Speed Reading is...

… a farce.

There seem to be a slew of applications (you know them as apps) that purport to increase one’s reading speed. Worse, there are even more blogs and articles out there eating the concept up. Wish I could be as enamored but my years of experience as a reading teacher struggle mightily to be as excited about these products as others seem to be. I’m actually dubious that any of those writing about these apps have actually used them for more than an hour or two or taken the time to reflect on their efficacy.

I’m of the opinion that speed reading apps, especially the older you are, are akin to buying snake oil and hair tonic –loads of promises with nothing more like to occur than a placebo result and a sense of being swindled.

I downloaded and tested two apps, Fastr and ReadQuick, several months ago. (I picked these two simply because they were free the day I discovered them.) Both programs are fundamentally the same in their execution: you see words flashed quickly on the screen, you “read” them, and then hope to keep up. Where they diverge is in what materials you can use to practice your reading speed. 

ReadQuick will let you read articles from sites like The Morning News, The Feature, and Longreads, though you’re not really limited because you can import from any site. You can set the rate of words displayed from 100 to 800 words per minute (WPM). ReadQuick displays one word at a time once you turned it on. The program also provides stats for you such as the number of articles and words you’ve read in a week, month, or year.

Fastr works more with existing books, ones without DRM. Unlike ReadQuick, you have the options of seeing one word at a time on the screen, or several. Fastr also predetermines, based on book length and the rate of reading you choose using an adjustable meter, how long it will take you to speed read the book you’ve selected.

For this blog, I’m going to stick with my experience using Fastr as my example.

I downloaded Treasure Island as my practice book. I was shown that, set to 100-words per minute, I would complete “reading” chapter one of Treasure Island in 24 minutes and 46 seconds. This time remains the same whether choosing to have one word at a time presented to me or several. Sounds okay to me, but then again so does a miracle hair tonic.

I started with method one, trying to read one word at a time. The weakness to seeing one word at a time becomes fabulously apparent when seeing the first sentence of the book. It follows:

Chapter 1 The Old Sea-dog at the Admiral, Benbow, Squire Trelawney, Dr. Livesey, and the rest of the gentlemen having asked me to write down the whole particulars about Treasure Island, from the beginning to the end, keeping nothing back but the bearings of the island, and that only because there is still treasure not yet lifted, I take up my pen in the year of grace 17-, and go back to the time when my father kept the Admiral Benbow inn and the brown old seaman with the sabre cut first tool up his lodging under our roof.

In case you missed it, that’s a chapter numeration, a chapter title, and the first sentence of the book. Even with it presented before me in its entirety, it’s a daunting series of information to retain and understand. And yet… Fastr would have you believe that in seeing one word at a time, and with continual practice, you will eventually be speeding through such densely written text. Pi-shaw, I say. Pi-shaw in my language means: Yeah, you may read more quickly, but you’re grasp of what you’ve read will be its inverse.

More amazing, or is that ridiculous, to me is that you can ramp up the program to a reading speed of 1,600 WPM. That’s not a typo. One thousand and six hundred words per minute. The program informs you that at this speed you will have finished chapter one of Treasure Island in a tight 1 minute and 32 seconds! Even better, you’ll have more hair on your head than you did when you were eighteen! (Special note: I may have made that last part up.)

At 1,600 WPM you cannot see but a few words between the blur of everything else claiming to be words. I tried reading this way using the multiple words aspect and met with the same issue. Namely, what level of Dante’s Hell does this activity take place? To be somewhat fair, only somewhat, you’re supposed to work your way up to this level. No go 100 to 1,600 in one sitting. I’m on the verge of writing pi-shaw again. 

Now, before I get assailed by the individuals behind these apps, let me note a few things. Yes, you can increase your rate of reading. I work with a handful of students every year specifically in this regard. These are students reading around a rate of 60-70 WPM when I first start with them. 60-70 WPM is generally regarded as too slow for their age (11-12) and academic setting. With a lot of repeated and timed reading of short passages, nearly all improve their reading rate. Most will find themselves reading closer to 100-125 WPM after half a year of guidance. There are of course the usual outliers.

What differentiates what I’m doing, when compared to the hollow promises of speed reading apps, is how I approach the task. I work with the entire text before the student, not one word at a time, or even a few words at a time. Students need to see words in chunks and sentences. Many troubled readers already tend focus on one word at a time, which both slows them down and impacts their comprehension. (By the way, I haven’t even touched this critical component yet.)

Students hear me read the passage in question aloud. This is done to build their understanding of how to read different types of writing, to develop their ear for reading. There is such a thing as having an ear for reading. We teach, for example, the very young to elevate their voices when learning to grasp how to read a question mark. The same work goes into helping slower reading students understand how to read a light-hearted poem versus a straightforward passage in science. You simply don’t read them the say way or at the same rate. Faster is not going to help a student one darn bit in an unfamiliar reading situation or when a text becomes too complex. (Refer to the excerpt of Treasure Island.)

Reading is not about speed, it’s about understanding. I’ve worked with dozens and dozens of accurate, fast-reading, student over the years who’ve not a clue as to what it all meant. Teachers commonly refer to these types of readers as word callers. Programs like Fastr and ReadQuick amount to the same thing. Call out words faster and you’ll be a better reader. Nuts. 

Most reading WPM charts suggest that students top out at 199 WPM by grade 8. And, those students who are reading aloud that quickly are in the 90^th percentile as oral readers. The 50^th percentile, which is where some 80% of us fall, is 150 WPM. Silently we can and do read more quickly, but not by much. Again in grade 8, the average rate of silent reading per minute falls somewhere around 185-205 WPM. At the college level, 250-270 WPM is regarded as an adequate average. Keep in mind that all of these averages include a measure of understanding on the student’s end.

The key, for this teacher of reading, is always final understanding; and I don’t see how speed reading apps -with their extremely narrow approaches- help in that regard. Even in my work with helping improve a student’s rate of reading, I’m working constantly on their flow of reading and comprehension.

In my experience, readers who finish first in class and maintain great understanding are not the norm. I’ve also learned, again through years of observation, that those handful of students just happen to have spent a lot of their idle time reading, from books, not speed-reading apps. That’s why they’re generally quicker. Lot’s of actual reading having occurred.

Think of it this way. You want to become a wine aficionado, which means spending a lot of time learning about grapes, soil content and rainfall patterns, to name a few things. It also means sampling a lot of wine. Does gulping sample after sample of wine, out of context and as quickly as you can, make you more experienced and knowledgeable about them? I sincerely doubt it. And yet, programs like Fastr and ReadQuick would have you believe this.

Reading is the same way. You need to savor at points what you’ve read, to roll the information and language around in your mouth for a while before you pass judgments or draw conclusions about it. 

Speaking of wine…

These are the sources I used as supporting data for this post.

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

http://www.readinghorizons.com/blog/post/2010/07/19/Optimal-Silent-and-Oral-Reading-Rates.aspx

http://www.gio.co.za/Documents/FluencyInSilentReading.pdf

Workbooks -Worth the Time or Time Wasting?

Arghhh...technology!

I'd written a -well I thought it was- sound composition on the merits and pitfalls of using reading comprehension workbooks with your child over the summer, but thanks to a slip of the finger and the autosave feature on Blogger I've nothing left of it for you to read. 

Hmmm....maybe this is to your benefit, as it was long and most of us are pressed for time. Being too lazy this fine Saturday afternoon to recollect my thoughts, I present a list of reading comprehension workbooks you may want to use this summer. Each has a picture and a thumbnail review. While I'd rather see your child reading from authentic literature each day, there is a place for reading shorter, controlled, passages and responding to comprehension questions during a period of the year when so little focused reading and thinking often occurs -what with swimming to do, sports, travel, video games to master...

a challenge but above average

Reading Detective: Using Higher Order Thinking to Improve Comprehension by Cheryl Block (Author), Carrie Beckwith (Author), Margaret Hockett (Author), David White (Author), Susan Giacometti (Illustrator)

I've used this workbook on and off over the years and I like it. The book, as the title suggests, shoots to develop higher end thinking. It does have some straight-forward questions too. There are numerous excerpts from well-known authentic books like Island of the Blue Dolphins and The Witch of Blackbird Pond. There are also original pieces, which vary in terms of student interest. It's not perfect, however, as there are no attempts to collect materials under a theme and there's no attempt to incorporate useful graphic organizers. This workbook is also the priciest of the lot, but I would recommend it in tandem with some of the better liked workbooks below.

more of a companion, workbook

Kumon Reading Workbook Grade 6 Reading by Kumon Publishing

The cheapest of the bunch and that so often means it’s synonymous with poor quality. It’s not wholly true here as I liked much of what was in this workbook. Most of the passages are of quality and interest. I’m a fan of theme related articles that have different written forms and the writing was generally good. My knock on this book is that, like many workbooks aimed at parents, it tries to provide everything without developing enough well. Their idea is that certain skills are learned first and lead into the next, more challenging it’s presumed, skills until the reader is a dynamo by the end of the workbook. Well, that’s simply not reality. I can see this appealing to kids and the price (6.95 on Amazon) is solid, but I’m not sure it’s enough on its own.

Steck-Vaughn Core Skills: Reading Comprehension: Grade 6 by author Resnick

take a pass on this one

This was one I thumbed through in a local book store and ended up putting back on the rack. The articles were not terribly appealing and there seemed to be a shotgun method to assembling them. There weren’t examples of fiction and non-fiction articles related by theme, for example. The workbook also tried to hit at least once on every type of skill: main idea, inferring meaning, using context, etc. This gave it a diluted feel and would most likely not be of much benefit to a developing mind. I’d pass on this one.

 

Spectrum Reading: Grade 6 by Spectrum Publishing

easier fare and serviceable

I’ve used this item in class a few times. It’s important to know that it’s targeted for students ages 9-12, which is appropriate considering idea behind it is to help struggling readers. I like the variety of materials in this workbook. There are fiction and non-fiction articles ranging from recipes to science experiments. There are also often 4-6 articles at a time related by theme, bees and finance as examples. The writing is highly-controlled, again good for a student who struggles, but not so good for someone looking for authentic reading. Questions that follow each chapter tend toward the literal which disappoints me. I often had to add another layer of questions myself for deeper meaning. This is decent, but not something to run out and snap up. If you want something you can more or less give to a child to work on independently, then this could suit your needs.   

 

a firm buy, small reservations

Paired Passages: Linking Fact to Fiction Grade 6 by Ruth Foster

In all, I like this workbook.  As the title notes, there are two passages paired together each time. One is fiction and the other is non-fiction. After reading both, there are multiple choice questions hitting on each separately and both taken together as in what does each article share and how do they differ. I mainly appreciate the use of graphic organizers throughout and the fact that any part of the book can be read, it's not sequential. Most articles are interesting too, like the one on why most castles in Ireland have uneven steps. The aim, as the author, notes is to improve standardized test taking, which is one detractor for me. Not that I don't want student scores to improve but this means the collection of articles are not excerpted from authentic sources. There were also no examples of poetry, which is used in many standardized tests. While, by comparison, this book is the priciest option, it’s still a recommended buy.

IF you happen to buy and use these something, possible this very summer, I'd love to know what you think.

 

Kindles Can Do

     After a period of considering and testing several other portable reading platforms, I ended up exactly where I had originally planned when applying for a grant to fund eReaders for my young readers. After buying and trying the Nook, the result is we've become a Kindle-toting classroom.
     After the perfunctory introduction to all the little buttons and tasks a Kindle can perform, the students have settled into reading from them as they would any other print -albeit with a few positive wrinkles.

* We all have a voice: Kindles offer a voice-assisted reading program, which when activated  translates displayed text into audio. Several students make regular use of this feature and appear to enjoy it. Personally, I find the computer-assisted reading feature off-putting, but that's me.
* Swiss-knife eReading: Many students have been interacting well with their Kindles by making use of the ever-present dictionary. When they discover a word that confuses them during read, they can move a cursor to a spot just before the word and then glance to the bottom of the viewing window. There they will find a suggested word meaning in a slim pop-up window. This is one of the least intrusive ways I've seen for learning about challenging word and I like it a lot. The Kindle is like a Swiss-knife reading unit in this way because it has all you need, and more, packed into a portable package.

* Chocolate Sampler: The students have explored almost 25 books in only a few classes using their Kindles. The ability to download a sample for almost any new book has been awesome, because while my room is filled with books, which students can easily examine, I couldn't possibly fund bringing in all the latest books for review. The Kindle can and, unlike a laptop, presents all of this in one easy-to-survey glance. Students have poked their minds into many books samples to date such as Woods Runner by Gary Paulsen, Models Don't Eat Chocolate Cookies by Erin Dionne, and Sharks by Peter Benchley -none of which I have in my room in hard copy. Of these three titles, I've ordered the latter two because interest in them has been significant. Sadly, and maybe only for the moment, Paulsen's Woods Runner is not in demand. His book, apparently, is the butter creme of the bunch for this discerning group of readers.
* Making the Most Cents: Another powerful aspect of having Kindles has been the number of copies I have been able to bring into it with a simple click of a button. When I noticed the book Boost was a hit with students in other classrooms, I made that my first Kindle purchase. It cost 9.99, which seems fair, at first, and then quickly became a steal of a deal when I transferred 5 more copies of the book at no additional cost to four other Kindles. (Most ebooks allow for 5-10 copies to be used at a time from one an account.) So, the real math worked out to less that two bucks a book, which makes the most (sorry) cents to anyone running a classroom and promoting reading. I now have about half my students reading Boost and being in a position to share their reading experience. Thus, for 10 bucks I have 5 happy readers. Excellent stuff!

     It's not all been perfect in this early going. Because I have ebooks spread unequally across several Kindles and far more students than Kindles, I've had to track which person is reading from which Kindle. Then everyone has had to learn the art of recording a location number to find their place for when they return to their book a few days later. Also, while the American and Oxford dictionaries are excellent sources for finding definitions, many continue to be too difficult for the younger audience. I wish there was an intermediate version available for installation. I'd happily pay for those to be on each Kindle. Still, these are minor nuisances when compared to how well they're enjoyed in the classroom.

     Maybe your child has come home asking about one already? I will say that -if you can swing it financially- it worth buying one. And, there's a chance Kindles will drop to 99 dollars by the summer as that seems to be a good price point to sell even more. 

School Libraries: The Blockbuster of Today?

     To begin, I love libraries and book stores. Well, to be more specific, I love what's in them. When I tell my family that I'm going to stop in at Barnes & Nobles, Borders, or the library in town, they understand that this means several things at once:

• I'll be out of touch for at least two hours. (I don't own a cell phone and even if I did I wouldn't bring it with me.)
• If they want to tag along, they have to decide if they can handle the minimum two hour visit time as well as put up with my many single syllable responses to their queries. 
• I'm going to put a nifty little dent in the family bank account.
• More books will be have to be squeezed into already tightly-packed bookcases.

     The thing of it is, I'm beginning to wonder how much longer the brick and mortar homes of books can remain as they are. I'm wondering if I need to make those trips by car and foot to my mecca. Just consider the Blockbuster versus Netflix business models and you'll understand what I mean. 

     Netflix has mortally wounded Blockbuster with its mailbox DVDs and online streaming. We want what we want quicker, cheaper, and delivered directly to us. Going to a store or the library simply doesn't hit on all three of those needs. Thus is Netflix able to slay a company many thought would replace the theater business, which is actually being handled by today's home entertainment theaters. These dynamic changes have me musing about school libraries. 

     Our school libraries, if they were a business, are far closer to Blockbuster than Netflix, and this is worrisome. In a business like Blockbuster, movies are bought, delivered, repackaged, cataloged, and shelved for customers take home. You could substitute books for movies and students for customers and still be accurate about the school library model. In both instances, there is a of time and expense woven into the goal of having individuals come, peruse, and leave with products in hand. It's a centralized model, which has Blockbuster scrambling to be more like Netflix and it's push out ways.

     I wonder if the time hasn't come to work more on a push out model for our business...err...libraries. I'm not calling for an end to physical books, or even librarians, but any means. In fact, both remain indispensable to education.  No, what I am suggesting is recognizing the successful models of today, our customer wants, and mimicking them as best as we can. This means divvying library books into classroom sets and adopting eReaders as soon as possible. That's right. Don't put the books into one big room, put the books into all the little rooms where the students are. And, start transitioning to the medium most are using now, electronic delivery of information.

Consider  all of these statements:  

• Every generation, from this point on, carries more computing power in their mobile devices than NASA had when launching the first ships to the moon.
• Electronic books are cheaper than paper books.
• When given the choice between going to the library to check out a book or downloading it to a portable reading device, most will overwhelmingly chose the second option.
• Locating the right read is easier and quicker (even more enjoyable) using Amazon (or our Destiny Quest browser) than working your way through rows and stacks of books. (Okay, I'll admit. I do like the experience of discovering a book by randomly roaming up and down the aisles, but I believe I'm in the minority with this one.)
• The Kindle, Nook, and Sony eReader can hold thousands of electronic books either via purchase or free download from the thousands of books in the public domain. (Wait until Google enters the field!) A lot less physical space is necessary.
• At least one state, Utah, has adopted eReaders as the primary means by which textbooks and pleasure books will be put into student hands. Texas is also heading in the same direction. (The larger sized Kindle displays entire textbooks with perfect clarity and all the usual instant connections to links, videos, updated information, etc.)
• Items stacked next to store registers tend to sell quickly, the so-called impulse purchase. Books, when well displayed (covers showing, not spines) tend to be checked out most frequently. Put 50 books on display in every classroom and they'll start moving. 
• Most eReaders allow users to read the first chapters of new books for free. They also show users books most-like the ones being read or examined. 
• Student connections between subject matter (science, social studies, art, etc.) can be enhanced through the proper pairing of classrooms to teachers and students.

The push out concept is not a silver bullet. There are complications. Tracking books from classroom libraries is much more challenging and potentially onerous for teachers. Librarians must make more trips to classrooms to share books and swap new titles for older titles.  However, this is how major transitions tend to work. It's not without bumps. Netflix began with DVDs to mailboxes only, then limited streaming, and slowly is working toward complete streaming. 

     Librarians, take heed. While I'm confident, as a mere reading teacher, that I misunderstand much of how a library functions, I feel as confident that change is coming and should be embraced. So, for those working the stacks, I welcome any comments you may have.