[NIFL-4EFF:2497] RE: Assisted Reading Methodology

From: Bonnie Fortini (bfortini@mmhs.u102.k12.me.us)
Date: Thu Aug 14 2003 - 10:12:57 EDT


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From: Bonnie Fortini <bfortini@mmhs.u102.k12.me.us>
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Subject: [NIFL-4EFF:2497] RE: Assisted Reading Methodology
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Quoting Nancy Faux <nfaux@vcu.edu>:
> How many people do you know who read out loud in their regular lives?  

This question intrigued me because, though most of us do not read out loud on a 
daily basis, the ability to do so- and to do it well- might be an indicator of 
the person's reading skill.  I don't mean simply reading as in correctly 
pronouncing the words on a page (I'm relatively good at that in French, but 
don't understand 10% of what I've pronounced), I mean providing proper 
emphasis, tone, speed, articulation, and underlying knowledge to impart 
comprehension.  The "sound" of the text is something that readers develop in 
their mind's ear, if you will, and I imagine that prosody is linked to fluency 
in more than one way.

I do know that a number of our adult emergent and challenged readers enjoy 
being read to and with.  Hearing what the words say, how they flow, and 
deriving meaning (aural comprehension often being far ahead of reading 
comprehension) from it all helps start connecting some of the links that were 
not sufficiently developed when they were learning to read the first time.  
Several have confided to their tutors that no one had ever read to them before.  
I think we all agree that those early days are critical in fostering the love 
of reading and the phonemic awareness that is basic to reading success.

As a former nursery school teacher I think I enjoyed the story time as much as 
the children.  Little did I know that developing my skills in reading the 
stories "upside down" so I didn't have to keep turning the book would help me 
working with adults.  Years later, when I was tutoring in our local county jail 
where security requested that we sit opposite the students, I had one inmate 
tell me that he came to class mostly to watch me read and write upside down.

Which brings me to a tangential thought on reading aloud that has also begun to 
interest me which is the effect of the type face on reading and comprehension.  
I'm not thinking here about size and sans/serif issues, but more about the 
style of the font.  For example, would a letter of complaint carry the same 
message, or "sound the same" in Comic Sans as it would in Courier?  Just 
musing.

Bonnie  
 



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