In every reading/literacy class I have ever taken, the professors have told me that kids with poor fluency also have poor comprehension. Their reasoning is that when a child is focusing on the letters and blends in a word, they are not focusing on the content of what they are reading. Logically, this make perfect sense. Yet, in my practice I have actually found the opposite. In three years of teaching third grade, I had a student with Dyslexia and another student who showed signs of Dyslexia and was in the process of being tested when she left my class. In both cases, the students had very poor fluency. They shied away from reading aloud and were not confident oral readers. All my years of school taught me that these two students should have poor comprehension as well. I found the exact opposite in both cases. Both students were among the best "readers" in the class. They may have been the poorest fluently, but they were the strongest comprehendingly.
One of them specifically amazed me with what she was able to pick up on in her reading. She comprehended and could explain the smallest details in reading and her ability to pick up on underlying themes was remarkable.
You probably already do this in the car with your kids. But an added twist can help your kids with their reading fluency. Purchase some CDs that have the lyrics on the sleeve, enlarge them on any photo copier, and give them to your child to read as he sings long with the music.
The reason this works is that the singer acts as the "role model reader" in this strategy. Listening to a more mature reader as the student reads himself, especially for an auditory learner, will enhance the student's ability to read smoothly. Done repeatedly (a few times per week), you will see a difference in a few months.
Try out this fun exercise and tell me how it works and if your child enjoys it!
No comments:
Post a Comment