The Practice Word List step guides students as they read each word list twice, once down the columns and then once across the rows.
The application times students, calculating a Words Per Minute rate for each word list attempt. When students have read the word list the required number of times, meeting their goal rate at least once, they can move on to the next step.
By default, students read all the words in the list twice to complete the word list timing, first down the columns and then across the rows. Teachers can also change the timing duration to end timings after one minute.
To complete the Practice Word List step:
- When a timing is not in session, click any word in the list to view a decoding animation for that word. Multisyllabic words' syllables are pronounced and highlighted, one at a time, as an aid in decoding the word.
- To start a timing, click the Start Timing button.
A student can click Cancel Timing at any point to stop a timing. - Saying each word aloud, read the list of words down the columns.
The student can click on any of the words during a timing to review the decoding of that word. - After reading all the columns, click Finished.
- Read the list of words across the rows.
- Complete the timing in one of two ways:
- After reading all the rows, click Finished again. (Note that for students with the default Whole list Duration exercise option, this is the only way to complete a timing.)
- If the Duration exercise option is set to 1 minute and the list is not complete after a minute, a bell will sound. Click the last word you read when the bell sounded to complete the timing.
- Review the practice results in the Scores box.
Word List timings are scored in words per minute (wpm). Whether a student read the whole list and then clicked Finished for a second time to end the timing, or chose the last word they read after the 1-minute timer sounded its bell, the application calculates the wpm score based on the number of words read in the elapsed time. - Practice until reaching the Word List goal and reading the list for the required number of times.
Note that after 10 practice attempts, students can move on to the next step even without meeting their goal. - Click Next to continue to the next step.
