John has tutored algebra and SAT Prep and has a B.A. degree with a major in psychology and a minor in mathematics from Christopher Newport University.
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Echo reading is an innovative concept in which the educator reads a phrase or paragraph, and then the student repeats it back to the educator. Echo reading is often called rereading, but technically there are differences between the two. A teacher can instruct parents on this methodology so it can be utilized in the home. It can help a struggling student improve in several areas including:
Echo reading is usually employed for students in elementary school, and on occasion for middle school students. It is rarely utilized at the high school level. It should be noted that echo reading has also been found to be a helpful technology when teaching students with learning disabilities, including speech impairments and Down Syndrome.
Ideally, the technique works best if the reading material is just above the student's current reading level. If the material is too difficult, the student will probably become frustrated. If the material is too easy, the technique may not be beneficial. Another concept that is helpful is to use a book that the student is familiar with or really likes.
1) First, the teacher reads a sentence to the student. Later, as the student progresses, the teacher can read two sentences or maybe even an entire paragraph. A properly trained fellow student with high-level reading skills can also perform this task when permitted.
2) The student tracks the text with her eyes. Some teachers will track the text with their finger or permit the student to do this. Other teachers will experiment with using a combination of both methods to see which works best with each individual student. Either way, it is critical to the success of echo reading that the student can clearly see all the words.
3) The student now recites the passage back to the teacher.
4) The teacher reads the next sentence.
5) The student repeats the sentence.
6) This process is repeated until the teacher feels the student is too frustrated or fatigued.
If a student commits an error while reading, or hesitates for more than a few seconds, the teacher should immediately identify this as a need for improvement. The educator should gently announce stop, point to the error word, and say the word correctly. The student repeats the word, and then backtracks and repeats the entire sentence. The exercise continues onward from that point.
Echo reading is a form of rereading, and the teacher should not hesitate to have the student repeat a difficult word or phrase over and over again until it is mastered. In fact, with beginning students, it may be desirable to just learn a word or two at a time, instead of learning phrases and sentences.
Since echo reading is often used for beginning readers, it makes sense that a teacher uses pictures to reinforce the words that the student is rereading. Echo reading can also be done in pairs, or even in groups of three or more at the discretion of the teacher.
Perhaps the main concept that is emphasized in echo reading is that of chunking. Many students that struggle with reading comprehension tend to read one word at a time. By the time the student gets through the entire sentence, she may have forgotten how it started. With chunking, the student reads a group of words together, ideally three to five words. This technique also helps students to understand long, complicated sections by breaking them up into smaller phrases.
Moreover, a chapter can be chunked into sections, a section can be chunked into paragraphs, a paragraph can be chunked into sentences, and a sentence can be chunked into phrases. Do you see how each larger section is broken down into smaller and smaller sections?
A second major concept when teaching echo reading is having the student recognize and learn sight words. What are sight words? Well, the English language has over 170,000 words, and the average person has a vocabulary of over 10,000 words. However, there is a list of less than one hundred words that account for much of what a student reads each day. These high-frequency words should be emphasized by the educator. A list of the words can even be printed for the student to refer to and memorize. By knowing these basic fundamental words, the student will improve at chunking, and then, in turn, improve at echo reading.
Echo reading is a helpful methodology that is often utilized for both beginning and struggling learners as well as students with learning disabilities, speech impairments, and Down Syndrome. It can improve a student's confidence, comprehension, ability to identify new words, listening skills, ability to phrase properly, and vocabulary. It is usually employed at the elementary school level, using material just above the student's comprehension level. The teacher reads the sentence, while the student follows the text with her eyes or finger. The student repeats the text back to the teacher, and the process continues until the student becomes fatigued or frustrated.
Chunking it the main key to echo reading, and involves reading three to five words at a time, instead of one word at a time. Students can also learn one-hundred common sight words that make up a large portion of the words they read each day.
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