How do you know what kinds of reading exercises are the most effective?

Question

rote memorization, choral reading, entertainment, VARK

Answer 1

It really depends on the student and what type of reading skill(s) you are trying to improve. There is vocabulary, words in context, grammar and more. For reading comprehension in general across most age groups, one skill that you can start mastering right away, is paraphrasing. If the student is able to put the: sentence, passage, or story into their own words, in a way that accurately reflects the text.... clearly the comprehension is there and half the battle is done at a bare minimum.

"Paraphrasing"

That is one quick tip you can use in the future that should be easy to remember! There are many other great

strategies for mastering reading and writing at different levels. Feel free to reach out!

Answer 2

The most effective reading exercises are the ones that help you really understand what you are reading, not just repeat words. Rote memorization is mostly about saying things over and over without always knowing what they mean, and choral reading is practicing out loud together but it does not always build deep understanding. Entertainment can make reading fun, but it may not always teach strong skills. VARK is the most effective because it uses different ways of learning, like seeing, hearing, writing, and doing, which helps people fully understand and remember what they read.

Answer 3

How do you know what kinds of reading exercises are the most effective?

A good tutor knows what to do because he/she knows the student, has evaluated the student’s skills accurately & has multiple options for teaching skills that need more expertise. This is straightforward & relatively simple.

The key is being able to assess the student - background, interests, reading skills (decoding, vocabulary, comprehension), fears about learning. If the tutor is well-trained & has a potpourri if techniques & can apply them, all will go well.

Look for an experienced, well-trained tutor who can truly enjoy working with your child.

Answer 4

Excellent question! I think it depends on the student-particularly their needs and what their reading goal(s) are. The first step would be identifying the reader's deficits in order to know which area or areas to work on. From there, we would be able to set reading goals that are both realistic and attainable within a set timeframe. The reading exercises would need to be identified based upon the set reading goals. The most effective reading exercises target the student’s deficits such as phonemic awareness, decoding, fluency, vocabulary, and/or comprehension.

Answer 5

There's already some good answers here in terms of "it depends on the student," which is absolutely true. Depending on reading levels and other learning factors, different methods will help different students. For example, choral reading/reading out loud will help learners who thrive with audio-visual contexts by connecting spoken words with their written counterparts. Likewise, rote memorization may help students who are struggling with vocabulary, and of course "hands-on" kinesthetic learners or students who struggle with focus, such as those with ADHD, may benefit from note-taking. And as mentioned by Ryan C., when working with comprehension, asking students to paraphrase often gets you an idea of what they might not be picking up.

However, another factor not mentioned yet is purpose. What does the student need to accomplish from the reading activity? For example, are they reading for information? If they need to get specific data, working on strategies like skimming and scanning would be far more beneficial than say choral reading. Is the student struggling to be motivated to read? Then low stakes reading for entertainment activities or finding topics of interest to work on other strategies could help open the door to other kinds of reading.

Another situation to consider: if a student does well with phonics-based reading but is a very slow reader, even if they aren't mouthing words, it could be because of things like prevocalization. Do you see their neck muscles moving? If so, it might be time to look at strategies for whole-word, whole-phrase, and whole-line reading activities, where words or phrases or the like are flashed only for a moment, maybe first with images and then without them, to help them recognize the collection of letters with the meaning rather than the sounds.

There are so many strategies for reading, and identifying which is going to be the most useful for a given learner and context is one of the most challenging parts of teaching because it requires listening to your learners and also paying attention to why they are struggling with a certain situation. Is it because they are reading too slowly? Too quickly? Too casually? Different reading contexts require different tools, so it's important to provide learners with all of them in the appropriate contexts.

Answer 6

In my experience, it depends on the student's level of comprehension AND the material they are reading.

A 5th-12th grader reading a chapter book, I will have them complete a SOAPStone page. Higher grade levels may also benefit from making Cornell reading notes.

Breaking the reading down into sections is much easier for readers (especially the younger ones). Taking the chapter by each paragraph and writing a short 1-2 sentence summary can help guide readers through what is taking place in the reading.

I also find that some readers do better with highlighting and underlining the paragraphs. Main ideas, places, characters, etc. Making note of these things helps them learn to better comprehend what the author's intentions are with the piece.

As far as more advanced readers, harder pieces of work (such as my personal favorite War and Peace), research papers, poetry, etc, readers often have better comprehension when they understand the work itself. If they understand that an ode is to highlight something that is liked by the writer, then they can know that everything stated is positive. If they understand that a work like War and Peace is a historical fiction based on non-fiction events, then they can know that it may refer to things and people that were real. Yet, things like conversations and emotions may not be exactly what they were, and are only used to deliver the narration of the events themselves.

As far as actual exercises, again, each student and each reading level is different. I find it's best to break the reading down, take notes while they read, and then review notes and write a summary at the end of the reading. Discussions and asking questions about the reading are also helpful to ensure comprehension.

For little ones who are learning to read, I find it is best to read with them. Sometimes, having them read the page after you have read it to them, eventually working up to having them read to you, and only helping them with certain words. Over time, teaching them about inflection in conversations. Which can be difficult to discern when first learning. This helps strengthen their reading analysis skills.

Overall, -as I digress- it depends on the students, their abilities, and the material they are reading. Yet, I find that everyone benefits from chunk reading and taking notes.

Answer 7

In the 1940s to 1960s teacher taught by rote memorization. Every letter painfully had to be taught, a long list of letter represent a boring and useless exercise in teaching reading. I was the dumb kid because Mom spoke no English and sounded ignorant, for she did not have the sight words yet memorized. She sounded mentally challenged. We students laughed and said mean things about immigrants; we mocked greenies, and we wanted to write racist sign. We were saved by songs, coloring artwork, dancing, and games. I loved music and I learned to adapt, creating sounds, patterns, and synthetic phonetics with props. We found friends why?

We dated, broke up and ignored the pain; knowledge is empty and ---stupid if you a a rain forest; students are social animals and need to adapt.