I really liked this website, see a sample below. The newest THOUGHT PROVOKER has a quest of gathering suggestions on how a person can increase their speed in reading Braille. Have any ideas to share? (I don't believe there is ever too much good information out there concerning the reading of Braille.) If you have not read the PROVOKER, it follows. Recall that I collect responses and post them upon my web site for all the WWW to read and learn from and that URL is- Http://thoughtprovoker.info If you wish to receive THOUGHT PROVOKERS sent directly to you, just write me and ask, at- [EMAIL PROTECTED]
THOUGHT PROVOKER 127 Improving Reading Braille "How can I improve my Braille reading?" Mike asked. He was a new student for me, transferred from a former teacher; she had always bragged about this student's motivation. He was thirty, partially sighted and wanted a method of reading with less of a struggle and with more fluency. He had just told me that he had learned un-contracted Braille in three months and has been doing independent reading for another two. "I'm reading magazines and books, but it's so slow." "What speed are we talking?" I asked. My mind starting to develop a list of further questions; including a second list of things to try. However, I didn't want to go too far with that. First I knew I'd better see what his unique situation was before I expended too much energy coming up with strategies. "wee Well, I counted the words on the average page and took my time for reading the page and came up that I am at twenty-five words a minute." He explained, his frustration clear in his tone. "I'm enjoying it, but I need to read faster." "Okay. And you are right, there is a lot more speed and even more pleasure that I know you can get to," I said. Thinking we now needed to get into the mechanics of it all. "So to help me figure out what to suggest first, I have a series of questions for you. Beginning with how often do you read?" "At least an hour every day. That's at home and I have a magazine with me and read on the bus to and from work." "Very good. Next let's take a look at your technique. I need to see how you are going about reading," I said. I wanted to start with the basics and have him demonstrate exactly how he went about it. I didn't want to assume or misinterpret any part of it. Magazine on the table, he said, "I'm right handed, so I read with my right index finger. My left index finger is positioned at the beginning of the line. So when my right gets to the end of the line, my left drops down to the next line and my right comes back and matches up with the left and starts reading again." It was exactly like I had been first taught at the state school for the blind. And with what I now knew about reading Braille, that method was limiting. But before I jumped to any erroneous conclusions, I needed to know more. "Let me ask you this," I said, "do you have problems with any of your fingers, hands or wrists?" "No." "Okay, let's have you read so I can see your technique. And, with me being blind too, I'm going to lightly place my fingers on top of yours. It will make you a little self-conscious, but just try and do what you normally do." His right index finger began tracking, the movement was steady; he read aloud the first five words and on the fifth word he back-tracked in order to figure it out. Reaching the end of the line, his right finger dropped down and slid over to meet up with the left and he read on. "I rarely have to stop and scrub up and down on a cell any more, " he said. "I can see that if you relied on that method it would really slow you down. So I try to do what I used to do when I read with my eyes; flow smoothly left to right across the line." "Well, for the method you are presently using, I didn't see anything to suggest to improve it. Have you tried a different technique?" I asked. Still wanting to give him the benefit of the doubt in terms of what he may have been taught about reading Braille. "No, but how do other people read? How do they get their speed up?" "Well, there are definitely other techniques, methods of speed building and awareness's for you to learn about reading BRAILLE. Using just one finger, if you think about it, it's a mighty small window between you and the page. So what I am going to do is get you a document, in Braille, which is a compilation of other Braille readers and how they employ and use their fingers and what methods they suggest for increasing your speed and in general improving your reading and enjoyment of Braille." To unsubscribe send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in
