One minute of reading is a powerful strategy that can help us achieve several learning objectives at the same time. I will explain you below.
ENCOURAGES READING
As it is a short and simple activity, the child may show a better disposition to do it and will want to repeat it frequently.
RAISE THE STAMINA
If we practice this activity daily, we will also raise stamina, the ability that prompts us to endure an activity without getting tired or having to stop before reaching the goal.
DEVELOP FLUENCY
In a minute we can easily detect what difficulties or strengths our child has when decoding a word or understanding its meaning. We can also observe if he or she respects the pauses or the intonation that it must give to the text according to the punctuation marks.
IMPROVE UNDERSTANDING
By practicing fluency, we are automatically making a positive impact on understanding. A child who reads fluently can understand, almost automatically or with little effort, more of the ideas that the author of the book wants to convey. At the end of the reading you can ask your child:
What is the reading about?
What did you learn from the reading?
What was your favorite part?
DEVELOP VOCABULARY
If a child is reading fluently but suddenly a word causes difficulty and his reading rate stops or slows, it is very likely that he does not know the meaning of the word. By detecting these words we can talk about their meaning and increase the child's vocabulary which will also positively impact his reading comprehension, fluency and motivation.
MONITOR PROGRESS
This activity allows us to easily monitor the child's fluency progress. To do this we only need a stopwatch and a table to record and graph the number of words read correctly in one minute. By keeping a graphic record, children can clearly see how they are progressing each day and be motivated to continue reading more and more challenging texts.
OTHER INTERESTING FACTS
This strategy is suitable for children of any age who are developing their reading fluency. You can also apply this strategy to practice reading in both Spanish and English.
ARE YOU INTERESTED IN THIS STRATEGY, AND DO YOU WANT TO PUT IT INTO PRACTICE NOW?
Click on the blue button below to download a free guide with the step-by-step to apply this strategy and a printable template to monitor your child's fluency to increase his motivation!