumental pop. I chose instrumental pop because it was

music with which the students were most familiar. The aforementioned study conducted by

Johansson, Holmqvist, Mossberg, & Lindgren (2011) showed that while preferred music does

not have a significant impact on a student’s reading comprehension, non-preferred tends to

hinder understanding. Since pop music tends to either be favorable or non-favorable, I thought

this was a genre that should be included.

Rationale While collecting literature to review previous to this study, I found that there

was much research on how music and reading comprehension correlated for adults. However

very little research has been done regarding music on reading comprehension for young students.

By the time students reach their adult age, they tend to already be aware and in their study habits.

Therefore, students at the adult age would find music distracting. On the contrary, school age

students have brains with a higher level of plasticity and therefore would provide better data on

how each music genre impacts reading comprehension. Kindergarten was not chosen because it

was important students would be able to clearly convey their retell of the text they just read

through writing. I did not choose an older grade because it was important to me that the students’

brains could easily adapt to the musical environment due to the high level of plasticity.

Findings

I hypothesized that background music enhanced reading comprehension and that techno

music would be the most helpful when retaining information from text. I chose to interpret the

data through four different comprehension skills. These skills included number of pages read,
THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 11

number of characters named in retell, number of details included in retell, and number of words

used in retell. These comprehension skills were derived from the Common Core State Standard

“retell stories, including key details, and demonstrate understanding of their central message or

lesson” (CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2). In order to standardize the scoring, I created a rubric

which can be found in the Appendix. The rubric allows for each skill to be scored for the

duration of each musical environment. Students either meet the average level of performance for

the skill, perform below the average skill level, or perform well below. Scores for each skill are

averaged to determine the comprehension of the whole text. Each individual score was also

averaged to determine how students performed for each skill per environment.

Figure 1: Pages Read

APR PPM

12

10

0
Instrumental Pop Silence Classical Techno

Figure 1 shows the total pages read in the three minutes within the various background environments. The first bar represents the
Average Pages Read (APR) for the ten students’ data collected. The second bar represents the Pages Per Minute (PPM) which is
the average number of pages read per minute.

Number of pages read was an important factor to determine because it measured how

distracted students were while reading in the different musical environments. Since these texts

were all at the same reading level, the text itself should not distract the students. Rather, the

background music is the distracting factor. Figure 1 presents the average number of pages read in

each environment. The instrumental pop environment averaged 10.2 pages in the time allotted
THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 12

which was an average of 3.4 pages per minute. In the control, silent, environment students read

an average of 7.6 pages which is an average of 2.5 pages per minute. Classical music background

created an environment where students read an average of 8.9 pages in the time given. This is an

average of 2.9 pages per minute. Finally, techno music revealed that students read 9.1 pages

which is an average of about 3 pages per minute. Raw data of this information can be found in a

later section.

Students who met the reading comprehension skill standard read seven or more pages.

Students who scored below average read four to seven pages. Finally, students who scored well

below the average read less than four pages. Instrumental pop was the environment in which

students read the most pages. Among the ten students’ data seven had read all twelve pages, one

read seven pages, one read six pages, and one read five. The data also reveals that the silent

control environment was least conducive to reading. In this environment, two students read all

twelve pages, one read nine pages, two read eight, two read seven, two read five, and one read

three. This confirmed my hypothesis further that silence is not the most supportive reading

environment.

The remaining three comprehension skills focused on the retell itself. These skills were

number of details included in retell, total words used in retell, and number of characters named in

the retell. Concerning number of characters named, students who named all characters received

full points on the scoring rubric. Students who named some characters, any number of characters

between two and all but one, were marked as below average. Students who only named the main

character, or named no characters at all, were marked as well below average. Details included in

retell and total words used in retell scoring was determined by the Dynamic Indicators of Basic

Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) Next’s benchmark standards for the first-grade. Students who
THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 13

met the DIBELS benchmark standards provided three or more details and used 15 words or

more. Students who were below the benchmark provided two details and used 10-15 words in

their retell. Finally, students who were well below the benchmark provided one detail and used

less than 10 words in their retell. While DIBELS retell benchmark scores are for oral retell while

the participants in this study produced a written retell, I determined them a sufficient standard for

the purpose of this study.

Figure 2: Reading Comprehension

3

2.5

1.5
Includes Detail Retell Total Words Characters Named

Instrumental Pop Silence Classical Techno

Figure 2 presents how well students scored on three key reading comprehension skills. The first two come from the Dynamic
Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) Next first grade Benchmark scores. The third is the number of characters
named which comes from a Common Core State Standard CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2. Individual scores have been averaged
to fit the chart.

The data found in Figure 2 reveals the average scores given for each comprehension skill

in each environment. The average scores reveal my hypothesis as partially incorrect. I

hypothesized that techno would be the environment to enhance reading comprehension.

However, it revealed that instrumental pop tended to enhance reading comprehension more than

the other genres. The second part of my hypothesis was that students would not be able to

comprehend text as well in a silent environment. The data confirmed this theory. Raw data for

this information can be found in a later section. A specific breakdown of individual study
THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 14

averages, of all four reading comprehension skills, can be found in the Appendix under Figures

3-6.

Recommendations

In conclusion, instrumental pop was the most successful when supplementing reading

comprehension. The average comprehension score for instrumental pop was 2.475. This was

found by averaging the scores of each skill on the rubric for each book. All the average scores

were then averaged together to get the class comprehension score for each environment.

Classical music had an average comprehension score of 2.35, techno had an average

comprehension score of 2.175, and the silent environment had an average comprehension score

of 2.2.

Songs chosen for this study were as follows: “Let it Go – Instrumental Karaoke”

performed by Kristen Anderson-Lopez and Robert Lopez for instrumental pop, “Faded –

Instrumental” performed by Alan Walker for techno, and “Cavalleria Rusticana: Intermezzo” by

Oltan Petrak for classical. Error could have occurred in that students were individually

accountable for tracking where they finished reading. Some students could have recorded that

they read the entire book when they did not. Originally students were going to read in silence.

This would be to test the effect of music on Silent Sustained Reading (SSR) comprehension.

However, in this particular study the class read aloud while reading in normal language arts

instruction. Therefore to set aside any hinderance, students were aloud to read at a normal

speaking tone. It would have been a more effective study if more students participated in the

entirety of the study rather than a mere ten students.

THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 15

Future research should be done to determine if the genre of music depends on the

socioeconomic status of the community. The first-grade class I chose for this study was located

in a low-income community. Poverty tends to have a greater relationship with pop music than

other genres. On the contrary, future studies might also look into how different genres of

background music affect comprehension in more affluent communities. Another future

recommendation for this area of study would be to track students throughout their educational

career. This would have taken much more time than I had however future research could

determine, if students were in the habit of reading with a particular type of music in the

background, which genre tended to be the most assistive in comprehension. If I were to perform

this study again, I would collect data from a variety of second-grade classes. This is because

second-graders might be able to articulate their thoughts better. Another option might have been

to create a comprehension multiple choice assessment for each reading.

Raw Data
The following information is the raw data of information collected directly from the students.
Raw scoring rubrics are attached to the back of the study.
Student
Environment Number Page # Writing
Instrumental Steve said trees eat kites. No said Fran. It is march said Fran. Steve
Pop 101 6 Marched to a tree in the back.
Instrumental
Pop 102 7 Steve picked up the kite.
Instrumental I read about Steve had the kite string and Fran held Steve's hand.
Pop 103 12 Fran and Steve ran and the kite flew up up up.
Steve ran and ran and the tree ate the kite he said no no no. Fran
Instrumental yelle oh NOOO. Fran and Jack told mom they needed hlep. Steve
Pop 104 12 was trying to get it.
Instrumental
Pop 105 12 I read about a kite the little boy.
Instrumental Steve held the kite string and Fran held Steve's ahdn. Fran and
Pop 106 12 Steve ran and the kite flew up up up.
I read that ran ran outside and she put her chin up ad she said march
Instrumental is a good to fly a kite and she ran down in the house and get Steve
Pop 107 12 and ran out Fran said march Steve.
THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 16

Instrumental
Pop 108 5 I read that Fran and...
Instrumental
Pop 109 12 Fran ran ourside. She stuck up her chin and felt.
Fran helped Steve. The kite flew up and up. Trees eat kites. No said
Instrumental Fran it was a Joke. It is March said Fran. steve marched to a tree
Pop 110 12 and laughed.
Silence Vick was sick in bed. Vick saw a baby deer. Eva was playing a game
(Control) 101 5 with him.
Silence
(Control) 102 3 Vik looked out the window.
Silence I read about he had a dad call and he isn't going to school and he
(Control) 103 9 saw a deer.
The dad didn't know what was going on. First Eva looked at the
Silence window. Vick couldn't go to school because he was sick. Eva and
(Control) 104 8 Vick wanted play.
Silence
(Control) 105 7 I read about Vick seeing a mom deer and a baby deer.
Silence
(Control) 106 7 Mom and Eva tiptoed in Vick stared at the deer.
Silence I read about Dad came home and he slammed the door and it scared
(Control) 107 8 the deer and they ran back into the shade.
Silence
(Control) 108 5 I read about Vick had a cold. Than Vick looked at the window.
Silence
(Control) 109 12 I read about mom and Vick saw a deer out the window.
Silence
(Control) 110 12 Vick had a cold he saw a deer and stayed home.
Jack and Jim woke up look outside said Jim. Jim and Jack asked
Classical 101 7 their mom to go skate
The sun rose up Jim and John woke up it was sunny at the window it
Classical 102 3 was sleet at the window.
I read abut Jack and Jim. They asked mom can we go utside. Jim
Classical 103 12 slipped and Jack slipped. Mom came and slipped and Dad came.
Jim waked up and said to Jack do want to go outside. Jack said yes I
will. Jim's and Jack's mom slipped down the stairs. The boys mom
Classical 104 11 and dad put sand on the steps.
Classical 105 12 I read about snow days
Classical 106 9 Mom come out no the steps
I read about the boys got up and they saw sleet and they said lets go
back into bed so we can skate so the boys went back to bed so they
Classical 107 9 woke up.
Classical 108 5 I read that Jack and Jim was going to the pond to skate.
Classical 109 12 I read about Jack and Jim slip down the steps. "Yikes!" yelled Jack.
Jim and Jack yelled for their mother. Their mother tried to take a step
Classical 110 9 but she slipped. She fell on her toosh.
THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 17

School was cancelled because of the ice storm Deena's mom came
Techno 101 9 to pick her up from school.
Techno 102 4 Deena's mom got the kids from school.
I read about the school was closed because the ice storm. fran and
Techno 103 8 Deena Vick all went to Deena's house and ate hot dogs.
Jim and Jack wanted to go home but they can't because the ice
storm. Vick, Deena's friend, went home because Deena's mom
Techno 104 12 picked the kid home and Deena's mom called.
Techno 105 12 I read aobut a snow storm.
Techno 106 12 They yelled Jim and Jack no lights and no school. Let's go sledding.
I read about school was closed and the kids were at school Deena
came to pick up Fran and Fran's mom Vick stayed at Deena's house
Techno 107 10 and Fran said Mom my friends.
Techno 108 3 I read that Fran and Vick Denna.
Techno 109 12 School is closing now because of the ice.
Mom helped the kids put up the sleeping bags. Mom tried to make
dinner but the lights went off and on. But they had hot gods and ice
Techno 110 9 cream.
THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 18

References
Thompson, W., Schellenberg, E., & Letnic, A. (2011). Fast and loud background music disrupts

reading comprehension. Psychology of Music, 40(6), 700-708.

Ming Chou, P. (2010). Attention drainage effect: How background music effects concentration

in Taiwanese college students. Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning,

10(1), 36-46.

Bloor, A. (2009). The rhythm’s gonna get ya’ – background music in primary classrooms and its

effect on behaviour and attainment. Emotional and Behavioral Difficulties, 14(4), 261-

274.

Johansson, R., Holmqvist, K., Mossberg, F., & Lindgren, M. (2011). Eye movements and

reading comprehension while listening to preferred and non-preferred study music.

Psychology of Music, 40(3), 339-356.

Anderson, S., & Fuller, G. (2010). Effect of music on reading comprehension of junior high

school students. School Psychology Quarterly, 25(3), 178-187.

National Assessment of Educational Progress (2017). NAEP Reading Report Card. Retrieved

from https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/reading_2017/#/nation/achievement?grade=4

Rice, L.B. & Livingston, M. (2003). Home with a cold. Baltimore, MD: Success for All.

Old, W & Rice, L.B. (2003). Slippery steps. Baltimore, MD: Success for All.

Livingston, M. (2003). The ice storm. Baltimore, MD: Success for All.

Livingston, M. (2003). Did that tree eat my kite. Baltimore, MD: Success for All.

Common core state standards for English language arts & literacy in history/social studies,

science, and technical subjects (2010). Common Core State Standards. Retrieved from

http://www.corestandards.org/wp-content/uploads/ELA_Standards1.pdf
THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 19

Appendix

Name of Task Meets Below Well Below

Story
Overarching CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.1.2 3 2 1
standard Retell stories, including key
details, and demonstrate
understanding of their central
message or lesson
Did That Includes Details Provides Provides Provides
Tree Eat My three or two details. one detail.
Kite? more
details.
Did That Retell total words Uses 15 or Uses 10-15 Uses less
Tree Eat My more words. words. than 10
Kite? words.
Did That Pages read Reads 7 or Reads 4-7 Reads less
Tree Eat My more pages pages. than 4
Kite? pages.
Did That Characters named All Some Only main
Tree Eat My characters characters character
Kite? named named named
Home With a Includes Details Provides Provides Provides
Cold three or two details. one detail.
more
details.
Home With a Retell total words Uses 15 or Uses 10-15 Uses less
Cold more words. words. than 10
words.
Home With a Pages read Reads 7 or Reads 4-7 Reads less
Cold more pages pages. than 4
pages.
Home With a Characters named All Some Only main
Cold characters characters character
named named named
Slippery Includes Details Provides Provides Provides
Steps three or two details. one detail.
more
details.
Slippery Retell total words Uses 15 or Uses 10-15 Uses less
Steps more words. words. than 10
words.
Slippery Pages read Reads 7 or Reads 4-7 Reads less
Steps more pages pages. than 4
pages.
Slippery Characters named All Some Only main
Steps characters characters character
named named named
THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 20

The Ice Includes Details Provides Provides Provides

Storm three or two details. one detail.
more
details.
The Ice Retell total words Uses 15 or Uses 10-15 Uses less
Storm more words. words. than 10
words.
The Ice Pages read Reads 7 or Reads 4-7 Reads less
Storm more pages pages. than 4
pages.
The Ice Characters named All Some Only main
Storm characters characters character
named named named

Figure 3 shows the Comprehension Average score for the instrumental music. The average includes the three comprehension
skills and the number of pages read. This is scored against a rubric.
THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 21

Figure 4 shows the Comprehension Average score for the silent control background. The average includes the three
comprehension skills and the number of pages read. This is scored against a rubric
THE EFFECT OF BACKGROUNDMUSIC ON READING COMPREHENSION 22

Figure 5 shows the Comprehension Average score for the classical control background. The average includes the three
comprehension skills and the number of pages read. This is scored against a rubric.

Figure 6 shows the Comprehension Average score for the techno control background. The average includes the three
comprehension skills and the number of pages read. This is scored against a rubric.