Monitoring Student Readingby Lyn Newton | More from this Blogger 13 Jul 2008 04:28 PM In my last article I discussed how teachers can give encouragement to struggling readers. When working with struggling readers, it is important to show them success in their reading. When students see that their work is paying off, they are much more likely to continue reading and working on reading strategies. They will also feel better about themselves and have more confidence when reading. One way to monitor and show improvement to students is to periodically carry out reading speed tests. Once a month (or whenever you feel it is appropriate) had out a passage of text to the students. The text can be from a magazine or other form of print. The text passage can be a couple of pages long. At a given signal, students are to begin reading for one minute. At the end of one minute the students stop reading and circle the last word that was read. The students can then count how many words that they read. There is no need to count every single word. Count the words in four lines and gather an average of words per line for those four lines. Then the students can multiply that number by the number of lines that they read. This will give a good average of how many words they read overall. After the speed passage reading is carried out, continue to work on reading skills, vocabulary, and comprehension with the class. After about a month of practice, repeat the speed reading. The students should see an increase in the number of words that they read. This exercise can help the students and the teacher monitor the reading progress of the students. The exercise can be very fun for the children and also give them encouragement to continue reading when they see that they are making progress. Common Reasons Why Students Do Not Like to Read How Teachers Help Students Enjoy Reading Learn more about Lyn Newton  Lyn is a kindergarten teacher and mommy to a girl and a boy. In her spare time, she enjoys informative and creative writing. Relevanteducation tags User Comments samanthaGA (17) 21 Jul 2008 07:36 AMMy daughter loves to read and write, but it can be a huge challenge for her. She struggled with transferring her thoughts over from what she reads to writing about it in her homework. Essays were especially difficult. We did a lot of research, and found several options to make this process easier for her. One thing we use is a computer program called WordQ. (http://www.enablemart.com/Catalog/Writing/WordQ-2) It's kind of like a computer version of me sitting with her and helping her find the right words, and locate mistakes. She is a very auditory person and learner. This program literally reads back the words she types to her so she is able to hear her mistakes. It can predict words, in context, for her to use so she doesn't get bogged down. It's pretty amazing! You can adjust the vocabulary to fit the age and writing level. I have even used it when writing some of my newsletters! Anything that can help her proof-read her work, improve the quality of her work, and cut back frustration is a great answer for our family! gahockeymom (10) 22 Jul 2008 08:36 PMSamantha, I can't believe somebody else out there in GA has the same thing. My son is the same way, and someone recommended the WordQ-2 for us as well. We just love it. It has really been helpful so far. This is a good product. rubieunlim (5) 23 Jul 2008 09:14 AMThe WordQ-2 product that you mention above I would also agree. Community Tags reading Discuss this article
|
Education categories |
