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Speed Reading Strategies

Page history last edited by Sandra Annette Rogers 9 years, 8 months ago

 

Week 1: Lesson 2: Strategies to Improve Your Reading Rate

 

Goals: Students will increase their reading rates by incorporating speed reading methods, identifying their reading obstacles, and setting and charting high goals of achievement.

Learning Outcomes: 1) The mid-term goal is to increase your current reading rate by 100 words per minute (WPM) in this class.  2) The end of course goal is to read 300 WPM with 85% accuracy to become an average adult reader or better.  3) The long-term goal is to read 450 WPM to become an average college student reader. Reading rate growth will vary according to each individual student’s abilities.  

 

 

I. Know your reading rate:  How fast you read is measured by words read per minute (WPM).  This is also known as your reading rate. There are technology tools to help us count the words online. For example, the following site counts the number of words in a passage, so you can simply cut-and-paste them here if you're reading online: http://www.wordcounttool.com/ . For paper documents, count the number of words in a line and then multiply that by the number of lines read.

 

ActivityUse this simple online test to determine your speed: http://www.readingsoft.com/. Note: This test is on non-academic content, so don't use it for your chart. It's just to practice reading quickly online. 

 

II.   Set high goals: Now that you have your initial WPM rate, set your goal for the end of program. Use the growth chart. Discuss it with a partner. Goal-setting is based on Edwin Locke's theory of goal attainment. Simply by stating your goals explicitly, you have a better chance of achieving them. Read more about Locke's goal for homework tonight. See link below in assigned readings. Goal-setting is also about reflection and guidance, so I will discuss your goals with you.

 

Activity. Use your speed-reading pretest and MRL diagnostic scores to fill in the blanks for your starting point. Write this on the back of your growth chart. Email the information to me next week.

  1. I will increase my knowledge of reading skills from _____% to _______%.
  2. I will increase my lexile level from ________ to _________.
  3. I will increase my reading rate from _____ to ___________ WPM by the end of the  program.
  4. I plan to make an _______ (letter grade) in the class with my overall average grade percentage of _________%.

 

III. Challenge yourself: Don't limit yourself to just doing the 1-minute tests.Time yourself reading a chapter of one of your textbooks. Challenge yourself to increase your reading rate for each chapter.  Then measure your rate after each subsequent chapter. This is called "alarm clock" readings. Read more about it in tonight's assigned reading.  You'll need to practice speed-reading in an authentic setting, so apply what you learn from this class on your other coursework.Your short-term goal should be to increase from your current individual rate by 100. Set your long-term goal for 450 WPM with 85% accuracy. By long-term, I'm referring to your college career as an undergraduate.

 

IV.  Be Informed:  What actually happens when you are speed-reading?  Skimming, meta-guiding, avoiding subvocalization are some of the terms used to describe speed reading strategies. Becoming aware of the processes in learning is called metacognition, the thinking about how you learn.  Meta means alongside, and cognition means the use of the brain to recognize things and information. In laymen's terms, it's called self-talk.  For example, when you realize your errant ways and have that inner conversation about the necessary actions to improve---that's self-talk!  

 

V. Practice:  Discuss these strategies with a partner: a) use a tool for meta-guiding- reading with an index card to push yourself down the page, b) read without subvocalizing the text, c) widen your eye span to read chunks of information, d) skim and scan for important information, e) use the Evelyn Wood visual-verticle skill of verticle sweeps of the eye and not linear ones (line by line), f) and don't reread  unnecessarily (regression); trust that you "got it" the first time.  (Of course, it's good to reread a passage that you didn't understand the first time and reread later for review for a comprehension test. Rereading highlighted information, etc, is a good review strategy.) Note: Evelyn Wood used the hand to sweep down the page instead of an index card for meta-guiding. You will find more information about her techniques in tonight's reading assignment. Try to start using at least one of these strategies to see if it quickens your reading rate. 

 

*Note. There's a difference in skimming and scanning. Skimming involves searching for the main ideas by reading the first and last paragraphs, noting other organizational cues (chronological, argumentative-pros and cons, explicit with main ideas or indirect with implied main ideas, etc.) In research papers, the abstract, introduction and conclusion provide a great summary of the study and findings. Also, researchers use the APA writing style that requires them to provide headings of main ideas, so make sure you read the headings. You should always skim before you read to "prime" your brain for the new information. On the other hand, scanning is for looking for particular information. It involves running your eyes down the page to look for key words or phrases. Use this strategy at test time or to do homework.

 

Activity: 

Use this online timer for WPM tests (or your mobile phones) to time one another: http://www.timeanddate.com/timer/. Observe your partner as they read. What do you notice?

Read this article online in PDF format. Then cut and paste the words read and use this tool to get the word count. Write this score down on your chart. Identify the score as WPM read online. 

Subvocalization: Aural and EMG Feedback in Reading (Aarons, 1971). 

 

VI. Understand your  obstacles: (Review information from Week 1.)

 




Homework Reading Assignments: IRAT/GRAT this Friday based on readings (linked information) and wiki pages for Week 1. 

 

 

 

  • Cornell University Learning Strategy Center article on "alarm clock" readings and reading rates for various types of texts: Rapid Reading. 

 

 

 

  • Demonstration video: Here Kris Madden explains the principles of speed reading, and gives you a few exercises to try. He claims you can increase from 150-250 words per minute to 500-1000 words per minute with a bit of practice taking your larynx out of the reading process.  What do you think?  Is this credible?

 

 

 

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