Edgar Said:

I have 2 kids that need help in reading Can anyone help Fluency and comprehension?

We Answered:

I "second the motion" on the reading with CD's or tapes. My son's neurologist suggested this. He reads grade level or above grade level books as he listens to the CD's. This teaches him to track the text more quickly than he would normally do when reading aloud. It also allows him to learn to read with normal inflections and phrasing. He presents with dyslexic symptoms and left to his own devices, tends to slip into a mechanical, monotoned kind of pattern when reading aloud. When we do our reading aloud, I can make those suggestions to him and he hears it when I read my section of the passage, but this gives him another voice, doing it "correctly," to model.

For independent reading (for pleasure), I do not control the level of the text. He chooses what he wishes. If he chooses a simpler level of reading, that is fine. It allows him to feel accomplished. We can work on higher levels in the context of classwork, but reading for pleasure should be just that......pleasurable and not cause frustration. Also, for independent reading, we spend the 1/2 hr or so reading our own books. I would tell him interesting snipets about the book I was reading, and now he started doing the same for me. I didn't have to ask him to do it, modeling the behavior was enough.

Also, relative to comprehension, I suggest a methodical program called Milestones in Reading. Here is a link:

http://www.rainbowresource.com/search.ph…

It takes the child through a series of reading passages and specific types of comprehension questions. It then allows you to analyze the results for very focused intervention. You get a glimpse into what your child is missing when reading the text and then you can provide some additional attention to teaching them how to get that information out of the material. What to look for. How to think about the text to get clues to that type of information.

Martha Said:

do the harry potter books improve kids ability to read and give better comprehension?

We Answered:

For most kids, it's the only book that they would really read independantly...that is a cause good enough for me.