Reading speed

[Guest Nancy B]

My 8th grader is a VERY slow reader, especially when he's reading something that he's not particularlly interested in. I would love some ideas on how to help him increase his speed. I have been very lenient with him this year, because his math and science are very time consuming, but I am honestly worried about him doing high school work next year.

 

Nancy

mother of 3 (13,8,2)

[AngieW in Texas]

Have you actually tried timing him? Reading quickly is a skill. My youngest is dyslexic. Reading quickly is a skill she has needed to learn.

 

Most of the websites below refer to younger students, but the principle is the same.

http://www.ldonline.org/article/6354

http://www.auburn.edu/academic/education/reading_genie/fluency.html

http://www.readingrockets.org/helping/target/fluency

http://www.prel.org/products/re_/assessing-fluency.htm

 

Repeated readings are the main method to work on this. My dd was using grade level passages from DIBELS for a long time, but now I just have her start her oral reading with several one-minute timings. She reads for one minute. Then she re-reads for one minute. Then she re-re-reads for one minute. She gets farther every time she re-reads.

[Pamela H in Texas]

Learning to speed read would increase both regular reading speed (ie, you wouldn't always read 1000-10,000 wpm) and comprehension. Try http://www.speedreading4kids.com

 

HTHs,

Pamela

[Claire]

A program I would recommend highly is Rewards Secondary from Sopris West. It is entirely scripted, so there's no teacher prep. There are about 20 lessons, and the entire program takes about 25 hours working one-on-one. It improves multi-syllable word attack skills very efficiently. Starting about halfway through, the program adds in repeated readings (timed) to help develop fluency (speed in combination with accuracy). I think it is a *great* high-school prep program for reading. I used it with my dd and a neighbor boy (10yo and 11yo), and they both increased about 3 grade levels in reading. To do this program you need the Teacher's Guide and a workbook. (Buy 2 workbooks if you want to resell the program as a set and recoupe about half your investment. It is a popular program on the swap boards.)

[Antonia]

Try this website: busyteacherscafe.com/units/fluency. It has lots of ideas for improving fluency. I used several of them including parroting, rereading, and reading with audio with my son, and it helped his speed a lot.

[Jenn in CA]

This may or may not be applicable to your situation, but my slow-reader son is much more motivated if I tell him to read a certain number of pages, rather than for a certain number of minutes.

 

He also has to write about most of his reading, which tells me whether he understood it or not.

 

We used Rocket Reader, a speed-reading program, for a couple years when my boys were younger. It helped a lot while they were using it, but when they stopped, they pretty much went back to their old ways.