The Secret of Silent Reading

If I could climb into a child's mind and listen to them read, I do believe I could possibly solve their reading difficulties. The best we can do is interview our students about their thinking. I had an epiphany about three years ago: good readers read with expression in their minds.

Think about it: As a reader do you read text with a slow, dragging beat? I know that when I read in my mind I read with expression. I read the sounds of the text in the same way I hear the sounds of music. Each character has a distinct voice. The narrative has a particular sound. I read inside my mind like a drama queen.

One day I was listening to a student read out loud. Slow. Choppy. Boring. I asked the student, "When you read silent in your mind do you read the same way you read out loud?" The answer: yes. Teaching requires a certain amount of experimentation. I said, "Listen to how I read this paragraph out loud." After I completed the reading, I asked the student to mimic me by reading the paragraph out loud with expression -like a drama queen (or king). The difference was amazing. I then asked the student to read the paragraph in the same way silently.

Unfortunately, I can't read my student's minds. I can't hear if they are really applying expressive reading to their silent reading, but after trying this with several students, and expressing to them that I would like them to practice reading with expression in their minds, I received positive reports and noticed a distinct difference in their comprehension of text.

I've continued my little experiment over the past two years. Now I teach mini lessons on expressive reading. We begin practicing out loud and then change over to silent mode. I impress upon my students that each character should have different voice and that the narrative should flow like a song in their head. I model, model, model. I might not be able to climb into their minds, but I do believe I've hit upon something important. Struggling readers can improve comprehension when they improve silent fluency. Fluency is more than rate -it's expression, inflection, character voices, rhythm, beat, music. Silent fluency is the first step in taking student's comprehension to the next level. Once they become fluent in their minds, they can concentrate on the thinking that occurs during reading.

There is research about oral fluency. It is said that student's comprehension improves as their oral fluency improves. How many teachers have heard students with beautiful oral fluency that can't comprehend a text to save their life? I believe the missing piece is transferring oral fluency to silent fluency. Teach your kids to become drama queens and kings -in the silence of their minds.