Elaine -- I agree with you completely. Excellent response to an important question. You describe so many of things we do with the children in our own reading program.
Timothy Rasinski, Ph.D. Reading and Writing Center 404 White Hall Kent State University Kent, OH 44242 email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: 330-672-0649 Cell: 330-962-6251 Fax: 330-672-2025 Informational website: www.timrasinski.com Professional Development DVD: http://www.roadtocomprehension.com/ -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of elaine garan Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2007 10:56 PM To: Mosaic: A Reading Comprehension Strategies Email Group Subject: Re: [MOSAIC] Repeated Readings for Fluency - Question for Elaine and Tim Elaine, I have a question about your statement below. I'm tutoring a little boy (LD, ADHD) who reads with fair fluency but absolutely no prosody. It's robot reading with no expression, no stopping for periods, commas, etc. Could that be having an effect on his comprehension (which is suffering when it comes to details and higher-level stuff such as inferring)? I'm thinking I read that somewhere, and it makes sense that without expression the story is just a list of words to be gotten through. He comprehends even worse on the sections he reads silently, so I'm thinking he's still "robot reading" in his head also. Heather, Ok-- first, that is not my statement. It is a quote from Stahl's synthesis of the NRP research. As to this child-- let's review. You have a child who is neither comprehending nor is he reading with expression. So, is it his lack of comprehension that's influencing his lack of prosody or vice versa or a little of both. I'll tell you a method I've used that's helped with both prosody and comprehension. Try alternating reading pages with him. You start, read the first page. Then have him pick it up on the next page and alternate but also include discussion and comprehension strategies so it's not just about the way it sounds. The book needs to be high interest and keep the anxiety level as low as possible. I've done this and I've had my university tutors do this with kids too and it's been fairly successful, more so than echo reading. I'm curious too about how he sounds when he speaks. Is he flat and atonal (some people are)-- and actually speak with little expression. I'm really troubled by his lack of use of punctuation. Does he use punctuation when he's writing? How was he taught before you got him? You can model reading a page without punctuation and then again with punctuation so that he sees the purpose of it. I also don't let kids skip punctuation and stop them then and there and have them reread. I don't know if that's wrong or right, but it seems to work. I can't stand the thought of reinforcing a really dangerous habit in skipping punctuation. What I used to do but have abandoned was echo reading and having the child continually reread the same passage. It just got so rote and to me that rote approach seemed to carry over into other reading and we had a different sort of robotic performance. I wonder too if he's been taught to focus on speed, maybe to practice on word lists -- or sentence lists-- and his previous teacher didn't connect comprehension and .prosody? maybe he doesn't get that reading is about making sense and can actually be enjoyable? It seems that readers theater might help him see an authentic reason for using expression? You know, as Tim has suggested-- how about poetry, maybe even poems he's written by himself? We did this with a child in our clinic and it worked for that child at that moment in time anyway. Poetry is really more forgiving than other genres and if it's his own poem, then the emotion may inspire some expression. I've found poems work, but you might try to get him to read his own writing in other genres. In In the Middle, Nancie Atwell started Jeff, her reading/writing challenge with poetry. You could also ry riddles, jokes-- whatever tickles his fancy and intrigues him until you can move him into more complex, meaningful reading of text. Or if he's reluctant to read his own writing----- maybe have him write, and YOU read it asking for his advice about how to best express his intent-- that way, you can work in prosody, meaning and ta-dah punctuation. I've found that it is less intimidating to read or have another student read someone's work than to have the student read it himself. Then, in time, move the control and the reading to the students. This works with university students too! What do the rest of you think? I believe to really come up with possible suggestions, we need to know 1) how he speaks-- if he's flat and expressionless in oral language, 2) how he writes (if he uses punctuation in his writing-- if he does, good. You can then use that as a wedge/entree into using it in his reading. If not, then we need to get him to understand why punctuation is more than just something there to complain about when it's skipped, perhaps by using his own writing to demonstrate the importance of punctuation 3) does he understand that reading is about meaning? If not, you need to start there, perhaps by using his own writing. One other consideration. Is the text the right level? For practicing fluency, I think it's better to use a an easy text and then gradually move up. But whatever is done, comprehension needs to be front and center and he needs to see a purpose for the prosody and using punctuation. When we have a child like this in clinic, I literally stay awake at night pondering the options and thinking of books to hook him with. Tim-- what do you think? Would you agree with the questions and possible approaches? Now this is going to be haunting me. Elaine _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive. _______________________________________________ Mosaic mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe or modify your membership please go to http://literacyworkshop.org/mailman/options/mosaic_literacyworkshop.org. Search the MOSAIC archives at http://snipurl.com/MosaicArchive.
