-> As you point out, she reads faster silently - comprehension goes much
-> higher during silent reading, the mind can understand faster than the
-> lips can articulate.
Clearly this is true.
-> Oral reading is great when a child has pre-read the story and has
-> practiced reading. But for comprehension, silent reading is much
-> better. Even the child's lips should be monitored for movement during
-> silent reading as it will slow the comprehension down.
True, that when one is teaching silent reading, it seems lip movement
should be out. I only had my daughter reading aloud to us, because it
was part of the homework assignment from her teacher and I was supposed
to sign off that we had done this together (I do believe there were some
benefits to her reading aloud to us. 1) it was an enjoyable activity
that we shared together. 2) by reading with her, we emphasize that we
find reading important. 3) she often self-selected books that had words
she didn't know in them. I have found that my two children will often
read stories silently and not ask about words they don't know and hence
misunderstand some parts of the story. But when we read aloud together,
we notice immediately that she doesn't know certain words and we can
discuss that together.)
There were a few occassions when, in spite of the fact that she was
supposed to read aloud for homework, I asked her to go read silently by
herself. Then, afterwards I would ask her a few questions about what she
had read, so that I would know she had done it. She does a LOT of silent
reading. This morning when I came upstairs, there she was on the sofa,
reading _The Minpins_ by Roald Dahl.
This summer, she has read several books by R.L. Stine (in the Goosebumps
series, mostly, I believe), _The Black Stallion_ by Walter Farley,
_Matilda_ by Roald Dahl, just to name a few. These she does on her own
initiative and completes each book in only a few days. So, I'm not real
worried about her silent reading ability.
Do you think that a student who has a good silent reading ability should
also have their oral reading skills cultivated?
Sheila
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