What is your pupil’s rate of reading?
What can you offer to your pupil for his comfort today, tomorrow, and a day after tomorrow?
What steps do you attempt for his health, his study?
And moreover, don’t lose his (and yours) time for the preparing to the lessons?
To read faster in 2 – 3 – 4 times? Yes, with pleasure! And understanding, remembering, and keeping the information after reading?
The situation at the chemistry (physics, history) lesson. Two minutes for you to read the part of the paragraphs after that to do the task. Slow – reading pupil doesn’t make the task because he had no chance to read it completely and not because of misunderstanding the material. The rate of the mental processes and the habit of re - reading don’t allow to understand it. In addition of that, he goes down in the information because he understands the essential and additional information as the one. The low mark in this case is becoming the fact that the brain doesn’t learn to work in this regime.
Reading aloud. From 180 till 220 words in a minute – that is a temp by which the articulation is adopted. The speech isn’t monotonic, logic stresses, the tonal formation allows the listeners not only to listen, but else to understand, what is speaking about. We can speak about better understanding of the text by the pupils, because it is better to use the information not only on the level of the sum lexical meanings of the words, but on the level of the thinking. The understanding of the text is getting worse when the rate of reading is over 120 words.
A great majority of pupils of the compulsory schools are reading lower “Approximate speed characteristics of learning and cognition processes”, and the temp influenced at the progress faster, than all the other factors together.
Low – reading pupils don’t form the knowledge by the majority of school subjects. Do you agree, that the rate of reading 45 – 60 – 80 – 100 words in a minute for the pupil don’t allow to do the home task, but also to read the home texts by the subjects only once. The level of understanding depends from the rate of reading, that’s why for the low – reading pupil it is necessary to read the text twice or even three times.
The system of tutoring, that blossom with the great colors in our schools even takes the situation worse. What’s a necessity for the pupil to work during the lesson, if the teacher after it will teach this unworkable pupil one more time (because pupil’s parent pays big money for the teacher for his repetition). There is no skills – no mental working capacity. And no development of memory and consideration, the thinking doesn’t develop too. The tutoring can be justified only in one case – the pupil had missed the lesson because of the legitimate reason, and it is necessary to work his missing themes. And that’s all.
The lower of progress is showed at the 5th form. At the 4th form up to 70% of pupils have good marks, but at the 5th form their number is fallen down. The great majority of them have unsatisfactory marks.
Most of the pupils think that it is impossible to study well. At the 5th form some of them finish to do home tasks, they think that only written tasks are obligatory. But sometimes the situation changed. Speaking with the parents: a pupil has only excellent marks, but…
At the Speed – reading school the specific of work with the students is formation of the skills and knowledge according to the school subjects. For example, the verbal intellect contains the tasks on the understanding of the words and meanings, and their interrelation.
Obligatory work on the activation of the lexicon, and that is paronyms, and synonyms, and antonyms, and homonyms. Renewal the memory’s bloc contains the knowledge of the rivers, countries, cities, capitals, dates and etc.
Tasks on the developing arithmetic – practical thinking, logics make a trouble for the children, because they don’t know what is the algorithm of process this or that tasks.
Analytical reading is supposed that the pupils know about the structure of the text, plot, composition, the ways of thought’s composition, dominants and thesis). It is difficult to “take something out” from the blank head; it is necessary to work with school theme also.
Aim of the additional education is not only to teach reading, not only to increase the temp of reading, but also to teach the children to adopt the information for the first presentation, to develop all kinds of memory, to activate all mental processes.
The teachers cannot achieve the necessary results, learning at least 30 pupils. That’s why teachers must explain to the parents about additional education.
“What is the rate of reading that the pupils must have, finishing the elementary school?”
“What is the temp for the class and home tasks?”
These are the most popular questions that parents ask. Look one more time at the “Approximate speed characteristics of learning and cognition processes”.
Class 1987 aloud words/minute 1987 silently w/m 2008 aloud w/m 2008 silently w/m
reception class 30 - 50 --- 30 - 50 ---
1 80 - 90 --- 80 - 90 ---
2 90 - 100 100 - 110 90 - 100 100 - 110
3 100 - 110 110 - 120 100 - 110 110 - 120
4 110 - 120 130 - 140 110 - 120 140 - 160
5 120 - 130 180 - 220 130 180 - 220
6 130 - 140 230 - 250 140 250 - 280
7 140 250 - 270 150 280 - 300
8 150 270 - 280 160 300 - 340
9 160 280 - 290 170 340 - 400
10 170 - 180 290 - 300 180 - 200 400 - 440
11 180 - 220 310 - 330 200 - 220 440 - 480
The first part of the table – is normative document. Was it recalled? Was the volume of information by the school subjects cut rapidly? No, it increased many times. Now, why do the norms are taking the correction at many schools? The answer is on the surface. Not to show to the parents and the society that school is not able to teach reading. If a pupil will read 80 words in a minute after finishing the elementary school, doing home task will take about four hours at the 5th form.
But the lesson is not stretched, and the teacher is not able to give the whole material, and it will be given for doing at home. (The second part of the table – the counting, that was made at the Speed – reading school, based on the ordinary school’s material).
My experience based on the work with the upper – pupils showed that they are sitting long hours at the books. And that is not good. The scientists said that for the best keeping of the information it is necessary to sleep at least
6 – 8 hours a day. The brain sorted, grouped, classified and archive the information nearly at that time. That is the warranty of that we can take it out.
The aims:
1. to get faster the mental processes;
2. to teach the brain systemize, classify, and to group the information;
3. to think briefly, to give the strict and logic answers;
4. on the lexicology level;
5. on the level of thinking, using his own words;
6. if the question is asking the answer on the level of fact, the answer must be: a word, a date, geographical name, surname and etc.
The rate of mental processes, the operation of thinking and the ability to reproduce the information increases.
The continuance of the course – 6 months;
The regime of classes – 3 times a week, 2 x 45 minutes
