After a child has mastered a passage of at least 160 words a minute with two or less errors - have the child then move to a silent mode of reading. There can be no goals, no prizes, only encouragement. Lips cannot move - chewing gum may even help in this. The child should keep a finger on his/her place so you can watch progress. In exactly one minute, stop, do a word count and chart. This should be done at least ten times over ten different sessions (over ten different days.) More than once per day would not count but one toward the ten.
The goal is to begin training the brain to fluently read silently at rates faster than the words can be pronounced - a virtually impossible task presently for dyslexic children.
It is my contention that we may be “training” the brain to make the switch. The earlier this is done, the better, but the need for moving 160 per minute or so means the children will be older. I do not think (but do not know) that going at slower speeds would accomplish anything more than another variation of word per word reading.
Whatever approach is used, no harm is done and the possibility exists for major breakthroughs with children. I am interested in your response. Ken Campbell
Re: Fluency Experiment for Teachers
If he were my son, I’d have him on daily oral reading timings with a reward enticing enough to make him want to do it. No pressure. To encourage silent reading, I’d then have a one minute silent timing (as shown above) on a passage I knew he’d mastered. There’d be no reward, just the chart. I’d have counselled him the advantages gained by being able to build this skill. I certainly wouldn’t force the issue because that would only prove malproductive. I would not be letting him practice errors, because remember, he’s already mastered the material orally. That’s the only quality control I can offer on this, but it does offer some promise if I can get the motivation to get the behavior. I wish I could write more, I remain in intensive pt for a pretty serious neck injury. Don’t hesitate to ask more if I can help or clarify, I just work in paragraphs. Ken
Re: Fluency Experiment for Teachers
ken
gee, hope you get better
the above suggestions are exactly what one of my mothers figured out on her own,
shedoes everything you say, they track it all in a journal, compare how much, how accurate etc
he reads 20 minutes a day, 7/week, 365/ year
she never lets him miss,
he is in 3rd grade now, i worked with him when he was 6, used PG, 15 hrs of tutoring, mother has given it her all and stayed firm and continued it
he reads silently now, but has to write any words he is struggling with, they go over them, if he has no words, she picks words and has him read them to keep him on his toes,
so she is slowly getting him to independence with the reading but keeping tabs at the same time
he is now reading at the 4th grade level and is in 3rd grade
practice, steady and done every day
libby
Re: Fluency Experiment for Teachers
Libby,
What a wonderful story. I wish we could get MRI results on such experiments - to see if nonintrusive and helpful interventions can help bring about fluent, silent reading. I think I’ll write up a set of procedures and offer them on the Great Leaps Bulletin Board. It’ll take awhile, as I need to bring in some partners - I don’t want the demerol interfering with my attempts to communicate clearly.
Ken
Re: Fluency Experiment for Teachers
I just recently invested in the Great Leaps program for my seventh grade son and see improvements already. I videotaped him reading passages from two novels prior to beginning the program and will video tape him again reading the same passages in about 6 months so that we will have additional objective data (besides the charts).
Anyway….using this fluency program has taught us to expand to other areas. He now has to read his vocabulary words as quickly as possible and we time him. He is so motivated to improve his rate and accuracy.
Thank you, Ken, for developing this program.
Re: Fluency Experiment for Teachers
Ken
I do this with all of my kids. We start orally and everyone whisper reads loud enough for me to hear. The only reward I use is to graph the results. Kids love to see that line go up. We do two practice timings and the third they read to a partner who underlines errors and we graph words read correctly per minute. My kids make steady progress and then we move to silent reading. I am a big believer in timed practice.
Re: Fluency Experiment for Teachers
Hi Ken,
Have you measured or read about measurements of silent reading versus oral reading? What is your target, then, for silent compared to oral reading?
I use your program with many students, as you know. If I were to have a student read silent what they orally read in one minute, they would generally finish the passage before the minute expired. I’ll try it Saturday with a H.S. student, but I’m sure silent reading is faster and, therefore, requires a longer passage.
Re: Fluency Experiment for Teachers
First, I love this board and am disappointed that it has been so abused.
It’s been a tough day, so I can’t write long….some ideas…
I’d be very careful about rewards given or even goals set when I cannot absolutely guarantee that the score I’m obtaining really happened. That’s the bear with silent reading - I know how important it is for ultimate fluency, espcially with true dyslexics, but reliable measurement is impossible.
Re: errors - Having a troubled reader read silently on a new passage could serve to reinforce present error patterns - that’s why I chose to try this only on mastered passages. I wanted to wait until the mid third or fourth grade level had been made because at lower levels it didn’t seem developmentally the thing to do. I could very well be wrong - and would like to see other non-obtrusive methods for its development.
Concerning the MRI’s and our future - it’s going to be very nice to have old, reliable methods (so bashed by post modernists) vindicated by hard science. Of course the PM’s will bash the truth (something they also deny exists.)
Beth, in reading passages already mastered, my presumption is that the error rates would remain constant - at two or less that’s a 98% + correct rate - son the minimum errors being repeated would (in my opinion) be more than offset by the silent gains we would be trying to develop.
Common sense and a love of our children and how they succeed needs to guide all of us in our preparation and sharing of tactics and techniques.
Ken
Ken -- your gut feeling is supported by data
The National Reading Panel, in the big important Teaching Children to Read study (other readers — do read this, available on LD In Depth) states that *oral* guided reading is the way to fluency in earlier grades, about 1 to 3. After about Grade 4 reading level is mastered, than silent reading becomes a useful activity — although I still find oral reading a very good technique at all levels.
Re: Fluency Experiment for Teachers
I have no idea how many wpm my child reads. How do you measure that and even a “slow processor” can read at that rate?
Re: Fluency Experiment for Teachers
To get a quick measure of wpm - take a kitchen countdown timer and have your child read an age-appropriate passage. Count the words read, count the errors. Listen for the intonation - we can’t reliably measure that, but we can note errors. By listening to your child read regularly, you’ll have great insights into any problem areas, if any. You will often be able to tell why a child is having difficulties with comprehension - errors and or the lack of inflection have reduced the passage to being meaningless. Ken C
Re: Fluency Experiment for Teachers
Comprehension and inflection are great. It’s those MS words that are sometimes still troublesome. We are working with an OG tutor this Summer.
Re: Fluency Experiment for Teachers
What you are describing is the Read Naturally program. It is not new, but has a strong research base.
Ken,
How do you view silent reading for children who do not read 160 wpm? My son, age 10, has done very little because I am concerned that he will skip words and guess. I worry though that he is dependent on my availability for reading (not that he cares—he actually doesn’t like to read at all). He reads probably 120 wpm. He is reading Harry Potter to me (alternating pages).
How do weigh the advantages of more reading practice versus the fact that a child may engage in the very practices that you’ve worked very hard to reduce (but still have not completely eliminated)?
Beth