Saturday, January 21, 2012

Steps to Success With Oral Reading and Long Division

Improve Fluency of Oral Reading

Oral Reading fluency can be improved by using the NEUROLOGICAL IMPRESS METHOD (NIM) or SIMULTANEOUS READING.

The parent / teacher

    sits on the reader's dominant side
    follows the text smoothly with a finger as she and the reader read the text together
    slows only a little while the reader speeds up to match the parent's reading

In this way, the reader hears, sees and says the words in the text. Doing this 15 minutes twice a day for a period of months can make a big difference.

Once at Evangelical Christian Academy in Madrid, we were preparing one of my 4th grade students to spend more time in his classroom and less time in the Learning Resource Center (special education resource room). He had a strong background in phonics, but he still read on the second grade level. His mother read with him once a day and I read with him once a day. After doing NIM for a few months, he was reading on 4th or 5th grade level. He was ready to participate more with his 4th - 6th grade class of missionary children.

Breakdown Learning into Small Steps

Breaking down learning objectives into small steps may help avoid overwhelming students. LONG DIVISION is notorious for escalating frustration because there are numerous steps. Assigning names to each of the steps keeps the students moving from one step to another. There are a number of programs that use this idea. For example one such method uses the Long Division Family to keep the student moving from one step to the next:

Dad reminds you to Divide (/)

Mom reminds you to Multiply (x)

Sister reminds you to Subtract (-)

Brother reminds you to Bring down

To divide 18 by 2, a sample script would go something like this:

Dad says, "Divide 2 into 1. How many times does 2 go into 1?"

You say, "0 times." So you write zero on the above of 1.

Mom says, "Multiply 0 times 2. How much is 0 x 2?"

You say, "0" So you write 0 below the 1.

Sister says, "Subtract. What is 1 take away 0?"

You say, "1" So you write 1 under the subtraction line.

Brother says, "Bring down. Is there a number to bring down?"

You say, "Yes, 8" So you bring down the 8.

Dad says, "Divide. How many times does 2 go into 18?"

You say: "9" So you write 9 above the 8.

Mom says, "Multiply. How much is 2 times 8?"

You say, "18" So you write 18 under the 18 at the bottom.

Sister says, "Subtract How much is 18 take away 18?

You say, "0" so you write 0 under the subtraction line.

Brother says: "Bring down. Is there a number to bring down?"

You say: "There is nothing to bring down so I am finished with this problem."

Once your child is familiar with the process, you can gradually reduce the number of words you use. Eventually, the process will be internalized and he will complete long division step by step.

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