Improving Reading (inflection, fluency?)

[sbgrace]

One son has a reading style that I had hoped would improve over time but I'm not seeing improvement. He's seven. We began phonics/reading instruction last summer using a solid phonics approach (phonograms). He's been reading well since the fall but no improvement in this area. I'm wondering what I can do to help him.

 

He decodes very well and easily but his "style" of reading is lacking. He reads both extremely fast and very robot/stilted in style. He can read with inflection at least somewhat if I remind him on a particular sentence but he always quickly reverts back to fast and/or robotic.

 

Can I work on this? Is it a fluency issue that more practice will help or do we need another technique?

 

It's a real contrast between his twin's style and that makes it hard to judge what's ok for his age and what's a concern that needs addressing. I'd feel better if I'd seen any improvement in this area.

Edited May 27, 2011 by sbgrace

[weddell]

One thing that I've heard helps with this is to read things aloud together. I don't mean taking turns, but actually reading the same thing at the same time. This would force him to read with your pace and inflection. Definitely pick a book below his reading level to do this. If he is spending all his mental energy reading something at or above his level, he won't have any left for tone and inflection. Also, let him read through it on his own first and then reread it aloud with you. Again, that way he knows what is going to happen and is familiar with the words on the page, giving him more mental energy to work on pacing and tone. Obviously you can't do this with everything, but something short a couple times a week might be right.

 

My dd and I just started doing this with some poetry. First I read the poem aloud and then she does. This way she is familiar with how it sounds and what the words are. Then we read it aloud at the same time together. This forces her to make the right pauses and rhythm. We are using Robert Louis Stevenson's A Child's Garden of Verses. You can get it free as an online download at www.gutenberg.org.

 

I've also heard about having the child do this along with an audiobook. That way it is a little more independent and with a professional reader. You'll still have to monitor to make sure he is reading aloud and not just listening.

 

I have a book about building fluency and these are suggestions from there. It's called Don't Speed Read by Michael Opitz. It's geared toward classroom teachers and isn't that great for homeschoolers, but it is worth checking out from the library. It has some good explanations of fluency (including inflection and pace) in reading and some ways to work on it.

 

I also think he is young and this kind of thing is an advanced reading skill, it might just come with time.

[MerryAtHope]

I think it will come with time too, and also him hearing you read things aloud. But one thing stood out to me--you mentioned he's a twin and that there's a marked difference in their styles. I wondered if it could possibly be a twin issue--if he's trying to be different on purpose? Just a thought! Merry :-)

[peacefully]

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[razorbackmama]

My 12yo is in vision therapy, and reading fluency is one thing they are working on right now. Just this past week his therapist said that she discovered that he reads aloud like he reads silently - fast, no inflection, etc. That totally makes sense because he skips words just like when you read silently. It's as though he is skimming aloud LOL.

 

ANYWAY. She said that she wants him to do 2 things to improve this:

 

1. Have him read to siblings (and really it wouldn't matter who the readee is) in an ENTERTAINING voice.

 

2. Record his reading. She did this in therapy this past week and he was able to hear for himself how it sounded.

 

Not sure if these things will help at all for you, but it's just a couple of things she mentioned to us.

[Cindyz]

Audio books seem to be helping my son. Of course I've been reading to him since he was born and always use voices and inflection, but there's something about the audio books that really capture him. Usually we will read the book first, then he listens to the audio book (usually over and over at his request) and then he reads the book with all sorts of inflection and feeling. It's great. During our instructional read aloud time if he misses the inflection from a question mark, or the excitement of an exclamation point, rushes past a comma or a period, I will bring him back, model it and ask him to read the sentence again. This sometimes frustrates him, but when he's reading on his own, I don't bug him.

[Critterfixer]

Second the audio books. Perhaps it is because my ds7 hear me read all the time, they may tune out the inflection and cadence in favor of concentrating on the story; but they seem to imitate what they hear on their favorite audio books. They will listen to the same story over and over if it is simple enough and I begin to hear them actually talk along with the narrator. Currently the favorite of choice is The Bears on Hemlock Mountain.