Rapid Reading Practices: Developing Word Automaticity in Reading

After general reading comprehension, perhaps the most serious problem encountered by developing readers is reading speed or reading rate. This might be true for many reasons, but most likely it is students’ lack of reading automaticity - that is, their inability to recognize discrete vocabulary items rapidly. ESL learners are rarely given opportunities to practice word automaticity. Rapid Reading Practices consists of 100 timed word practices. These practices cover words at four levels: basic, beginning, intermediate, and advanced. The practices begin with words from the Dolch Word list, include words from the General Service List, and build up to words from the Academic Word List.This textbook includes material for charting student progress on these exercises. Tracking progress is exciting for students, and teachers will notice how consistent and plentiful practice will reveal reading rate improvement.