Working on reading fluency with 10yo...help!

[5sweeties]

Hi! My 10yo, 5th grade dd has always had a hard time with reading fluency. She does an outstanding job with comprehension and can read long novels, to herself, well. She is very far-sighted in one eye, and that has been corrected. She was in ps through 2nd grade. At that time, she was reading much below grade level. Since we started homeschooling, this has improved greatly, but her fluency still lags behind. When reading aloud her words are choppy and she just struggles. I am wondering if anyone has found some sort of program that works on this?

We practice consistently, but it would be nice to have some sort of program to follow. All the rest of my children actually excell in this area, and read beautifully. It is very hard for this dd to deal with, and it hurts her esteem and willingness to read aloud. It embarasses her, and I'd really like to find something to help her.

Thanks!

[Chris in VA]

Not a program, but...
When I tutored functionatly illiterate adults, one of the fluency exercises was to pick something slightly above their reading level, the read it together--
You'd read aloud the same passage at the same time. At first it felt like I was towing the reader on a rope--they'd lag ever so slightly behind, but it didn't take but a few times until they were right along with me. It was pretty amazing, actually. Often, the cause of their disfluency was a tendency to "overthink" the words--as fluent readers, people see chunks of text, and some words become automatic sight words (no need to sound out because they have reached the automatic processing stage). The tandem reading was a strategy to encourage greater speed, and help the eyes track faster.

[5sweeties]

We'll try that! Thanks! How much/how long, did you read at one sitting?

Also, I just found Reading Pathways...has anyone tried that?

[Greta Lea]

I mean EASY, EASY...then have her read aloud from it daily. Also, at times you might want to read a paragraph and then have her read it and imitate the way your read it.

Also, go through and read a few paragraphs before you read with her. As you are reading, notice how you are reading the sentences in chunks. Everytime you read a "chunk", underline the chunk. Then, when she reads this aloud to you, tell her to read the chunks you underlined. I betcha she is already doing this when reading silently, but just needs to help doing it when reading aloud, so this will not be new to her.

Another idea is to do repeated readings (you can google this and find all kinds of info). I've done this using the Spectrum Reading workbooks. Choose a level that is WELL *below* her reading level. You really want her to focus on the flow of the reading and not sounding out any words or the vocabulary. At first, YOU read the selection aloud to her while she follows along, then you read it again, but take turns reading (maybe every other paragraph) and then finally she will read it totally alone out loud to you. You can do this at one time or sit down 3 different times during the day to do it.

HTH,
Greta:)

[LisaTheresa]

I use a program called Six Minute Solutions with my son. The program basically involves doing repeated readings. You read the passage aloud to your child, then they read it to you. You score how many correct words per minute they get on the first reading and then you do it another 4 times during the week. It just takes a couple of minutes and my son improves his speed and accuracy every week. I have kept a graph of his progress and it is really neat to see.

If you google "repeated readings", you will find lots of information about this, so you shouldn't even really need to buy a program.

Lisa

[5sweeties]

AWESOME!!! Thanks so much to both of you! I think we will try it all...she is SO ready to get over this hurdle and work hard on it.

[cillakat]

There's actually a name for the evidence based intervention that helps fluency:

shared guided reading

There are a bunch of other things it's called as well....but basically:

Pick something you know she can read easily. She reads it silently, carefully to herself.

Then you read it aloud, modeling fluencey for her, using a pencil/pen or your finger to guide under the text at the same rate your voice goes.....you're not trying to hit each word individually as much as you're trying to 'group them' or 'scoop them'.

Then she reads aloud with you, while she uses a pen/pencil/finger to guide the fluency.

Do that a couple of times.....every day....each passage 4x total. Reading aloud is the answer....reading silently to herself won't fix it. Doing this work for a few minutes a couple of times per day will be helpful for a child who is already an otherwise good reader.

Keep in mind that generally people who are good readers, but not fluent ones, do end up 'hitting a wall' with comprehension as text gets more technical/difficult in upper level classes. It's good to deal with it now. If you find any phonological coding errors, you can deal with that as well....how you deal with that will depend on whether those issues show up in multisound single syllable words or only with multisyllabic words.

All the best to you

[mom22722]

My DS had reading problems. We eventually forked out a lot of money for a program that we took him to that really worked well with him. One part of the program that we were told works on fluencey and have continued at home is shared reading. You pick a book on your child's reading level and he/she reads a page aloud and you read a page aloud.

[EKS]

Have you had her vision checked with a developmental optometrist? Kids with major problems with one eye will frequently need vision therapy even if the acuity issues have been corrected, especially if they were corrected late. Reading fluency can be a big problem for these kids.

Once you are sure that her vision is not the problem, then two things are helpful. First, have her read aloud to you every day starting with books well below her reading level (easy) and then gradually working up to where you are pushing her level higher and higher for a while (like months or even a year). The other thing to do is to use a program like The Six Minute Solution of repeated oral readings. The program has leveled passages so it is pretty obvious when there is progress. I would actually do both things.

The other thing is, have you looked into dyslexia? The book Overcoming Dyslexia is great for help with understanding all the issues (not just reading) related to dyslexia. Dyslexics, even when they read really well with really good comprehenison (silently) can still sound choppy and slow when reading aloud. They will usually read slower silently too.

[Bula Mama]

We'll try that! Thanks! How much/how long, did you read at one sitting?

Also, I just found Reading Pathways...has anyone tried that?

I'm going through the second 1/2 with my 10yo ds who also needs help and I've seen progress. It's helped him to see how to break words apart, etc. I own Reading Pathways and plan to follow up with that after we finish Phonics Pathways.