improving reading rate and accuracy

As a parent here is what I have found to help my boys. Partner reading, modled reading, repeated reading, and immediate correction. I no longer use any fancy programs. What I do is get a book the boys are interested in that is about their level of reading ability, sometimes we go a little lower or higher but not too far in either direction. We sit down together and I have them read it to me, or perhaps we will take turns, and there is always immediate correction. One other thing I do is model read for them, making sure I use inflection, stop at sentences, ect. I have found since doing this they have made a dramatic there has been dramatic improvement in their reading. They are no longer afraid to sound out words, correct themselves, make predictions, ect. We discuss what we have read when we are done. To help build fluency we will reread some stories or parts of stories. My sons 4th grade teacher has been really floored with his progress this year. He use to be a reluctant reader afraid to make guess or the like. Now he reads for pleasure, tries to predict the end of the story, self corrects, and the like. He really helps when you use stories they like. For example my 4th grader like the Captian Underpants series and my oldest and Star Trek book he can get his hands on.

Sorry my spelling was so bad today must be really tired.

What types of disabilities do the students have? How far behind are they? How much time do you have to work on reading skills? How many students do you have at a time? The answers to these questions might help others to respond to your question. Unlike the mom who responded to you, you might not have the time to do it this way which is very time consuming. Shay is a good source to ask this questin to or even Susan Long or Victoria.

In my inclusion classroom reading level and ability vary greatly. We cannot just read a novel in jr high and work on activities. So many only ead at 3-5 grade level. One of the things I have found helpful is to use audio books and make students follow along. (modeling) This saves my voice and the students really enjoy it. We also take once a week to do stations, even in jr high. Phonics, sight words, etc. are designed for middle school students and work well. Practice, Practice, Practice is the best remedy too. If there are any other ideas let me know.

I have used tapes as well for reading but it does not teach anything except maybe listening comprehension. Kids this age need direct instruction in decoding the advanced code. They need lots of practice decoding on the fly. I have used both PG and Rewards with my middle school kids. After that they need lots of practice. My students read to each other and coach each other. It takes a while to really teach them how to coach without just telling each other the word but it is well worth it. Every so often I do a refresher lesson with lists of words and they practice decoding multi-syllable words. Usually fluency problems are decoding problems and I would put money on advanced code problems.

Applause - all those boxed program companies just booed you. You are right on track. After 20+ years teaching kids to read I have found plain old direct reading instruction with intentional instruction of decoding skills during the process is the most awesome way. Takes teacher time but is so much better then a computer program or some box. Also, to check what your kids can read have them read the first page of the book and if they make more than 10 errors, it’s too hard.
I always think its better to at least be on their instructional level and occasionally hit on the frustrational level. A content area text will suffice for this task as they are generally written one to two grade levels above the audience.

No boos here. Ken Campbell, Great Leaps

Any ideas where I could get some boxes so I too could be a fancy boxed program???

Double post.

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Triple post.

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I always think its better to at least be on their instructional level and occasionally hit on the frustrational level.

There is strong neurological evidence that repeated readings at a considerably lower level significantly improves reading fluency. At the middle school level there also needs to be a level of trust that does not come automatically. Many students, so frustrated after years of failure, refuse to perform. Or….will shut down when the work seems too hard or errors are noted.

A content area text will suffice for this task as they are generally written one to two grade levels above the audience.

I will only challenge a student with two grade levels above after considerable time with success. Of course, my background has been with behaviorally disordered students and that may skew my opinion.

Ken Campbell

OH Ken I do not consider your program a fancy boxed program. I used it, but the kids worked through it and now I must use something else. It was I believe a combination of two “simple” programs that got the boys to the point where I can do what I do now. They would be PG and Great Leaps. I must admit I am one who orginally fell pray to Hooked on Phonics—what a nightmare that was.

Ken,

The school has used Great Leaps with my son for the past two years. He is doing quite well with it but I am concerned about the lack of transferance to other reading and wondered what you thought. He is in fourth grade and the last passage he did was 4.6, if I recall right. He brought it home to practice and he was pretty terrible—missing lots of words which brought down his speed as well. A few days later his teacher sent me a note home that he had done the passage at 130 wpm with no errors.

It is the errors that bother me. His speed is not that bad now—although he reads still a bit in a monotone without stopping for periods ect. It seems when he does repeated readings he eliminates the errors but when he hits something new, he is very inaccurate. I don’t think he is reading the passage enough to be memorizing it, however.

Any thoughts?

Beth

Beth, give me a call and we can discuss it. Thank-you posters for respecting me and my life work as not another fancy package. As a Christian, I will be judged for what I do with my talents, not how much I make. When I can take the time, I will post what can be done to advance a child beyond where Great Leaps can take them. It’s just been hard with the responsibilities lately - and a concussion that has intefered greatly.

Hey Ken you know those plain white 3 ring binders your program comes in? Well we use those in the military to to keep our AFI’s and instructions in. I see nothing wrong with simple. My kids found your program to be unitimidating and that is what they liked. I think that is why the next stage just reading books together with them works too! Thanks for getting us started.

Gee whiz, Ken, your program works and it is cost effective. Thank you for providing something useable that I can afford. On my classroom budget, I purchase most of my materials for my classroom myself. Obviously the fancy stuff that costs hundreds of $$$$ is beyond both of my budgets.

I am currently a teacher of students with learning disabilities and I JUST finished conferences! ahhh….
Anyway, Many of the parents are looking for extra work for their children to do at home to get them to improve… I suggested fun games..but of course they want specific choices…. Any ideas?

Ken,

Not only do I like Great Leaps, the kids love it! It is just fancy enough for me! As Anitya said, I buy so much myself, that I appreciate the programs that are within my reach. The others I can only look at on the web!

I agree with you that our riches are best stored where it counts. ;-)

Janis

Generally, I prefer reading: child reading, reading with and reading to.

Interesting discussion…stopped by & thought I’d chime in.

When doing repeated readings, we hope the the improved rate will transfer over to other reading, along with prosidy (that neat inflection & drama stuff). We may not accurately infer that repeated readings will do anything else. It is phonics instruction with lots of practice in reading words, sentences, and passages (that contain many examples of the skill being taught) which assists with reduction of errors in those word patterns. Other errors, such as those caused by attention, are a different ball game altogether. Yes, errors are generally reduced with appropriate repetitive practice (that is true for anything in guided practice). But the decoding/word recognition instruction must be synchronized with the repeated readings (words, sentences, passages) in order for the type of errors to be reduced. If there is an attention problem, then the reason and cure are much more difficult.

Agreed, but with a motivated child you have increased your chances of success and generalization immensely. Success is built as a series of steps.

The sooner a non-reading child finds him/herself reading with speed - a million “I can’ts” are effectively destroyed and now I am teamed with the student.

For many students with behavioral problems, performance success must be generated very quickly, or they’ll give up on you and refuse instruction.

Hello,

I have just published a book, The Sounds of Words, which uses multi-sensory decoding. It is actually a sound dictionary, which can be used with any text.

It has just become available, and you can read all about it at 1stbooks.com.

I have used the method with many students, and most have had good success.

Please “check it out.” and see if you know anyone who would find it helpful.

Thanks, Anita

Susan,

Any idea on how to separate out attention from lack of knowledge? My son has been taught over and over again and I do think part of the problem is an inability to generalize orthographic patterns. However, 90% of the time if you ask him the word he just misread, he will tell you the right word. It is like he is guessing based on context, first part of the word, ect because the word is not in his automatic sight vocabulary.

I think part of the reason his accuracy goes up with repeated readings is that he now “knows” those words—by sight, I would suspect.

I’m beginning to wonder if Great Leaps is the right program for him now. He does miscall all those little words too—maybe they should be working on phrases with him, rather than passages.

Beth

Do you think a word miscaller, like my son, would be better doing the phrases part of your program? He substitutes a for the ect. as well as miscalling other words that he is guessing (I think) from first letters and context. However, if you ask him again, he usually knows the word.

Beth

Beth,

I just returned forom an IDA conference and they said what Susan said, repeated readings do increase overall fluency. But at least initially, be sure the reading is the right level for him. They suggest using decodable text until the child is reading fairly fluently.

Janis

Beth,

I would like to be able to tell you, but attention is so different in various children. It just doesn’t seem possible as an internet intervention. There are lots of variables to consider: alertness, when has eaten, weather, what else is going on, how interested in topic of reading material, etc. etc. etc. The whole thing really requires a task analysis with really complex kids. I think yours falls into that category.

Going from intervention to intervention can make people feel like they are a puppy in a room full of rubber balls. (That’s sort of a Socks-like statement…)

Kids with attention problems do make inconsistent errors. That is one of the factors to consider. Charting errors helps to know when progress is being made, as you know.

I’m sorry not to be of more help. Sort of a waste of cyber-bytes to even post this.

S

Beth — I think you have spotted the issue. Your son is using visual/verbal memorization skills and only uses phonic analysis when forced to. Well, if you want him to be a more independent reader, the thing to do is to find more ways to force him — or better yet, to find ways for him to start forcing himself.

After a while it will become natural for him to use phonic analysis, but for now it requires both direct effort and stealth. With students like this I try to find a subject that interests them, with oodles of multisyllable words, at a level that is a little difficult but not impossible — a year or two above mastery level. Fantasy books like Harry Potter with all sorts of weird names and sounds, science fiction books with bits of invented language, real science magazines like Discover with all sorts of terminology, historical books with all sorts of unfamiliar names and terminology, the cross-section books with short paragraphs but terminology all over, books on motorcycle repair with all the names of parts and tools — any topic that fascinates him (something he will fight to read if possible) and where he will simply *have* to sound out is good. I avoid repeated reading for just this reason, by the way.

He had to do a book report for his regular fourth grade reading class. It had to be a biography. I bought two at the local bookstore (don’t even try to find a book at the library when there is a specific assignment given across grades). One was clearly easier than the other. He picked the harder one—the Wright brothers. It forced him to sound a lot of words out. I saw his reading getting better reading it. It helped that it was pretty factual—he has comprehension issues as well and got very frustrated when I had him reading “”A boy in the Girl’s bathroom”. Too many inferences for his taste.

We then ran up against our state mandated testing and started working on comprehension strategies. He made good progress so I was happy with that but we dropped some of the reading in the mean time.

I think what I should do is a variation of what you suggest. Get books with lots of multisyllable words that are nonfiction or are easy to follow. This will reduce his frustration in reading them. Harry Potter is too hard for him to read and comprehend (he is now listening to the fourth book on tape—I have to force him to come out of his room!).

I don’t know if this will work because we really have done this with him but intermittently. He just avoids sounding out words when he reads. When I tried two years ago to build fluency by keeping him at a pretty easy level, he completely forgot how to decode anything beyond CVC words. His sight vocabulary tests on grade level but decoding skills are really still poor—and it is not for lack of trying on our part.

I also ordered the Rewards program that has multisyllable work in it. Maybe that will help.

Beth

My son was diagnosed ADD-inattentive by a neurologist last summer, after we received consistent complaints from both his regular and resource teacher. We then did IM and more Neuronet and he was like a new kid, according to his resource teacher who had him both years. We never did try meds because noone seemed to think there was a problem any more.

But I still wonder whether some of his reading errors are related to inattention. I don’t know how to tell either and it is difficult to discern when you have a child who also clearly has processing issues as well. ADD-inattentive becomes the residual diagnosis in his case. It is especially difficult to know because my son is not hyperactive at all.

Beth

Nathan can read third grade material fairly fluently. They are now using fourth grade material from Great Leaps with him. I am not sure he isn’t just increasing his vocabulary though (which is not all bad of course). It may be a bit too high of level for fluency training.

Beth

Beth,

I’ll try to summarize my notes from the fluency workshop for you later. I will tell you now, that they also recommend reading decodable word lists to increase fluency. This was a reference in that workshop for a fluency resource:

http://www.oxtonhouse.com/Fluency/fluency.html

Janis

Interesting. My son actually does better on word lists than in sentences.

Beth

Yes, this is what works; things like that biography are exactly the thing. You need to dedicate some time and keep at it. Even half an hour three times a week is enough to show notable progress. Get a book he is really, really interested in and this can be his “reward” after doing the school stuff and workbooks and all that, that you dedicate some time to having him read something that he likes.

I bought the fluency drills from Oxten House and I think they are very good. These are not a list, but rather a series words (arranged orthographically) in text.

Can you give me the web site again? I tried looking for it and got every site with house in it!

Beth

Dream on!! He will never see reading even a book he likes as a reward!!

It is sad too. He just finished listening to the fourth Harry Potter book on tape. He was as obsessive about it as his older sister is about reading books. He literally shut himself in his room for hours at a time and took the tape recorder with him when we went on a day trip. He listened all the way there and all the way back. I wish so much he could actually read the books.

I will keep on trudging with the books—saving I think the more difficult comprehension books for read a louds or joint reading.

Beth

His comprehension must be good when he listens for him to be doing that. Are you sure he doesn’t have some residual visual issues? I thought I remembered that he did vision therapy.

That ability to listen to high level books but avoidance of reading really strikes a chord with me. That is soooo my son. He loves books on tape but really does not like to read for more than a few minutes.

Kids with vision issues will do anything to avoid near work like reading. It is a very uncomfortable experience.

My son really struggles with the vision exercises. It has been extremely difficult. His eyes are getting stronger but he started at such a low level I think it will still be sometime before he starts to like reading.

http://www.oxtonhouse.com/Fluency/fluency.html

I think he does have some residual vision issues frankly. The vision therapy helped but did not totally resolve the issues. I had another exam done afterwards and the conclusion was that he couldn’t track and fixate with cognitive demands—which for a kid with auditory processing problems is reading. Our NN provider thought the issues are vestibular-vision based. We did exercises last fall that seemed to help but then he had problems doing them. We got some improvement in skipping words. But we haven’t totally resolved the issues there.

His listening comprehension is above average. He has trouble with inferences and the like but it doesn’t seem to impact his enjoyment of books on tape. I am sure he misses some of the subtleties of Harry Potter but he follows it fine. He was abs. hooked on the Harry Potter book. I had to make him come out of his room!!

What to do is always the question. I may try another vision therapist. I may try a trial of medication because I think attention issues are still impacting him.

Let me know if your son starts enjoying reading. It might convince me to give a different vision therapist a whirl.

Beth

Janis gave me the site address. Which one did you order—the concept phonics or multi sequence one?

Beth

Just so you know. I am actually considering doing the listening program with him and his brother. His brother could not do the hearing test at the doctors office. They totally blew it off and said try again in a few months alot of 4 year olds can’t do it. I know I am being totally neurotic about him possibly having issues because he can do so many things already but I just worry that I may be missing something and with him if there is a problem it is auditory because he can do all the vision exercises really well.

I thought it would help Chris as well because he still has some vestibular issues and I wonder if the listening program would help him with some of the vision therapy exercises. Vision therapy is very difficult for him although he is progressing.

I am thinking of repeating The Listening Program again. One audiologist told me that it needs to be repeated for maximum results. In any case, it is a lot easier to repeat TLP than vision therapy!!!

I really think Nathan’s reading issues are the combination of problems. I figure anything I can do to reduce any of his deficits in the long run will help. The thing is that sometimes I think we hit the necessary but not sufficient condition. So it is so hard to know what really helps.

My mom just emailed me and told me my cousin’s daughter has been put on a trial of Stattora (sp?), the new nonstimulant drug for ADHD. She has never been medicated before and it is like night and day for her. Makes me wonder again about a trial of meds.

Beth

I honestly believe that all the other work that you have done with him will mean that he would need a lower dosage and less risk of side effects.

If my son was not happy in school right now or feeling down about his abilities I would consider it. He is holding his own pretty well right now so I haven’t thought about it recently. If things changed I would definitely consider it.

I am someone who believes that the meds can help you pay attention even if the primary issue is not really ADD. I think techniques for diagnosing ADD are pretty weak from a clinical perspective so it really is something that more often than not is decided by the parent.

If you decide to try please let us know how it goes as it may help me decide what to do in the future.

I kind of have it as a middle school safety net. His current organizational skills will not get him through middle school where I live, but who knows where we will be by then.

I agree he would require a lower dose, so I think all our work has still helped.
I also agree that the clinical criteria for ADD leaves something to be desired. I was told by the neurologist that kids with severe LD are almost always ADD. And if medication did not help, it was because his LD was too severe. Talk about circular reasoning—there is no way, with that logic, to be wrong. He is well respected so I think it is just the state of the field.

My mom gut feeling is that he is ADD-inattentive but not severely. I see some of these characteristics in my husband as well. But my husband is not LD. I guess what I am saying is that if my son was not LD, I don’t think his degree of being ADD would be problematic. But he is.

I also have heard of children who didn’t require medication until the higher organizational demands of middle school. But then I have to tell you that I would have never dreamt that my 7th grade daughter could do what she can do organizationally when she was in fourth grade. So maturity may help a lot!!

I also will let you know, if we do go that way.

Beth

Beth, I know you are asking Laura this question, but I have decided to order the multi-sequence one as it is in OG order. I think that will be compatible with more programs, hopefully, but I really have no way to know. I am not sure if LB is sequenced like OG or not. That would actually be nice to know. How to find out is the big question. The person who you call in the main LB office to place an order knows very little about program content as far as I’m concerned.

Janis

I was told they were both very similar (use the same words), but are organized a little differently. I ordered the Concept Phonics because it mixes long/short vowels together. Since my son has difficulty recognizing these quickly (tends to make all vowels short), I figured this one might be more helpful for him.

I’m sure either one would be good.

Hi Beth,
I just had to chime in here…a good friend of mine recently started her son on Stattera (I’m not sure of the spelling either), and she is really pleased with this medication. She said it has made a huge difference for her son and he is doing much better than with previous meds.

I have to admit, I’m very tempted to inquire about a possible med trial of this with my son.

Thanks. Has it helped? We did a whole slew of exercises with NN that seemed to really help this issue. But more practice can not hurt—I like the fact that the words are across pages like sentences.

Beth

I talked to someone at LMB who knew a lot. She was not the person I would order from but someone else they put me in touch with.

There may be a different number, I am sorry I don’t remember.

Hmmm. I am debating between doing The Listening Program again and talking to doctor about meds again. Maybe I will do TLP first and then think about meds again. But that might run the school year out to the end…

Sigh. I guess I really want to use medication but then I think if it would make things easier……

Thanks for the feedback

Beth

I think this makes a lot of sense too. Maybe you need both!! One to make sure they get the pattern and the other mixed up for practice.

I think I will try the mixed up one and if he has problems with it, I will order the other one. I am hoping he is beyond needing them in order, but you can never tell with him. I figure the mixed up one is much closer to reading.

I would think you could rearrange the cards if the order of OG is different than LIPS.

Beth