Speed and Reading Comprehension

Will learning and practicing speedreading techniques in the classroom enable students to read faster with greater comprehension and enhance their enjoyment of reading?

Dina Mac

Statement of Problem: Students in the Project Opportunity classroom want to get on with their lives. They are highly motivated women who are separated from moving on by not being able to pass their GED. There are three major drawbacks: math skills, writing skills, and reading skills. This project addresses the reading skills component. The majority of students are reading at a sixth or seventh grade reading level. Some are lower. They don't like reading as a leisure activity; they don't read much. How could they increase their comprehension? The three to four hours a week spent on reading skills was not enough to help them read better. From the beginning of the year I had consciously decided to give the half hour usually spent journaling all other years to silent reading. I had made sure I had a good shelf stocked with fiction and biography, the favorite choices. From 11:30 to 12:00 three days a week was our quiet reading time. Books were read and shared and passed from one to another. Push and Girl were two big pleasers. I had to buy extra copies.

Background: On my own I started a self-taught speedreading course to increase my own rate. The students noticed that something was different in January. I was holding the book differently, I was reading faster, I was using my hand. I shared what I was doing with my students. They kept wanting to hear more. They wanted to see some of the techniques I was practicing and they even tested me on a story I had never read before. They were excited about something. I asked if they wanted to try it. The response was overwhelming. Without consciously planning it, I had backed into the oldest teaching strategy in the world: create the need, have students demand to be taught. It was wonderful!

Context: My class at the time were a group of 22 women ranging in age from 18 to 45. They were all AFDC single moms who had anywhere from 1-7 children. Some were already grandmothers. Reading as a leisure activity was familiar to only three of the women. Two read the newspaper daily. Five had subscriptions to magazines. It had only been since the beginning of the school year that the women had begun reading books on their own. Most had read books before but as part of a classroom activity. The class is a Project Opportunity class. The goal is for the students to be working at the end of the year. The students want their GED. Some want to go onto college or Training programs. Dorcas Place is an adult literacy center that has four different levels established based on reading skills. The Project Opportunity class has the highest scores, but some of my students had been at Dorcas Place for over 6 years. Some of my students have learning disabilities but have learned coping strategies.

Inquiry Question: Will learning and practicing speedreading techniques in the classroom enable students to read faster with greater comprehension and enhance their enjoyment of reading?

Method: Initial speed reading tests were taken in both fiction and non-fiction. Students' scores were abysmal. I realized at that point that I had not made a good estimate of how much I should have expected their speed to increase. Instead of just doubling, I was hoping that all students would triple their speed. Their goals reflected my own hopes for them. Comprehension tests were scored. There were no surprises there, except for one of my better readers ( an independent reader) who only scored a 40. I had planned to do a pre and post test survey, but due to my own time constraints was not able to do it. We talked about how we learned to read. Students used examples from their lives and from how their children are learning to read. We all realized that we were never taught beyond the vocalization stage. See and say. So now as adults even though we have potentially thousands of words in our sight vocabulary, we are subvocalizing them. The following techniques were used. Most can be found in the books listed in the bibliography.

1. We started by training our eyes to see without actually looking at something. For example, just look at the middle number in the series below, but be able to write or say all the number. 5 4 9 9 0 2 8 2 7 3 9 4 (See Appendix #1) Students were spotters. They watched your eyes while you went through the list of numbers to make sure that your eyes didn't move. Then we increased the list to five numbers.

2. On a variation on that theme, I used words that I knew were familiar to all the students and had them practice just looking at the middle one, yet being able to say them all.

cat dog house town child ran blue barn horse the map red (See Appendix #2)

3. The next practice was clustering three words together and putting a black dot in among them. The reader is asked to focus on the black dot. This helps students realize that they really don't have to read (subvocalize) each word for it to register in the brain. (See Appendix #3)

4. Now what we spent the major part of the time doing was using the hand technique to guide the eye and practice speedreading. I asked the students to pick young adult novels that I have in the classroom. I knew these would be easier for them than the adult novels. I asked them to open to any new chapter and put a clip there. We practiced how to move our hands and turn the pages. I gave them two minutes to read for comprehension but faster than they had ever read before and to use the hand technique. At the end of two minutes they put a clip.

Then on a sheet of scrap paper they drew a diagonal line from the upper right hand corner to the bottom left. They wrote down themes/ideas from the story they had read. This took a while to practice this technique, but some caught on right away and helped the others.

Next we went back to the original clip, but now they had to read all that in one minute. They had to get to the second clip. They could go on if they finished before the time. After reading they had to add to their outline any new information they had gathered.

Then they had to read the very same section again but this time in only half a minute.

We practiced on some non-fiction material, but we mostly practiced on fiction.

Results: The results were astounding, overwhelming, mindblowing!!! (See Speed Reading Scores) They surpassed my wildest dreams, and I'm sure the goals and hopes of the students. The only bad news is that the students didn't even get to see the overall picture of their improvement. Below is the letter that I've sent to students to share the good news with them. Of the original 22 students, only 10 had all four pieces needed: initial and ending fiction speed and comprehension scores, and initial and ending non-fiction speed and comprehension scores.

Average for initial non-fiction speed 21 wpm Average for ending non-fiction speed 184 wpm

Average for initial fiction speed 55 wpm Average for ending fiction speed 390 wpm

Comprehension scores didn't show this tremendous increase. The five weeks that I actively worked on this project were not sufficient time to show any major gains. But the good news was that while the increase in comprehension scores was minimal, they did not lose comprehension even though their reading was so much faster at the end.

Average for initial non-fiction comprehension 62% Average for ending non-fiction comprehension 66%

Average for initial fiction comprehension 83% Average for ending fiction comprehension 88%

Comments: This was a very worthwhile project. I wish that I had had more time to give it. Inquiry projects should begin no later than October and finish in May. Then by the time we all get together in June, all reports will be done. You can't depend on good attendance in June. Your project suffers unless it is already wrapped up. I hope that someone does this project next year for the whole year. Then I would expect to see significant jumps in comprehension.


student letter

June 24, 1997

Dear Michelle,

Because of all the craziness at the end of the year, I never got to show you the results of the speed reading project. Your beginning speed on non-fiction was 24 wpm and your ending speed was 186 wpm. That's an 775% increase. Your beginning speed on fiction was 57 and your ending was 436. That's a 765% increase. Congratulations!

Your comprehension also showed some increase, but you know that comprehension does take a little longer to improve. Your beginning score for non-fiction was 60% while your ending score was 60%. Your beginning score in fiction was 90%, and your ending score was also100%.

I hope that you continue to practice your speed reading techniques. You must practice them to increase your speed and comprehension.

Sincerely,

Dina Mac


Bibliography

Berg, Howard Stephen, Super Reading Secrets, Warner Books, Inc., NY, NY, 1992

Buzan, Tony, Speed Reading, Plume, Penguin Books USA Inc., NY, NY, 1991

Cutler, Wade E., Triple Your Reading Speed, An Arco Book, Macmillan Inc., NY, NY, 1993

Moidel, Steve., Speedreading

Schaffzin, Nicholas Reid, The Princeton Review Reading Smart, Villard Books, NY, NY, 1994

Wenick, Lillian P., Speed Reading Naturally, Second Edition, Prentice Hall, NJ, 1990

* Note: There is an audio book that I used which got moved to Florida. I will send you the bibliography note.


Appendix 1

    4

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    8

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Appendix 2

cat house this
moon light far
today we that
work dog child
hope pencil food
only love map
when window pen
clock disk clothes
word minute circle
ruler border bold
tomorrow pad paint
money car number
bus room ticket
stove bed side
dress sink broom
test arrow door
over key tire
finger hair star


Speed Reading Scores: All numbers are words per minute

STUDENT Beginning NF Ending NF Beginning F Ending F
Elsa G. 22 170 50 300
Shawna Y. 21 180 57 532
Judy B. 22 125 54 200
Chantell P. 21 130 47 333
Betsy B. 30 200 60 832
Rosa L. 27 190 49 444
Rose A. 30 147 57 391
Jennie C. 22 140 45 391

    Janet R.

21 174 73 436
Michelle M. 24 186 57 436


Appendices under construction