Help! How to I teach DD to slow down... and read with meaning

[itsmylife]

DD just turned 8 and will be moving to third grade in Fall. She is good at reading and loves to read. By loves to read, I mean she is obssessed with reading. She will ready anywhere and anytime. That said, I have noticed that she is reading very very fast - she read 167 pages of Trumpet of the Swan in 45 minutes last evening. The teacher had been mentioning on and off how DD was a surface reader, that she needs to learn to read with meaning and is not quite getting what she is reading about, etc..(inspite of this, the teacher placed DD in the highest reading level group).

 

Last evening when I talked to DD about slowing down and understand what she is reading, she asked me how to do it??? I am at a loss, how do I teach her to slow down and read with meaning?? I have asked her questions about the books that she has read and she answers my questions correctly - so I know she understands what she is reading. She definitely skips words and sentences that she does not understand and I think she pretty much skips parts that are not interesting.

 

Help me help DD please.

 

TIA.

[Critterfixer]

Will she read aloud to you? 

You can read very fast when you are reading silently, because you do skip whole sections, words, etc. You can still get the meaning, doing this with most books. Especially if one is widely read in the genre. If she has been getting books with similar themes, for instance, it would be very easy to give plot and basic character information, no problem.

If she needs to go deeper into motivation, she might indeed have to slow down. (Let's not get me going on whether I think that deep analysis is needed at her age!) But to slow down, speaking the words is a really good way to force a person to slow down. And teach her that it is a good thing to stop after a few paragraphs or a chapter and talk. We get so focused on finishing, that we don't stop to chew our books before we swallow them. Now some books are not worth prolonged chewing, but we shouldn't bolt our books any more than we should bolt our food.

[redsquirrel]

How much time do you spend reading out loud to her in a day? She is young enough that she can still benefit from some listening time.  When I read to my kids at that age, I always stop along the way and ask them if they know what a particular word means or if they can explain a particular plot point back to me etc.

 

And how often do you have her read out loud to you? That can also help.

 

And when she does read quickly how is her comprehension? Can she give you a brief narration of what she read, with attention to plot points and a couple specific details? I will admit to be a very fast reader, especially at her age. I was always getting bothered by teachers for my fast reading, but my comprehension was excellent and my vocabulary well beyond my peers. I am still a fast reader and I think one skill fast readers have is the ability to skim past descriptive passages and get to plot points or meaningful dialogue. If I miss something I can go back and find it, but that doesn't happen very often. I only do this with fiction I read for pleasure though. If I need to actually absorb details etc for analysis or it is a dense non-fiction piece then I can slow right down.

[Storygirl]

As a child, I was a very fast reader.  I read hundreds of books per year.  At least one chapter book every day (I would read in school because I always finished my work while everyone else was still busy). I remember skimming over the some parts to get to the good stuff. Honestly, this never hurt me.  I was always top of my English classes and have two literature degrees. Books were always my thing, and they still are.  With that said, I would make sure that for school she is reading thoroughly enough that she can do all of the related work well.  If she is missing information by reading quickly, she should learn to slow down (but only for her school reading; her pleasure reading should be however she likes it). I like the suggestions above but would add that she might benefit from doing some reading comprehension workbooks at home with you to learn how to read slower and more carefully.  There are some really fun ones on all different topics.

 

I do have to admit that on reading comprehension tests, I would always read the questions first, then just skim the passage, looking for the answers, instead of reading the passage thoroughly.  Although that can be a good test taking strategy (saves a lot of time), I would make sure that she does not do this with the comprehension workbooks. Have her read the passage first (maybe aloud to begin with), then consider the questions.