I have children in school and a couple of teachers are giving them a hard time. Apparently the subject of a couple weeks worth of class was how to speed read and how to study. Very good tips Id agree. For the speed reading they talk about using your finger or a index card. So now my children are in trouble because they are "faking" using the skills. I've been put in the position now that I've had to not only defend my children and tell teacher that they read fine so drop it but also had to defend my own reading and been called a lier. So I've been doing tons of research to try to understand this issue.
My reading speed I generally don't measure in words. I measure pages. I read a typical paperback in about 3 hours. About 2 pages a minute. word count of course varies widely but you could guess around 750 for 2 pages a minute?? My position with the teachers is that it's practice and it's possible and as long as the kids are using the card who cares if they are really "using" the card?? For me practice started when I was only a small child. I read 5th grade lvl books in kindergarten and in 5th grade read college books. Currently I read about 300 books a year. 0-3 per day no matter what. This is what I spend my money on. I use a nook and I go through 2-3 e-readers a year.
To me this isn't speed reading. This is my normal speed when consuming fiction. I feel like reading a book is as awesome as going to the movies. Stories are very vivid to me and I see colors and imagine faces. I have a husband who can't read. He's tried but not very consistently. He's finished books but they take him a month or so per. He says he has to have patience to have fun reading a book. He is definitely more of a sound based learner. I often read manuals etc out-loud to him.
Now back to the kids. 9 and 12 and they read an hour in the morning with me and we usually read an hour before bed to calm down. They often read alot of the same books I do and they often read on weekends compensating for school hours they read the same amount I do in summer months. One of the best things I think about my relationship with the kids and my husband is that we often talk about the stories in the books. The kids can very well recite the story arc the same way I can and me and my husband try to make them understand how it can apply to them. How if you are so happy the villain gets whats coming to them then you need to be sure your not a villain and that your not deceiving yourself that you could not get your comeuppance the way the villain does.
At first I though maybe I was self deceiving about reading but then I read that its normal to have a higher reading speed for enjoyment and then slow down for technical comprehension. Indeed it can take me 9-13 hours to go through a highly technical book. My job is medical as well as technological so I read work related books about cell culturing, chemical markers, circuit board design and micro soldering techniques.
My husband used to laugh at me when we first got together about the way my eyes move when I read. He says he can see my eyes strictly move left to right in 2-3 movements; chunk chunk and then reset like a typewriter to the left and that happens several times then I am turning a page. I have observed this same thing in my kids. They hold the book right up to their face so you can see the whole page. They go chunk chunk reset repeat and then a page turn.
We read the same in other ways too. Like we concentrate very hard, we never hear the phone ring and we often get restless every 30 minutes or so and get up and walk around with the book and then sit back down. All without ever being totally cognizant that we are doing it or that the phone is ringing.
I haven't worked on the reading thing with my kids. They did like I did and just picked it up and now its something we just do together. When it comes to studying or reading technical books though I have done a few weeks of tutoring with them on that. 9 hours to read a technical manual to us is a long time to waste if you aren't going to have comprehension.
So I have sat down with them and discussed that they should read a paragraph or a page and then just sit and absorb what they just went over. Even going so far as to close their eyes and imagine a diagram or circuit or what ever is being discussed. Ive discussed with them times when they would need to "speed read" which is reading contents and index's first. Then reading the first, 2nd and last sentence of every paragraph and taking the time to digest it. I even let them know not to do that unless they had a valid time constraint because you don't want to be dependent.
The result is that we've finished something and have 90% + comprehension of facts. I have a little girl who wants to be a Dr. and knows the ATP cycle and a little boy who would like to be an astronaut "or something like that" and knows rocket fuel calculations.
So I've done this research and I've talked to my husband and so far our best advice is try to work with the teachers and try not to get on their bad side. Unfortunately now these teachers are on the lookout for this and we still get nasty messages weekly. My darling brats brought up the fact that they are bored, frustrated, and basically lying to the teachers.
I'm going to ask for a conference with the school to put together ILP's that will hopefully tie the teachers hands as far as their ability to make the kids redo everything 6 times to make sure they are "really" doing it. I honestly don't understand the hoopla for a couple of kids who get A's on everything. I just hate that they are so uncomfortable and they feel like they are being dishonest. I love my kidlets and I'll do anything to make it better.
So if anyone has any other suggestions feel free to comment or message. I feel like haven't been proactive enough yet but at the same time I don't want to go overboard.
Thanks
