 |
 |
On Tue, 19 Aug 1997 18:35:07 -0400 Cheryl B Stratton said: >I am a math teacher but have some thoughts on speed reading. - mostly >negative- :) > >I thought what happened to me was unique until talking to another math >teacher I found it was his experience also. Now this has raised enough >interest for me that I will research it. > >When I was in elementary school I was always a very slow reader. I was >told I had 100% comprehension but read too slowly. So, I was put in the >"Blue Bird" reading group. Everyone knew that was not as good as the "Red >Bird" group and it stagmatized me for life. > >I tell my students this story with my analysis that in order to be a good >math or science or computer science student this is the way you must read. >If a reading teacher had just had the forethought to see the benefits of >reading slowly I could have begun my successful mathematics study earlier. > >Students think that they are supposed to read mathematics and the sciences >in the same way they read in other disciplines or read a novel. This is >not good!!!! > >So, I do not believe speed reading is good for some students. And I hope >that reading teachers reading this will reflect on their students who read >slowly and encourage them to read some math and science. And before you >say how boring - let them try reading some mysteries and science fiction. >If they can figure out "who done it" they just might be good math/science >students. > >Any thoughts? > >Cheryl > >Dr. Cheryl B. Stratton >Assistant Professor >Developmental Mathematics >Learning Support Programs Department >Suite 700, One Park Place South >Georgia State University >Atlanta, GA 30303-3083 >E-mail: [log in to unmask] >Office:(404)651-3360 >FAX:(404)651-4377 Thank you, Cheryl! I have had battles both as a student and as a teacher/testing specialist on the issue of speed. As a child I was, and as an adult still am, slow. I read slowly, I do everything slowly and deliberately. In a world that values speed, this created some negative reactions, though fortunately it did not influence any decisions about my education the way it did with you. In elementary school I was sometimes criticized for being slow. I was once told it would be a good idea to take speed reading, but I never did and was never penalized externally for not doing so. As a grad student I worked as a secretary. Fortunately I got a job in a place where they valued accuracy and appearance of typing (this was before the age of word processing) more than speed, because although my work was always careful and neat, I never could get myself up beyond 40 words per minute on a good day. Later, as a testing researcher for City U. of NY, I fought faculty who thought that reading and math tests *should* be speeded because the fast student is necessarily the better student, which not only did I not agree with, but many experts in testing do not believe either. Through my study of metacognition I discovered that educated people's reading rates generally go down because they think while they read. Graduate students often read more slowly than they did in college and earlier. I wish the world, including many teachers, would recognize that everyone has a different style of learning and doing things, and that the process of how one thinks and learns, and what one comes up with, are more important than the speed with which one does it. Perhaps some developmental students do read too slowly, but I would rather work with them on pre-reading, metacognitive strategies and ways to increase their interest and involvement with the reading than on speed as a separate entity, since these generally seem to be part of their reading difficulties. Annette Gourgey [log in to unmask]