My 11 year old son just told me that he has a lot more trouble reading to himself than when he reads out loud. He says it’s harder to remember what’s going on in a story. He has read out loud to me, to tutors and to ld staff for years because of his reading disability. His oral reading is quite good—at least on grade level. His comprehension has always been excellent with oral reading. Now, I’m wondering…has he just not had the practice reading silently, are there new skills he needs to learn to become a good silent reader, or is this a facet of his disability I was never aware of?
Any information or words of advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Re: Silent reading vs. oral reading
My reading and comprehension got a *lot* better when somebody said it was fun to pretend you were telling the story to yourself in your head. He may really need the moving-his-lips and hearing it to keep his mind engaged, though. We have our kids underline wiht a pencil as they read to help focus, if that is the issue (but if needing to really hear it is, obviously that wouldn’t help). Kids that are reading too fast silently — and generally too fast because they’re skipping and/or guessing things, or plowing through the words without expression — we encourage to subvocalize — basically say the words without sound coming out of your mouth.
Reading should be the translation of print into speech in the mind — and all the images created by that language. So it makes perfect sense that some kids comprehend better when they focus on making it sound right.
Re: Silent reading vs. oral reading
I agree with many of the statements that were previously made regarding your email, Connie. Personally, I would not be worried about your son’s performance for silent vs. oral reading. It seems obvious to me that he possesses strengths in auditory memory skills vs. relying simply on visually remembering the information needed. If you want him to gradually decrease the amount of oral reading, take some of the strategies recommended by Victoria. If he is reading factual text, maybe he could use post-it notes AS he is reading to track and remember the important information. But overall, I feel that if that is his strength, so what….as long as it is functional for him. Good luck.
Re: Silent reading vs. oral reading
My oral reading skills and my reading comprehension also both improved when I subvocalized my reading either by simply moving my lips as I read, or by really vocalizing my reading by reading aloud to myself or to an audience. I found I understood poems, plays, and other stories using this method. My comprehension in high school of Shakespeare’s work was astonishing as I progressed through my 11th grade literature class using this method. Practicing reading this way not only makes sense for comprehension purposes but for improving expression in oral reading.
Re: Silent reading vs. oral reading
I have found the best answer to silent reading is the Accelerated Reader Program.
Principles ofAccelerated Reader
1. Practice makes perfect, the more a person reads the better they become
2. Children read at appropriate level
3. Students select what they want to read
4. This is truly an individual program from the gifted to the students with special needs.
This how it works. Children select a library book, read it, go to the computer and take a 5-10 question quiz on the book. The computer scores and stores the information and the child gets an immediate print out of test results. It stores all of the titles of books read and scores. Children can’t read the same books over the following year because the computer stores the books that a child has read and the dates amd scpres/
The school purchases quizzes on books in your existing school library. Accelerated Reader has leveled all of the books. This same company has a reading test that children take in 10-20 minutes and it scores the test and gives immediate reports, for student, teacher and parent. This is called Star Reading. We use these results to determine the reading level of library book a child should read.
The web site is http://www.advlearn.com Check out the math materials as well.
Does anyone out there use Accelerated Reader, Star Reading, Accelerated Math or Star Math?
Catherine
I am always leery of silent reading, as it is often used as an excuse for not teaching reading at all — if a kid can guess enough right answers from the pictures, he is judged as having “read” the passage — I once tutored a Grade 4 non-reader (pre-primer stage) who had A’s and B’s in “reading” for three years by this method. Caution is required in using silent reading.
However in your case, you seem to be well past this stage.
For many years, what we were taught about silent versus oral reading was **absolutely wrong**. We were told not to move our lips when we read, not to sound out words, that this would slow us down, and so on. Actually, the “research” that this advice was based on was very simple almost amateurish observation with 1930’s and 1940’s technology. In fact, using modern technology that can sense small muscle motions, it turns out that **ALL** readers subvocalize — good, fast readers just do it very quickly and with subtle small motions. And modern brain research shows that the speech centers of the brain light up when reading.
Here’s a method which I have used myself to read in a foreign language: practice reading silently while forming the words fully with your tongue and lips, just not voicing them or fully opening your mouth. Yes, it’s a little slower than just skimming your eyes over the page — but you are really reading and taking in the meaning of the words, and as in most other things in life, it’s faster to do it right once than wrong over and over.
After a while practicing this way with near-vocalization, you can reduce to sub-vocalization gradually.
Remember that speed is not the ultimate goal; if you’re trying to go north, you don’t gain any advantage by driving a hundred miles an hour south, in fact you get farther from your goal. There is no value in a fast mistake. Keep up your good work on accuracy and meaning, and speed will come with time.