Reading Rate Assessment

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Reading Rate Assessment


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Learning Objective(s): This activity will help students assess their reading rate, and set a baseline rate for later comparison. 

Adjusting Reading Rate. This section has two purposes: to introduce reading rate as a variable in the reading process and to discuss the concept of reading flexibility. Students must realize that they should not have a single, fixed reading rate. Instead, their rate should vary according to the type of material they are reading and their purpose for reading it. This section also gives a procedure for measuring reading flexibility and offers general suggestions for improving students’ reading rate.

To initiate a discussion of variables that influence reading rate, begin by demonstrating that writer variables affect speed. Collect a wide range of reading materials (newspapers, children’s books, magazines, paperbacks, textbooks, pamphlets, journals, reference books). Distribute them randomly among the class, and ask students to open their material to any page and start reading. Allow one or two minutes total reading time, then ask students to count up or estimate the number of words they read. Ask each student his or her rate and write it on the chalkboard. Depending  on the variety of materials you selected, there will be a wide range of reading rates. Ask students who were given the children’s book why they read so quickly. Ask students who used a physics or chemistry text why they read so slowly. These questions will lead to a discussion of both writer and reader variables.

Once students recognize that writer and reader variables can affect speed, they are ready to accept the notion that they should consciously adjust their rate to suit their purpose and the type of material they are reading. Many mature readers, even high-achieving college students, have not developed the habit of reading with flexibility. When these skills are presented as timesaving, efficient techniques, students are anxious to learn and practice them.

Reading Rate Guidelines

Your reading rate will vary significantly according to your purpose for reading. When you are gathering  information, you will read quickly. When scanning a piece of text to find a particular piece of information, such as a name or a date, you may read 1,000 words per minute (wpm) or more. When skimming a textbook to get an overview of material, you may read 800-1,000 wpm. For fairly easy material and leisure reading, your rapid reading speed might be 300-500 wpm. Average reading speed for textbooks, news magazines, journals and literature might be 200-300 wpm. When you are studying to retain details and learn new vocabulary, complex concepts, and technical material, you may read 50-200 wpm. Remember that the most important aspect of reading is to comprehend the material. If you can read 1,000 words per minute but can’t remember anything from the material, it doesn’t do you any good. It’s like running really fast in the opposite direction of the race; you won’t win any prizes no matter how fast you go.

Reading Rate Test

Directions: With a little bit of preparation, you can test your reading rate using any reading material you want. You must have a timing device (stopwatch, timer, or clock) than includes minutes and seconds. Time yourself or have someone time you.

1.  Start reading when the minute hand is at the 12:00 o’clock position, or when the timer indicates :00 seconds. If you are using a stopwatch, start it as you begin to read. If you are not using a stopwatch, write down the beginning time immediately before you begin so you won’t be distracted as you try to remember the time on the clock.

2.  Read the entire reading selection as you normally would, no faster or slower than usual.

3.  When you finish the reading selection, look up to check your time, and write it down. If you are using a stopwatch, stop the time at this point. If someone is timing you, clearly indicate that you are done.

4.  Determine how many minutes and seconds it took you to read the text. 

How to Calculate Your Reading Rate 

In order to calculate your reading rate for reading selections of your own choosing, follow these instructions:

1.  Find the average number of words per line (wpl). a = wpl


2.  Count the total of lines read.
b =                 lines read

3.  Multiply a x b for total amount read:
c =                    total words read

4.  Divide c by number of minutes read.
d=            time in minutes and seconds

5.  This is your reading rate or words per minute (wpm). a x b = c
c / d = WPM

Example: We’ll use the reading selection in Chapter Six: Free and Uneasy: A Long Road Back After Exoneration, and Justice Is Slow to Make Amends as an example. This reading selection has approximately 144 lines of text.

Assume you are reading the entire text selection.

Count the words in any three lines of text, and divide the total by 3 to get the average words per line.
Line 1: 11 words
Line 2: 13 words
Line 4: 11 words

Total words: 35

Divided by 3 = 11.67 (Round up to 12) a = 12 words per line
b = 144 lines read

12 x 144 =1728 total words, estimate.

Assume it took you 5 minutes and 30 seconds (3:30) to read the selection. 1728 divided by 5.5 minutes = 314 words per minute. (If it took you 5 minutes and 47 seconds, you can divide 47 seconds by 60 seconds to find the proportion of a minute. i.e. 5.8 minutes. 1728 divided by 5.8 minutes = 298 wpm. Round up or down to the next appropriate whole number as appropriate.)

How to increase your reading rate

•       Practice regularly with easy, interesting material, including newspapers, magazines, novels, or other reading material you find interesting but not too challenging.
•       Set a timer for 15 to 20 minutes and see how many pages you read before your timer goes off. Keep track of the number of pages you read each day.
•       As you read, push yourself to read a little “too fast.” As it becomes comfortable to read at that rate, push yourself to read a little faster.
•       Focus on concentrating. If you are momentarily distracted, return immediately to your reading.
•   As you continue to practice, you will find that you are able to read more pages in the same amount of time. You will also find that you can usually understand the important points in a passage even though you are reading it at a faster rate.
•       The reading you do during these practice sessions will serve multiple purposes. As your reading rate increases, you will be adding to your background knowledge. This will help you to read more efficiently and contribute to your overall knowledge base.


Copyright 2017, 2013, 2010 Pearson Education, Inc.  

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