How do I increase WPM in reading?????

Check out Great Leaps. It is a reading fluency program.

I very frankly I question this. Yes , *fluency* is important. Does he read with ease? Does he use phrasing? Does he skip over periods and punctionation? He may need to be explicitly taught these things. Rereading, such as in Great Leaps or other good programs, allows you to teach such skills. BUT I am not really overly concerned about a specific reading rate, and would never say “little Johnny must read at __ wpm”. The way you find out, btw, is find a selection with approx. 100 words and time him. But again, I think there is maybe a bit too much concern on this here over other fluency concerns, like those I stated. I just bet Victoria’s going to agree. :-)

—des

Agree? I’m going to yell. This is one of my hot buttons.

WHAT IS THE VALUE OF A FAST MISTAKE?

Your child is just learning how ot read. You say he is dyslexic so he has been having difficulty.
He *should* be sounding words out — I hope you are working with him on sound/spelling pattens and syllables.
He is just beginning to succeed.

So what do we want to do? Make him hurry up and guess! You put pressure on him to go faster and he is going to skip words, guess words from the first letter, make up sentences, mumble and slur to hide the fact that he is skipping words and making it up — all the bad habits that reaidng remediation tutors spend years and years unteaching.

Do you want him eading sixty words per minute correctly, or a hundred full of mistakes? **Which is going to be faster in the long run, a moderate speed correct or so many errors he has to re-do three times?**

The other thing about this is that all the reading speeds I see out there are totally fake.
How do I know? Let’s do a little simple arithmetic. 100 words per minute means a full page of an *adult* novel (like the one beside me right now) in three to four minutes; the entire thick book in a thousand minutes or under seventeen hours.
Now, these same people who are all fired up about reading speed are also complainig about their high schoolers having so much reading to do, hours and hours a day. If you read at only one hundred words per minute and you read only an hour a day, you would finish this *adult* book in less than three weeks. That would mean you could read twelve novels in a school year. A second hour — and these folks are complaining about three and four hours a night — would be plenty of time to read all your textbooks, every word of them.
(Oddly enough, on just this topic, a teacher on another board said that her AP History students were expected to cover fifty pages a week and that was just *too much* so she had to make ten-page summaries for them — huh?)
So, do Grade 2 kids need to read fast enough to beat Grade 12 AP History students? Or do we smell a large fish in all of this?

Forget the speed. Learn to read accurately first. Work on vocabulary and meaning. Enjoy books at the speed that works. When you *stop* pressuring for speed and get things understood, speed comes with practice, and then almost every kid I’ve worked with has sped up much faster than the pressured ones — and has kept the speed and continued to improve, unlike the pressured ones who backslide.

He reads 60 wpm with mistakes and no stopping for punctuation. Yes, I

The teacher says he needs to be reading this speed and comprehend because he won’t pass the FCAT. I spent nearly 1000 dollars testing him last year—they came up with dyslexia—FL school system doesn’t recognize dyslexia as a “disability”–-and they refused all my testing from ALL qualified individuals—finally we got him on an IEP with only 1 point from not getting him on one. That just pulls him out into a phonics class for 2 hours with 4 others—that teacher (teachers aide) said he’s making no progress. I am thinking about hiring an education consultant to make sure they are focusing on the correct education procedures. As for the 60 WPM….he does them with mistakes and does not allow for punctuation—everything flows together as one forever ending story—and the words he don’t know—he makes up.

SOME OF MY POST IS GONE—NOT SURE WHAT HAPPENED—ANYWAYS—IF THEY DON’T PASS THE FCAT—THEY GET HELD BACK. MY SON HAS ALL NORMAL TO ABOVE NORMAL IQ’S—SHE SAYS THAT THERE’S NO REASON HE SHOULDN’T KEEP UP BECAUSE HIS IQ’S STATE THAT HE DEFINITELY HAS THE POTENTIAL. I HAVE PERSONALLY SAT WITH HER AND SHOWED HER MY FOLDER OF ALL OF HIS TESTING—AND MY HOURS OF NIGHTS OF RESEARCH OF DYSLEXIA—TO NO AVAIL. ANYWAYS—SHE TOLD ME TO FOCUS ON WPM—SO THAT’S WHY I ASKED. THANKS GALS!!!! I APPRECIATE IT!!

I would not waste more time or money trying to get them to do a job they’ve been trained to do wrongly.

They are not likely to change their belief system no matter what information you put in front of them.

I *would* observe the pull-out just to see if perhaps they’re wrong about him not making progress… but odds are they’re not teaching it in a way that works for him, so he isn’t - so they’re considering this confirmation that he shouldn’t learn the basis of written language (the sound-symbol connection) because they don’t know any different ways to teach it.

If it’s all running together then practice in fluency will **really** be reinforcing what he already does that is damaging his reading ability (including those FCAT scores, but it would seem the dolts can’t grasp anything that complex). I’d get him out of that useless “pull out” and find an alternative, and get it in writing in the IEP that you feel that their instruction is not appropriate and so you are providing XYZ at home. (Otherwise, when you dos omething that works, they say”see??? He didn’t need anything anyway!”)

Feel free to ask for my how-to-tutor outlines/book i progress. Email at [email protected]

There are some ways you can work on fluency at home.

My best suggestion would be to invest in a set of “Little Books”, which are very graduated readers. Typically you have a child read a book in a set twice with two errors or less before allowing him to proceed to the next book in the set.

Website with all 8 sets available is http://www.usu.edu/teach/LittleBooks.htm but the lower level sets are available for less $$$ at http://www.roadstoeverywhere.com/3RsPlusRead.html . (These are the same books, just labeled either sets or courses.) Although the aim of these readers is not necessarily speed, using them can improve speech and accuracy (i.e., fluency).

The first website has placement tests you can print out. If you have any doubts, I recommend starting in a lower level set.

Another possibility is QuickReads from Modern Curriculum Press. These are books specifically designed to improve reading fluency by means of repeated readings of grade-level material. The texts are short, one-page readings that give you the number of words. By timing the readings, you can determine words-per-minute and set goals. Teachers really like these because they also teach concepts and information in such areas as science and social studies. I don’t have a website handy for these, but there are multiple sources online. Just Google “QuickReads” “research-based fluency program”. I would probably start with the lowest level and work up in this program, and would skip the comprehension questions and exercises.

Nancy

Yeah Nancy, as I said the focus should not be on *speed*. Fluency is important and many dyslexic kids need specific work on it (I think Quick Reads has gotten high marks over here.) The fluency focus is on reading well, phrasing, ease in reading.

I don’t think that a kid would need a specific speed to pass tests. Some kids don’t even read the tests, look thru the material and then try to find the answer in the material. Actually, it’s how I take the darn things myself.

—des

I am sure the point was that when fluency is too low, it hinders comprehension. And the FCAT is a comprehension test.

But a child must be taught to decode accurately, as the others said, before trying to increase reading rate. If you look under LD In Depth on this site, and then under Reading, you’ll find a good article on reading fluency (although their chart has higher rates than the one below).

http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/reading/reading_fluency.html

It is wcpm (words correct per minute) you want to measure. You give the child something to read at his reading level. Then start the timer and mark where he is after 1 minute is up. Note errors. Then count the total number of words read and subtract the errors. This is wcpm. This is the number to look at, not wpm.

Here is a chart from Read Naturally on reading fluency norms:

http://www.readnaturally.com/pdf/oralreadingfluency.pdf

Janis

Hi guys,

While fluency is important, there are a number of factors that are key to its success… i.e. Automaticity - or the automatic processing of each skill necessary to be a good reader. For instance, you know that “tion” is “shen” every time without having to think about it…

Check out this web site by the US Dept of Ed:

www.paec.org/teacher2teacher

There is some excellent teacher professional development with master teachers training other teachers in videos that are captioned on this site. There is a fluency one but also a phonics and phonemic awareness…that are improtant components to a balanced literacy approach.

Here’s a great intervention program that doesn’t have the “dancing bunnies” so that it won’t offend older users yet it goes after missing skills and confirms Automaticity: The Academy of Reading by Autoskill
www.autoskill.com

Here is a computer based fluency program: www.readingassistant.com

Again, fluency is important since it strongly indicates comprehension, etc but the skills have to be in place to get there…

Hope this helps!
Tony

I read your post on LD Online and felt a call to respond. I am the author of Great Leaps and considered something of an expert on fluency. Your son does indeed need to work on reading speed - it is not about racing, it is about fluency and his reading making sense to him. Accuracy without speed makes for absolutely nonsensical word calling (not reading) and by the third grade this leads to an AWFUL school experience. There are many, many ways of positively building up speed AND accuracy. Accuracy alone (the foolish intent of many) was a major factor in many schools of thought absolutely throwing out many direct instruction interventions. Working only on accuracy makes “Jack a dull boy.” It is NO fun. There is NO sense of accomplishment. There is NO reward. Again, I’ll repeat, there is no sense in reading without the reading approaching the speed of spoken conversation.

I am sure if you read only one word a second with absolute 100% accuracy you could read War and Peace and James Joyce’s Ulysses in a matter of a few short weeks. Of course, it would make absolutely no sense nor would there be one iota of pleasure. (Our pleasure centers of reading light up when we read effortlessly without processing.)

You are absolutely right to (in agreement with his teacher) to worry on his reading rate. There are a million ways to build this up with fun. Call me and I’ll help all I can without an iota of intent to sell you anything.

Ken Campbell[/b][/quote][/u]

Ken, it isn’t the fluency question that many of us have a problem with. You definitely can make no sense of reading without fluency. What I am responding to from this post is the wording “words per minute”. I believe your program (and others) offers a more balanced approach, working on decoding skills, sight vocabulary (in this case automaticity), and so forth. I think teaching phrasing and so on is important. I have used (and like) your program for kids with poor fluency but I would not write a goal (if I could help it) using words “words per minute”. Fluency is a combination of reading speed, automaticity, correct phrasing, attention to punctuation, etc. It also can’t be placed before decoding. Fluency with no decoding would be teaching sight words soley. Most of us are against it and have too many disasters in our classes and/or private practices like that.

—des

Des,
No problem at all there, what we really need is a balanced approach with the child’s needs at the center of the intervention. In IEP’s (before ever haing published anything) I always used wpm/errors in my goals - but it was based on solid expectations and set on the norms of that child - not nationally contrived wpm norms. Ken

I get nervous when I hear “balanced approach” to literacy. :-) But I know what you mean. Yes, I agree. I did NOT get that idea from what the initial poster suggested. I felt that the teacher was talking in strict wpm terms and not considering anythign else (and was more concerned about passing the test at that). I’m sure I wouldn’t have any problems with any goal you wrote. :-)

—des

And who knows where the original poster is :-)

I do like taking *back* the terms that get stolen. When Ken says balanced, I know it means balanced :-)

I am reading every word you guys and gals say. It’s very interesting hearing everyones perspective. Thanks!!! And yes—it is all about passing the FCAT which our teacher feels like if her students don’t pass—that she’ll lose her job. My sons IQ’s are all in the 120’s—but reading comprehension is at a 1st grade level—so go figure—I don’t think testing is the only way to pass a child. You can tell him anything and show him any hands on activities—and he’s got it–and VERY much in depth. His 2 hour phonics pull out class don’t work—obviously. We are working very hard at home also. He is very brilliant in science and math. The teacher just tells all the kids that if they don’t pass the FCAT—they get held back. Definitely a lot of stress on the kids and parents too. Thanks and I have looked into every helpful link you all have given me–thanks again

TAnya in Florida

Good to hear from you :-) I do sometimes wonder when we go off on a spirited debate whether the original poster hasn’t gotten distracted or forgotten the link!

Fear & guilt - hey, mediocre and lousy teachers use it all the time. I’d tell my kiddos that’s what’s going on, and find out if it’s really true (it may be), and come up with a worst case scenario plan, and at least send a polite letter asking whther that school wants to be the one facing the inevitable lawsuit for fouling up FAPE with its arbitrary “standards.” Sounds like one of thsoe situations where you might as well homeschool him, since you’re doing most of it anyway and what they’re doing is not too helpful.