I like my students to do the cold timing themselves, but they don't always count their errors accurately, and sometimes their cold timing score seems to be too high. How can I help them improve?
It is not unusual for students to have trouble with the cold timing step. But if you work with the students initially, most of them will improve to the point where they can do it on their own. Keep in mind that the cold timing score should be close to accurate, but does not need to be exact. You may have to continue to listen to the cold timings of a few students.
Teaching students to do the cold timing step on their own makes them more aware of words they miss. One idea is to teach them the “Three S’s Rule”—tell them that any words they Stop at, Stumble over, or Skip must be counted as errors.
If a student’s cold timings are higher than the pass timings, you may want to set a rule that the student’s pass timing score must be at least 30 words correct per minute higher than the cold timing score. In general, artificially high cold timing scores go away when the students see that the critical step is the pass step, when they must meet all four pass criteria—reading at their goal rate, making three or fewer errors, reading with good expression, and answering the questions correctly.
It can be helpful to listen to the cold timing of each student every five to 10 days to monitor their progress.