Using Echo Reading With Struggling Readers

If you teach remedial reading, then you know your struggling readers with dyslexia often have trouble with fluency and comprehension as well as reading on grade level. You can use the reading strategy called echo reading to help these students. Here's the way echo reading works best:

1. All readers have a copy of the text. The teacher or the lead reader reads a line of text. It will depend on the age and ability level of the struggling readers how much text the leader reads at one time.
2. While the leader reads out loud with expression and at a good pace, the rest of the group follows along in their text.
3. After the reader reads a line or sentence, then the remedial readers read it out loud. They try to imitate the way the leader reads the text.

Echo reading helps struggling readers learn about fluency, expression, and reading at an appropriate rate. It can also help them learn about using punctuation marks while reading. The teacher or leader is modeling important skills to become a successful reader. In a remedial reading class, students may also have difficulty with vocabulary in stories and books. Echo reading helps students to recognize new words and read at a pace which is better for comprehension. If students read too slow or too fast, they will most likely have trouble comprehending what they are reading. Fluency and pace affect comprehension, and using echo reading can help struggling readers improve these skills.

1. Use a big book with a small group or class to do echo reading. Many simple picture books have been turned into big books for use in primary and remedial reading classrooms. In this case, the students wouldn't have their own text in front of them, but they should be able to see the words in the big book. It is important when echo reading that students can follow along in a text, and they are not just repeating words back to the teacher.
2. Once a student has improved his reading ability or mastered a book, he can become the leader of the echo reading activity. This can help a student's confidence and self-esteem. Many struggling readers with dyslexia have poor self-esteem. Finding ways to help these children improve in these personal areas is as important as helping them read well.
3. Poetry can be a great text for echo reading. Poems are often short and can be copied onto one page, so students can have a copy while they are participating in echo reading.