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Reborn Readers |
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"A
new program offers poor readers By
TYLER KAYE For Jared Waters, reading was always a problem. Often Waters, an Olympic High School senior, avoided situations where he was required to read. "I just never read. Even if I was told to read, I didn't," he said. Through a new program called Read Right®, Jared and 17 other Olympic High students are learning to overcome the barriers of the written word. This innovative program attempts not only to change attitudes about reading, but to retrain the mind how to read. The theory behind Read Right states that those who have reading difficulties have taught their brains bad habits. Once these habits are reversed, reading skill significantly improves. "This program aims to give the brain a new map for reading. It is set up to change that process into an efficient one," said counselor Dennis Kobelin, who is the Read Right coordinator at OHS. "I used to only read comics. Reading was like my lowest grade throughout school," said junior Mike Young. When asked to read aloud, he said, "I would just turn into a clam and not say anything, or I would just read real soft." Young has devoted an hour a day to Read Right since late last school year. Already, he is a more confident reader. "At home, when I'm reading books, I'm not afraid of making mistakes," Young said. Now, he even occasionally reads for enjoyment. The goal of this program is to produce "excellent readers." Excellent reading requires little effort, and the reader is comfortable with the material. The Read Right program can be used to improve all reading, no matter what a person's skill level might be. The Read Right method consists of three elements: Excellent Reading, Coached Reading and Independent Reading. Excellent Reading retrains the brain through repetition. The student first listens to an audiotape of selected passages from a book at his reading level. Then, the student reads the paragraph back to himself. Once the student is confident, he reads the selection aloud to the tutor. The tutor then asks the student if he considers the reading "excellent." "When they read excellently, that means there are virtually no errors at all," said Carolyn Eifling, who is the Read Right tutor at Olympic High. In Coached Reading, the student reads an unfamiliar passage. Immediate feedback is then offered by the tutor. Eifling explained, "We try to keep the commands real simple. We ask the student to go back and read the passage again." The purpose of Coached Reading is to build confidence. "Confidence gives you comprehension," Eifling said. "What is really neat to hear is when they're doing this Coached Reading and they go into Excellent Reading." Once this occurs, the tutor reevaluates the student's reading level, usually advancing him to a higher level of material. Students chose books at a slightly lower level for Independent Reading. "If you read at a lower level, it's letting the brain relax and incorporate new strategies," Eifling said. In Read Right, improvement is often dramatic. According to counselor Kobelin, for every 10 to 20 hours of instruction, the typical Read Right student can expect to see one grade level of progress. After about three months, Jared said, "My reading's more smooth; I understand more about what I'm reading." Some students have found that their successes in reading have carried over into other classes, particularly history. Read Right was first piloted at Olympic High School last May. In the fall, students with low scores on two standardized tests, the Degrees of Reading Power and the CTBS (Comprehensive Test of Basic Skills), were offered the option to enroll. Participation in the elective class is voluntary. OHS is the only area high school offering the program. All three junior high schools in Central Kitsap also provide Read Right. The 18 students who have had the opportunity to participate are enthusiastic about the program. In fact, they would recommend it to others in need of reading assistance. "It'd be great for anyone to take," said Waters. Added Young, "Join it, because you'll learn a lot." _____________________________ Tyler Kaye is a sophomore at Olympic High School. |
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