Reading fluency help?

[Sue G in PA]

My ds11 has never really enjoyed reading. When he does read (when forced!), he reads vvvveeeerrrrryyyy slowly. He's back at ps and the teacher who tested him last week told me that his fluency is not good at all and that his reading is really at a 5th grade level. That honestly does not surprise me. I would like to help him w/ this at home. Does anyone have any suggestions for what to use to improve reading fluency? Thanks!

[Deborah]

I'm a big fan of unabridged books w/ the audio to go with it.

It will take a lot more than one though! ;)

[Sue G in PA]

Thanks for reminding me. We did this a bunch last year and this summer. He does love a good audiobook. I'll have to start researching more at our library to see what is left for him to read on audio!

[usetoschool]

Reading along with an audio book.

Timed practice of frequent words.

Partner reading - you read a page, he reads a page.

Repeated readings below his instructional level - 4 or 5 times per book, once per day - so for him maybe 3rd or 4th grade for now until he can read them easily and fluently, then move up a little

Word sorts - a list of words with something in common like long vowel sounds that he has to sort into columns by vowel sound, long a words in this column, long o words in this column etc.

[Corraleno]

My DS11 has also been very very resistant to reading for "pleasure" and his fluency is not good. The person who did his IQ/LD testing suggested the following for increasing fluency:

 

(1) Explicit instruction in learning to "chunk" words better (I started using Barton for this).

 

(2) Have him read while listening to the audiobook (he *hated* doing this for some reason).

 

(3) Have him read a chapter silently, then read it aloud, then read it silently again (doesn't like this either, but prefers it to reading with an audiobook).

 

(4) Find books he likes and have him read as much as possible (easier said than done!).

 

The thing that I have found to work best (not surprisingly) is just to find books that he really loves, so he gets "sucked in" and wants to read. The first book that ever worked for him was Percy Jackson, which he reluctantly agreed to try since he was really into Greek mythology. He LOVED it; he read all 5 books in quick succession and would often read far longer than "required" because he couldn't put the book down. After a few "duds" that he couldn't get into, he's currently reading Wee Free Men and loves that as well ~ thankfully there are 2 more books in this series, as well as many other books by Terry Pratchet. His fluency has improved dramatically in the last 6 months, since he's discovered that it's possible to enjoy reading.

 

I have 2 friends with sons around the same age who were also very reluctant, nonfluent readers, and both of them just had to hunt around until they found books/genres their boys liked. One got into several knights & dragons type series, and the other started with Naruto/manga at 7 and ended up reading all 7 Harry Potter books at 8! (BTW, both read & loved all the Percy Jackson books!)

 

Jackie

[ElizabethB]

Webster's Speller, my online phonics lessons, my instructions and syllable division sheets from my how to tutor page.

 

One of my remedial students who reads very slowly also benefits from the McGuffey readers (1879 version), sounding out the difficult words first is helpful. Eventually, they should start to figure out the markings on their own and be able to do the readings without help.

 

They are free online at Gutenberg, you need the pdf versions. I also like to print out the sound key separately as a handy reference. Most are on three pages, but one of them, I think the Primer or Speller or 1st Reader, is on two pages but can be cut out and copied again so it's a one page reference.

 

http://www.gutenberg.org/browse/authors/m#a5671

 

If you buy them, make sure they are the ones with the blue and orange cover, not the older mott media brown cover books. Those aren't phonetic and they don't have the hard words above the readings.

 

Some of my older students also like M.K. Henry's words. It's almost always cheaper at ProEd than at Amazon:

 

http://www.proedinc.com/customer/ProductView.aspx?ID=989&sSearchWord=

Edited August 25, 2009 by ElizabethB

[carlyincali]

I can only sympathize with you as my 10yo 5th grader is the same way. I have purchased Reading Rescue and plan to implement their strategy. From what I've read so far, it looks pretty simple.

[AngieW in Texas]

couple of ideas

 

(1) It could be that he needs more work on multisyllable words. In this case, a program like Rewards Reading Secondary would be good for him. It is for kids in 6th grade or higher reading at least on a 3rd grade level. I have read reports on the WTM Special Needs Boards of kids who went up 2-3 grade levels in a very short time with this program. My dd didn't have a dramatic increase in reading level, but she was reading on grade level when we started it.

 

(2) Timed repeated readings. You have a couple of options for doing this.

 

(2a) One is to download the oral reading fluency passages from DIBELS. You have to register, but registration is free. According to the fluency chart that I printed off, a kid in the 50th percentile should be reading at least 127 wpm at the start of 6th grade (110wpm at the start of 5th grade). So this would be your goal. You'd time your ds reading the passage. If he reads it at a rate of 127wpm or better (subtract missed words from the word count), then he is done with timed readings for the day and can move on to the next story the next day. If he doesn't make the rate goal, then he gets 2 more tries at making his goal speed. If he still doesn't make the goal, then he needs to work on that story again the next day. There are only 20 passages for each grade level, so you might want to start with the 5th grade passages to make sure that you don't run out too soon.

 

(2b) Another option is to sign up for Mindsprinting. It's also free. It has a reading assessment you can do for reading comprehension. After your ds does the assessment, it will assign a starting place in the program. Then you just print off the passage and questions. This program isn't about timed readings, so the time it asks for is the time needed to read the passage and answer the questions and the errors it asks for is the errors made in answering the questions. You can still use the passages for timed readings though. Do the passage once like Mindsprinting expects, but be sure to write down the amount of time it takes just for the story before letting your ds move on to the questions. If he doesn't make the speed rate listed under (2a), then he has to re-read the story 2 more times following the procedure I outlined above. He would only do the comprehension questions once.

 

DIBELS has an advantage over Mindsprinting that it already has word counts on every line. If you use the Mindsprinting passages, you'll have to count the words yourself.

[Sue G in PA]

Wow! Lots of super ideas. I knew you all wouldn't let me down. :D Elizabeth, thanks for the link to the McGuffey readers...those will be fantastic and Angie, I am familiar with DIBELS and that will work out well, too. I was hoping not to spend any money, but I will look at Reading Rescue. I so much prefer to tutor him at home than have him go in early or stay late to be tutored at the ps. Thanks again everyone for the awesome ideas!

[Jennefer@SSA]

My son's therapist recommended what she refers to as "Echo Reading". First you look at a passage and point out an new/long/unusual words. Then you read a sentence and they read it. You continue this way until the end of the selected passage. After they have gotten better at echoing one sentence you read two and they read two...all the way up to where you read a page and they read a page.

[Mandamom]

In addition to the great ideas already suggested you can also do some choral reading. Choose something that is a little bit challenging to read (and I mean just a little tiny bit) and do a timed reading, as described above. Then you and him read it aloud together and do this over a period of several days. Periodically, test to see if his reading speed has increased. Once he is doing better have him do some practice readings by himself. Once he reaches over 100 words per minute (really you want 120) than move on to another reading passage.

[siloam]

My ds11 has never really enjoyed reading. When he does read (when forced!), he reads vvvveeeerrrrryyyy slowly. He's back at ps and the teacher who tested him last week told me that his fluency is not good at all and that his reading is really at a 5th grade level. That honestly does not surprise me. I would like to help him w/ this at home. Does anyone have any suggestions for what to use to improve reading fluency? Thanks!

 

Sue,

 

I am using Great Leaps to build reading fluency. It does have the unit (chunks) work that Jackie mentioned. It has a phonics section, common phrases section and actual stories.

 

Heather

 

[Reya]

There is a program called Remedial Reading on donpotter.net. It builds accuracy and speed and worked very well for us.

[elfgivas]

we found "teach your children well" did wonders for their fluency. each lesson includes vocabulary, but also practice with phonics sounds and reading aloud.... and timed readings of phonemes and random words and stories. this combination has helped us.... a lot!

 

hth,

ann

[lisabees]

we found "teach your children well" did wonders for their fluency. each lesson includes vocabulary, but also practice with phonics sounds and reading aloud.... and timed readings of phonemes and random words and stories. this combination has helped us.... a lot!

 

hth,

ann

 

Ann, I am intrigued by this program. Can you tell me more about it? Glad to hear it works.

 

Lisa

[lisabees]

Sue,

 

I am using Great Leaps to build reading fluency. It does have the unit (chunks) work that Jackie mentioned. It has a phonics section, common phrases section and actual stories.

 

Heather

 

 

Heather, how is Great Leaps going?

 

Lisa

[elfgivas]

Ann, I am intrigued by this program. Can you tell me more about it? Glad to hear it works.

 

Lisa

 

hi lisa -

 

iwe love it. f you google it, they have a website with sample lessons. we typically take two days to do each lesson, as i've found it helps with retention a lot. they do half the exercises for the lesson each day, but we do all the teaching each day.

 

its different at different grade levels, but for my dds right now, there is a list of maybe 20 words that review a particular phoneme which they read aloud to you. there is a box of 6 words where they memorize the definitions with you (this is where the repitition is helpful for us). there is a box of 6 words for them to learn to spell. there is a box of 20 or so vocabulary words from the story. there is a story they read aloud. the program teaches you specific correction techniques. they have worked really well for us. when i have deviated, their fluency has fallen off.

 

then (and here's where the fluency really improves) there is a page of phonemes for each 5 lessons where they read as many as they can in 30 seconds. they can try it as often as they like. they must reach a certain fluency before moving on. there is also a page of random words where they read as many as they can in 30 seconds. again, there is a fluency goal and they can repeat as often as they choose. then, they get to choose a previous story, and you time how far they can read in 1 minute. you subtract errors from the word count.

 

then there are exercises for them to do. all in all, it takes us about 30 minutes a day. when we do the lesson only one day, and they do all the exercises at once, it takes about 45 minutes. but there is enough variety to it that it doesn't seem nearly that long.

 

hth,

ann