Actual Use by Teachers
Actual Use by Teachers
Complete Report with lesson Plan And charts of results: Use OF PROGRAM over Internet by Peace Corps Teacher in Albania. No purchase of software or hardware was required. These Students can Continue Development on their own, anywhere in the world, also for free.
June 1, 2009
Dear University TEFL PCVs and PC Staff,
This semester all of the 2nd year English students did a 3-class segment on reading improvement in my course on computer skills for teachers.
Results
We collected complete before and after reading speed test data for 47 students. 35 students (74%) improved their speed from 6 to over 100%. 6 students (13%)stayed the same; they had 5% or less change in speed plus or minus. And 6 students (13%) decreased their reading speed. The average before speed was 218 words per minute (wpm). The average after speed was 268 wpm. The improvement in the average reading speed was 22%.
Interpretation
The entry level reading speed for university first year students in the United States is about 300-350 wpm. Below this reading speed you can not possibly keep up with the work. Our students are reading far below this minimum level. It is necessary for our students to learn to read faster if they are to do their assignments. And reading faster is critical for our students who wish to go on to graduate school and become professionals. The goal is to read at 400 words per minute or higher with excellent comprehension.
Application
If the students practice by themselves the new reading techniques which they have just been taught for a few hours this summer on the internet, they should improve their reading speed dramatically.
I suggest that a short reading improvement segment like this become a permanent part of the curriculum in the English department at our universities. All of the materials may be found for free on the internet at www.helpmyreading.com. Alternatively, students can be told to do the whole course on their own on the internet.
Lesson Plan
Here is my 3-class reading improvement lesson plan. Four class hours would have been better. Do not do this reading improvement instruction with the same students in both hours of two back to back classes. Do something else the second hour. This lesson plan follows the course outline in the article "Client Instruction" on the web site.
Day 1
1.Introduce reading improvement segment. Read results and interpretation paragraphs above.
2.Do before reading speed tests.
3.Look at the movies on overcoming subvocalization in “New Skills”. All students watch one computer and listen to narration with speakers.
4.Read together and discuss 18 Bad Reading Habits. Check which apply.
Day 2
1.Read and discuss together the article on Basic Comprehension Skills.
2.Tell students that they have to push themselves to grow. Say: "Try to read at a faster speed than is comfortable for you. In a few minutes you will get used to it."
3.Students each go to the website www.helpmyreading.com and watch the 7 movies on silent reading in order from speed 1-7.
4.After they watch each movie students write down their reaction to it. Collect papers.
5.Discuss what to do to avoid falling asleep when you read. See article.
Day 3
1.Remind students to push themselves.
2.Discuss two main techniques for reading faster.
3.Look at the two movies on high speed voice and text. (Moby Dick)
4.Do after reading speed tests.
5.Discuss relaxed reading ergonomics.
6.Show students the 16 movie article on transferring their new reading skills to regular texts. Urge them to do this on their own. (in a 4 day course, this would be day 4)
7.Show students how to find out how many words they have read in one minute. (Just select text you have read in Word and read total number of words selected on bottom left of screen.)
8.Show students individually how much they have improved in just 3 hours.
9.Remind students to go to the www.helpmyreading.com web site and practice on their own to improve more.
Before teaching the course teachers should thoroughly explore on their own all sections of the www.helpmyreading.com web site.
Data and Graph
The data set for this experiment, the column chart of speed improvement, and the pie chart of bad reading habits self-assessed by the students are attached. Also attached are the before and after reading samples on Clara Barton and Eleanor Cressy.
Best regards,
Frank H. Adams
Charts and Data:
Computer Skills For #655400.xls
Go To Our Free Training Manual on how to set up your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac (laptop or desktop), or PC to read text with adjustable-speed, computer-voice and text. This manual is ideal for self-instruction. Learn More.