Reading silently vs reading out loud

[CF6]

DD6 is a voracious reader. She reads around 200 pages per day, outside of her school work. I know she comprehends what she's reading because she likes to discuss what she's read and how the story made her feel. However, when I ask her to read out loud she stutters, gets winded, and her reading sounds chaotic. When I tell her to slow down she says "I can't!" and gets emotional. 

 

How can I help her improve her read aloud skills? 

[Gil]

Most people lump all reading together, but oral reading and mental reading are separate skills. So treat oral reading like a skill. Help her learn to heed and respond to punctuation. Listen to the radio, audiobooks and podcasts. Talk about what makes for good oral reading and what does not. Be prepared to work at oral reading as a K-2 or K-6 or K-whatever point skill that she needs.

 

 

Pick materials that are in the middle range of her reading ability.

 

[Cosmos]

Practice. It's a skill very different from silent reading and if she hasn't been doing it, it will take some time to get the hang of it.

 

My advice is to have her practice oral reading from a completely different book than what she's reading on her own. Start with something that has very short, EASY selections and just do a few minutes a day. Something like a book of knock-knock jokes from the library would work. You can just do one or two sentences a day. Have her practice saying it slowly and smoothly. She could perform for a pet or stuffed animals if that seems fun.

 

Eventually work up to doing 5-10 minutes a day of oral reading and work on skills like pausing at a comma, longer pause at a period, appropriate expression for ? and !, how to read quotations effectively, breath control, etc. This is over several years, not all at once! Oral reading skills are so important and will help her in all sorts of areas later on, such as public speaking. If she balks at it, give it a fancy name like "elocution". Good luck!

[hellojwolford]

Maybe try reading aloud poetry-- it is more obvious where to breathe

[ThoughtfulMama]

I love the poetry suggestion.  I was going to suggest plays.  You could have different roles and read the scripts.  Then you can talk about pauses and emotion as it relates to acting instead of making her think that her reading is bad or wrong.  I know my kid picks up on it when we over-target a weakness, and it makes him anxious.

Edited February 26, 2016 by ThoughtfulMama

[kubiac]

The Fluent Reader by Rasinski recommends reading poetry aloud, particularly by the method (a) you read it to them, (b) you read it aloud SIMULTANEOUSLY, © she reads it aloud alone.

[CF6]

Reading poetry is working beautifully!

 

Thank you for the suggestions!  :001_smile:

[Tanikit]

Glad to hear it is working - I also moved my daughter to reading poetry aloud to me as it forced her to concentrate to get the rhythm correct which meant she automatically slowed down and read with better diction. Singing can also help with reading aloud because of the emphasis on pronunciation and correct diction as well as projecting one's voice so the listener can hear. My daughter still races through any silent reading she does.

 

Edited March 5, 2016 by Tanikit