Guiding students to click errors during cold timing helps them improve

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Read Naturally believes the student should be in charge of identifying unknown or incorrectly read words during the cold timing, even if the teacher is present at the timing. In Read Naturally Live and the Read Naturally Software Edition, that means allowing the student to click words during the cold timing step.

This small transfer of control, from the teacher to the student, can have profound effects on creating a reader who is aware of reading errors. Awareness of errors leads to their elimination.

Put the Student in Charge of Clicking on Cold-timing Errors

Here's a synopsis of how putting a student in charge can lead to reading improvement:

1. The teacher uses the cold timing as instruction, not assessment, pointing out words the student missed but did not click.
2.  Being reminded to click on errors raises the student's awareness. Being aware of errors as they are happening is the first step in learning to self-correct.
3.  When the teacher alerts the student to additional errors during the cold timing, the interruptions by the teacher may result in a lower cold-timing score. However, the student quickly realizes he/she can speed up the cold timing by clicking on unknown words before being told to do so by the teacher. Reliance on teacher judgment begins to diminish.
4.  When the student clicks on a word, the software supplies the pronunciation: immediate feedback and neurological impress (hearing the correct version of the word at the point of error).
5. Once a student consistently and accurately clicks on errors during the cold timing without being told to then that student may be able to complete the cold timing step independently. Be assured that the Read Along step supports student-conducted cold timings by providing the opportunity for the student to learn words not recognized as errors during the cold timing. Student-conducted cold timings are an effective way to make high student-to-teacher ratios more manageable.

The teacher can periodically conduct the cold timing to determine if the student's cold-timing scores are accurate enough for evaluating adjustments to goals or levels. If a student exaggerates cold-timing scores, set a rule for the next few stories that the student must exceed the cold-timing score by 30 or 40 words to pass, regardless of the goal. Usually students will become more accurate on student-conducted cold timings after completing several stories under that rule.

 Learn more about independent cold timing