Reading Help in 5 Minutes

Parents and teachers keep their eyes open for ways to give their children reading help.  Karen Acres from The DesMoinesRegister.com just reported in the Urbandale Schools section what Lisa Langan’s third, fourth, and fifth graders are doing to improve their reading skills. This simple technique is used as early as first grade for reading help. This same Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills is also used by adults that want to improve their reading skills.

Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills” by Bonnie Terry. They practice the strategy at least twice a week. The reading materials include word lists starting with lists of three-letter short vowel words to long vowel words, vowel pairs in words, consonant combinations, two-syllable words, and common prefixes and suffixes. Each drill builds gradually on the previous drills. The first four minutes are an oral pre-read practice of the drill page, and the final minute is a one-minute oral reading of the same list. Each drill page has four sets of words. The first three word sets have extra spaces between the letters, whereas the final list has no spaces between the word letters. The spacing helps students review the specific phonic rules as well as providing visual support. Word list mastery depends on the grade level. Langan’s students graph their scores, which keeps the students motivated about  their reading progress.”

Reading Help in 5 Minutes Really Works

University or Florida’s researcher Cecil Mercer published his results from his study Effects of Fluency Intervention for Middle Schoolers with Specific Learning Disabilities in (2000) stating daily practice can be for as little as five or six minutes.

Reading Help Video: See how you can improve reading fluency in just 5 minutes a day.

Reading Fluency: Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills

Substantial gains in reading fluency came from repeated oral reading of various sorts such as letters or words for five or six minutes a day. The key to the success was doing the repeated oral reading over a period of time e.g. six months to twenty-three months.

So, now view the video that shows you how you can help your children improve their reading fluency in just 5 minutes a day.

For more information on other skills that affect reading ability, be sure to go to Learning Reading Help: 3 Reasons for Reading Struggles.