Right ways to read
As indicated in the last article, reading fluency is essential when readers are in Grades 4-5 and above. Slow and jerky reading usually lowers understanding.
Helping your student increase fluency: Repeated readings are used to help students develop fluency and comprehension. This method was designed to help students who have little to no experience with reading fluently to gain confidence, speed and process words automatically.
According to a website titled Educational Research, some different repeated reading techniques can be helpful for students needing to build fluency:
Phrase Reading: Phrase reading promotes students’ ability to read in meaningful idea units or phrases and to increase automaticity in word recognition. It reduces word-byword reading, which is a major roadblock to fluent reading.
The adult records the student reading aloud a paragraph or a page. Model for the student a word-by-word reading and a reading in meaningful phrases.
Using a pencil, divide the first two sentences into meaningful phrases. Explaining how a sentence should be divided, divide the rest of the sentences with the student. Have the student read the text aloud in meaningful phrases two or three times and record the final reading. Discuss with the student the benefits of reading sentences in meaningful phrases as opposed to word by word.
Assisted reading: A simple yet effective intervention is to have a student read aloud while a parent or more experienced or accomplished reader follows along silently and corrects the student’s pronunciation and errors.
The reader helper praises the student when he or she is reading fluently, with expression or in a smooth conversational manner. If the student is in an earlier stage of reading development, the student could also take the time to sound out the unknown word, but that would interrupt the flow of reading.
Radio Reading: In this exercise, the reader is like a radio announcer who must effectively communicate a message to the listeners.
The listeners do not have a copy of the text. The reader reviews and then can edit the message before reading it. He or she may delete or change words or sections and insert words as needed. Historical texts and other content texts work especially well for this purpose. Students can practise the revised passage until they feel ready to perform it.
If the student is unsure of a word while reading, the parent simply provides it to minimize interruptions so that the listeners can process the meaning.The listeners then discuss, respond and evaluate the message and performance. They can ask the reader to re-read a section if they are confused or the meaning is unclear. If the listeners understand the message, the Radio Reading was a success. If the listeners are confused or provide conflicting information or there are errors during the discussion, then the reader has not communicated clearly.
Fast Start: Fast Start is a parental involvement reading program designed to get students off to a good start in word recognition and fluency. Shown to have positive results with Grade 1 populations, Fast Start involves a 10- to 15minute daily lesson in which parents repeatedly read a brief text to and with their children.Then, the child reads the text alone with the parent providing backup.
Experiment with only one to start, then try others as the sessions work smoothly.
Dr. Steve Lydiatt is a practising educational psychologist. His specialties include learning disabilities and children’s behaviour issues. He can be reached by email: drsteve.educistics@gmail.com.