Teaching Reading

            Teaching reading should be done in an almost quiet, supportive atmosphere. Research has shown that soft music in the background is conducive to relaxation during the learning process. The mind can read text at infinitely faster speeds than the mouth can verbalize them. This process should take about 30 minutes.  Once you have taught this process to your students they will develop a love of reading and not just see it as a ‘chore’ that they make you do at school.

            Play some music, preferably classic or at least instrumental in the class room as you begin teaching.  There are professionally recorded CDs available with Baroque instrumentals which can assist in focusing and providing student attention. Begin the lesson by writing the first line of the text to be read on the board, and ask random students to read the line. Depending ion the aptitude of each student they will read at different skill and speed. Many students will read each word individually, your aim is to have them view ahead of where they are reading.

            Next cover all of the words except 3 at a time and have the students read these until they can see the words and know them at a glance. Have them practice this in pairs until they are confident with the passage. Next expand this to showing 6 words at a time and repeat the process. The aim is to get students to multi-task by looking ahead of the word they are saying and therefore the words are already in mind before the need to verbalize them comes in turn.

Remember as you teach to always be positive about the student’s progress, an ounce of encouragement brings a pound of performance. There are reading machines available which can cover words as they are read, thus increasing speed. These machines can be set to increased or decreased speeds depending on the level of student ability.