By Todd Finley
Round Robin Reading (RRR) has been a classroom
staple for over 200 years and an activity that over half of K-8
teachers report using in one of its many
forms, such as Popcorn Reading. RRR's popularity endures, despite overwhelming
criticism that the practice is ineffective for its stated purpose: enhancing
fluency, word decoding, and comprehension. Cecile Somme echoes that perspective
in Popcorn Reading: The Need to Encourage Reflective Practice:
"Popcorn reading is one of the sure-fire ways to get kids who are already
hesitant about reading to really hate reading."
Facts
About Round Robin Reading
In RRR, students read orally from a common text,
one child after another, while the rest of the class follows along in their copies
of the text. Several spinoffs of the technique offer negligible advantages over
RRR, if any. They simply differ in how the reading transition occurs:
·
Popcorn
Reading: A student reads
orally for a time, and then calls out "popcorn" before selecting another
student in class to read.
·
Combat
Reading: A kid nominates a
classmate to read in the attempt to catch a peer off task, explains Gwynne Ash
and Melanie Kuhn in their chapter of Fluency Instruction:
Research-Based Best Practices (PDF, 177KB).
·
Popsicle
Stick Reading: Student names are
written on Popsicle sticks and placed in a can. The learner whose name is drawn
reads next.
·
Touch
Go Reading: As described by
Professor Cecile Somme, the instructor taps a child when it's his or her turn
to read.
Of the thirty-odd studies and articles I've
consumed on the subject, only one graduate research paper claimed a benefit to
RRR or its variations, stating tepidly that perhaps RRR isn't as awful as
everyone says. Katherine Hilden and Jennifer Jones' criticism is unmitigated:
“We know of no research evidence
that supports the claim that RRR actually contributes to students becoming
better readers, either in terms of
their fluency or comprehension." (PDF, 271KB)
Why all the harshitude? Because Round Robin
Reading . . .
·
Stigmatizes
poor readers. Imagine the terror
that English-language learners and struggling readers face when made to read in
front of an entire class.
·
Weakens
comprehension. Listening to a
peer orally read too slowly, too fast, or too haltingly weakens learners'
comprehension -- a problem
exacerbated by turn-taking interruptions. (PDF, 177KB)
·
Sabotages
fluency and pronunciation. Struggling
readers model poor fluency skills and pronunciation. When instructors correct
errors, fluency is further compromised.
To be clear, oral reading does improve
fluency, comprehension and word recognition (though silent/independent reading
should occur far more frequently as students advance into the later grades).
Fortunately, other oral reading activities offer significant advantages over RRR
and its cousins. As you'll see in the list below, many of them share similar
features.
11 Better
Approaches
1.
Choral Reading
The teacher and class read a passage aloud
together, minimizing struggling readers' public exposure. In a 2011 study of over a hundred sixth graders (PDF,
232KB), David Paige found that 16 minutes of whole-class choral reading per
week enhanced decoding and fluency. In another version, every time the
instructor omits a word during her oral reading, students say the word all
together.
2.
Partner Reading
Two-person student teams alternate reading
aloud, switching each time there is a new paragraph. Or they can read each
section at the same time.
3. PALS
The Peer-Assisted Learning Strategies (PALS)
exercises pair strong and weak readers who take turns reading,
re-reading, and retelling.
(PDF, 177KB)
4.
Silent Reading
For added scaffolding, frontload silent
individual reading with vocabulary instruction, a plot overview, an anticipation guide, or KWL+ activity.
5.
Teacher Read Aloud
This activity, says Julie Adams of Adams Educational Consulting, is
"perhaps one of the most effective methods for improving student fluency
and comprehension, as the teacher is the expert in reading the text and models
how a skilled reader reads using appropriate pacing and prosody
(inflection)." Playing an audiobook achieves similar results.
6. Echo
Reading
Students "echo" back what the teacher
reads, mimicking her pacing and inflections.
7.
Shared Reading/Modeling
By reading aloud while students follow along in
their own books, theinstructor models
fluency, pausing occasionally
to demonstrate comprehension strategies. (PDF, 551KB)
8. The
Crazy Professor Reading Game
Chris Biffle's Crazy Professor Reading Game video (start watching at 1:49) is more
entertaining than home movies of Blue Ivy. To bring the text to life, students
. . .
·
Read orally with
hysterical enthusiasm
·
Reread with dramatic
hand gestures
·
Partner up with a
super-stoked question asker and answerer
·
Play "crazy
professor" and "eager student" in a hyped-up overview of the
text.
9.
Buddy Reading
Kids practice orally reading a text in
preparation for reading to an assigned buddy in an earlier grade.
10.
Timed Repeat Readings
This activity can aid fluency, according to literacy
professors Katherine Hilden and Jennifer Jones (PDF, 271KB). After an instructor reads
(with expression) a short text selection appropriate to students' reading level
(90-95 percent accuracy), learners read the passage silently, then again
loudly, quickly, and dynamically. Another kid graphs the times and errors so
that children can track their growth.
11.
FORI
With Fluency-Oriented Reading Instruction (FORI), primary students read the same section of a text many times
over the course of a week (PDF, 54KB). Here are the steps:
1.
The teacher reads aloud
while students follow along in their books.
2.
Students echo read.
3.
Students choral read.
4.
Students partner read.
5.
The text is taken home
if more practice is required, and extension activities can be integrated during
the week.
I hope that the activities described above -- in
addition to other well-regarded strategies, like reciprocal teaching, reader's theater, and radio reading -- can serve as simple replacements to
Round Robin Reading in your classroom.
Ideas Provided By: Edutopia author Todd Finley
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