Recommendations to improve reading speed and comprehension

[cherryblossom]

I am looking for something that will help improve my 8th grader's reading comprehension skills as well as improve her speed. Can anyone offer suggestions that have worked for your children? Thanks for your help.

[ElizabethB]

A recent 5th grader I taught was thought to have comprehension problems by her Mom and the school.

Actually, she was suffering from a phonics deficit and too many sight words.

You can give the MWIA (use the MWIA II for this age--the MWIA I is for younger children or older children reading below a 2nd grade level) to see if there is a problem. If your child misses more phonetic than holistic words or reads the phonetic portion more than 15% slower than the holistic portion, they need some remedial phonics work. The MWIA and some reading grade level tests are here:

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/readinggradeleve.html

Students who are reading extremely slow generally speed up immediately after learning more phonics. Students who have learned to read a bit faster but were taught with sight words generally have a period of reading slowdown for a month or two, then their reading speed will increase beyond what it was originally, but even during their period of slow down they will read more accurately and their comprehension will improve.

If the scores on the MWIA indicate a need for remedial phonics, I recommend my online phonics lessons and then Webster's Speller, they're both free! Here are some recommendations for working with remedial students on my website:

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/remedialstudents.html

I also like We All Can Read by Williams and Rx for Reading: Teach Them Phonics by Christman for remedial students, they're both reasonably priced for what you get in each book.

[cherryblossom]

A recent 5th grader I taught was thought to have comprehension problems by her Mom and the school.

Actually, she was suffering from a phonics deficit and too many sight words.

You can give the MWIA (use the MWIA II for this age--the MWIA I is for younger children or older children reading below a 2nd grade level) to see if there is a problem. If your child misses more phonetic than holistic words or reads the phonetic portion more than 15% slower than the holistic portion, they need some remedial phonics work. The MWIA and some reading grade level tests are here:

http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/readinggradeleve.html

Students who are reading extremely slow generally speed up immediately after learning more phonics. Students who have learned to read a but faster but were taught with sight words generally have a period of reading slowdown for a month or two, then their reading speed will increase beyond what it was originally, but even during their period of slow down they will read more accurately and their comprehension will improve.

Elizabeth,
She reads accurately when I have her read out loud and she isn't extremely slow stumbling over words trying to figure them out. So, I don't think it's a phonics issue. I feel like she is just a bit slow reading on her own. For instance, I assign her something to read which shouldn't take more than 30 minutes and she takes a lot longer than that to finish reading. Maybe it's just a matter of her "daydreaming" instead of doing what she's supposed to do. But recently she asked if we could order some software to help improve her reading speed. She is not one who would choose to pick up a book on her own and read for pleasure. Regarding comprehension, it's only specific questions that require her to make generalizations, inferences, or draw conclusions after reading a passage that present a problem for her. Any further thoughts, suggestions, or advice? Thanks again!

[ajjkt]

I have heard some people say its busy work, but I really like a combination of McCalls-Crabb and some of the reading comp books by EPS books. The kids like these activities too, and I find it focuses them on what they are reading. I may be kidding myself, but I think I notice them finding it easier to pick out subtlties and also interpret what was inferred. It also gives me a brief insight into what points they struggle to interpret from a text as well as what comes easily.

ie My son will always be able to answer accurately the things that were explicitly stated. He will often miss more subtle things such as the story was set in January and is an American book we should assume that it was Winter, not Summer, and therefore it was cold, not hot. These inferences are being picked up on more as we explicitely teach them rather than assume that they will be learnt by osmosis.

[EKS]

To improve fluency you could use something like The Six Minute Solution by Sopris West. It has leveled passages and uses repeated oral reading to achieve grade level fluency.

If you think part of the problem is in reading longer words, there is also a program called REWARDS by Sopris West that is very helpful.

[paulinea]

I'm learning to read fast myself. The system I'm using is used in some schools too. They are now offering a free mini-course, see if it can help:

http://www.speedreaderxreview.com/free-online-reading-speed-test

[ElizabethB]

Elizabeth,
She reads accurately when I have her read out loud and she isn't extremely slow stumbling over words trying to figure them out. So, I don't think it's a phonics issue. I feel like she is just a bit slow reading on her own. For instance, I assign her something to read which shouldn't take more than 30 minutes and she takes a lot longer than that to finish reading. Maybe it's just a matter of her "daydreaming" instead of doing what she's supposed to do. But recently she asked if we could order some software to help improve her reading speed. She is not one who would choose to pick up a book on her own and read for pleasure. Regarding comprehension, it's only specific questions that require her to make generalizations, inferences, or draw conclusions after reading a passage that present a problem for her. Any further thoughts, suggestions, or advice? Thanks again!

I'd check her MWIA scores to be sure and rule that out. The 5th grader was reading at grade level on one test and 1 grade level above on another test and didn't miss any words when reading aloud, but had a comprehension problem. When I gave her the MWIA, she read the phonetic list 62% slower than the holistic list. I'm going to retest her after her break is finished, but she's comprehending more and reading faster now, and based on her work with Webster and M.K. Henry's words, I think she'll be reading at the 8th or 10th grade level now, but I won't know for sure until I test her.

It only takes 5 or 10 minutes to check with the MWIA to make sure. If there are subtle phonics deficits, any speed reading program you do will be harmful.

[Bilby]

Something for you daughter to sit down and do herself, or something which you will teach/implement?

At 8th grade level it is important to build comprehension skills across all types of learning, particularly in the content areas. An excellent resource that I would highly recommend for use with someone in middle/high school is:

'Building Reading Comprehension Habits in Grades 6-12' by Jeff Zwiers (available through Amazon)

This book will show you how to teach content areas so that comprehension skills are also being developed. But it is definitely a teacher's book, not a student's book, and would take a bit of study on your part. The strategies/habits developed will apply across any type of upper level reading.

If you want a more scripted program, REWARDS by Sopris West, followed by REWARDS PLUS are excellent programs, but only teach part of the comprehension strategies contained in the Zwiers book. However, REWARDS does also work on phonics and developing reading speed. I'm using both Rewards and Zwiers.

Good luck,
Pam.