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How to teach your students to read at 600 words per minute – Part 4
The fourth and final installment in this series describes a methodology for increasing reading speed.
Let the student drive
It is important to let your student be the person interacting with the device during practice sessions. The ability to control when speech starts and stops will empower your student to stay engaged with the exercise.
Focus exclusively on auditory skills
While your student is actively learning to increase their reading speed it is important to only allow them to use their hearing when practicing that skill. After they’ve achieved their maximum auditory reading speed, it is perfectly acceptable for them to use residual vision to read certain types of content that are highly visual such as equations or images. However, while learning to increase their auditory reading speed residual vision will only distract your student from fully engaging with the auditory mode of perception.
How do you make sure your student is only using their hearing during practice sessions? If they are using VoiceOver on an iOS device, turn on the screen curtain. If they are using a desktop computer with a standalone display, power off the display. Another option is to physically block the student’s line of sight by covering the screen.
View auditory reading as a physical skill
The methods we use to increase reading speed are similar to the methods that are used by athletes and performing artists. That’s because auditory reading is more a physical skill than a rational skill. In other words, do not think about auditory reading as a logic problem or a computational problem.
Increasing auditory reading speed is similar to:
- Learning to ride a bicycle.
- Learning to dance.
- Learning to play the piano.
- Building muscle strength through weight training.
- Decreasing the time required to run a mile.
- Learning a kata in Karate.
Regular practice
Learning any skill requires regular practice over an extended period of time. I suggest that your student deliberately practice improving their reading speed for about 15 minutes at least three times per week. In addition, your student should be using a comfortable speed to read for work or pleasure on a daily basis. That daily reading speed should be increased gradually over time.
Use interval training methods
Athletes use interval training methods to increase their speed and endurance. The methodology of interval training is variation in the intensity of effort during training. For example, rather than running five miles at a constant speed, an interval workout breaks the five miles into intervals and requires the runner to vary their speed throughout the workout. The variation may range from a full sprint all the way down to walking. The variation of intensity provokes the physiological changes that enable the runner to run faster for longer periods of time.
Your student can also use interval training to increase their reading speed and endurance. Here’s a sample workout:
- Select a paragraph that contains 5-10 sentences of medium length and copy the paragraph into a separate document.
- Read the paragraph at the student’s normal speed.
- Increase the speed by one unit (whatever that may be in the tool being used) and read the same paragraph again.
- Pause for 10-20 seconds of silence.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 until the speech is completely unintelligible or the speed of the tool is maximized.
- Now, reduce the speed by one unit and read the same paragraph again.
- Pause for 10-20 seconds of silence.
- Repeat steps 6 and 7 until the speed is one unit above where it was at the beginning of this exercise.
After performing this exercise, your student should be able to use the new slightly elevated speed to read an entire piece of content (typically 500-1,000 words). The exposure to the higher speeds changes her perception of the new slightly elevated speed. This is a short-term effect. However, performing this exercise several times per week will provoke the physiological changes required to permanently increase their daily auditory reading speed over a period of months.
Use repetition with the same content
I think reusing content in multiple practice sessions is helpful. If nothing else, it will help your student feel comfortable with the content simply because they have heard it before. However, it is also important to introduce new content on a regular basis. So, find a happy medium between new and existing content during practice sessions.
Use games to improve attention
Your student needs to learn how to focus their attention on the words being read over an extended period of time. Obviously, you could just tell the student to focus their attention, but that is like telling an athlete to run faster … it’s easier said than done. So, create little games or challenges that require the student to focus their attention. For example, challenge the student to knock on the desk at the end of every sentence. Or, challenge the student to count the number of times a particular word appears in a passage.
Keep a log
Make sure you record every practice session. Include a description of the content that was used, details of the exercises such as the speeds used during the session, and observations of your students behavior during the session. Use the log to demonstrate progress and motivate your student.
Final thoughts
I lost the ability to read print visually in 2002. That’s when I began to deliberately increase my auditory reading speed using the methods described above. As my auditory reading speed increased, strange things began to happen. For example, at the end of a presentation or performance I started to clap before everyone else in the audience. Or, when a presenter said something funny I was the first person in the audience to laugh.
At first, these changes startled me and rattled my self-confidence. These behaviors were completely contrary to the tactics I used to blend into the crowd as a person with low vision. However, over time I figured out that the deliberate effort to increase my reading speed had positive side effects. I started walking faster, talking faster, thinking faster, and responding to stimuli faster.
In short, I was “switched on”. That’s my term for blind people, or all people for that matter, who figure out how to overcome perceptual barriers and operate their brain at its full capacity. That’s my goal for your students. I want them to be switched on. I hope this series helps them do it.
600 Words Per Minute Series
- Five reasons why your students should learn to read at a rate of 600 words per minute
- How to teach your student to read at 60 words per minute: Part 1
- How to teach your students to read at 600 words per minute – Part 2
- How to teach your students to read at 600 words per minute – Part 3
By Ed Summers
