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I can relate to the confusion of fast and fluent reading. I can remember when 'fast' reading begin to become a daily habit. When I was in fourth grade my teacher assigned me an unrealistic goal for Accelerated Reader. Instead of taking my time and absorbing the material in the book I would speed read and take test after test to achieve my goal. I did not do well on the tests but if I took enough I could get my points. This became a pattern throughout the rest of elementary school and into middle school. I knew that I could just get by if I crammed in my readings. My teachers thought I was a fluent reader but I was really just skimming through the lines really fast.
This problem became apparent when I entered high school. I was placed in honors English and we immediately hit the books. I did my readings every night but this did not show on my quizzes and tests. I became extremely frustrated because I did not know why I was struggling on the tests. I became lost in the material and overwhelmed. I finally talked to my teacher and she showed me a few techniques to help me comprehend the material. The techniques required me to slow down, a lot. I noticed an immediate change and actually understood what I was reading. I had became programmed to read as fast as I could and I did not realize this was a problem until high school. Thank goodness I had an excellent teacher who was prepared to help with fluency although we were in high school.
Questions
- Were you tested on how fast you could read as a young student?
- How do you think this could affect students in the future?
I can definitely relate to reading AR books quickly just to get the points! I did that a lot during elementary school too. I was never tested on how fast I could read, nor do I remember ever hearing about it until the last couple of years. I think it could affect students by making them more interested in reading fast and accurately instead of comprehending the material. Fluency (rate and accuracy) has its purpose, but comprehension must not be ignored!
ReplyDeleteI agree with you. I think we are tested on how fast we read at a young age, and we are trained to continue to read that way. Like you said, I lost a lot of the understanding of assigned materials in school because of this. In high school, I had to pace myself so that I could better understand the material. I think if we continue to teach students this way, they will lose understanding and comprehension.
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