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> She also taught me to read 2000 words per minute with retention, Can you expand upon this and/or link to any resources related to the method?

by imron 4y ago

walnutclosefarm 4y ago
Well, we're talking about 55 years ago, so I'm pretty sure there wouldn't be any online references to the actual materials used, and the technology pieces were all pre-digital. (There was basically one time-share computer for public school students in the entire state I lived in at the time, and "interactive device" meant a KSR 33 teletype connected to that computer via 10 character per second dial-up modem). So, I can tell you a little about the methods, but that's all. First, we spent a small, but meaningful amount of time each day in drills to train our eyes and brains to rapidly recognize and interpret increasingly longer strings of symbols. This was done by flashing a sequence of numbers (first) or letters (as we got better) on a screen for a set period of time, and having students transcribe them onto paper. As we achieved accuracy for a given flash (say 5 numbers for .1 second), the flash interval was incrementally reduced, and the length of sequence increased. I don't recall the flash intervals, but I do recall that at the end of a year of doing these exercises for a few minutes each school day, I was routinely reading 15 or more digit sequences accurately in a single, very short glance. We also used machines (entirely mechanical) that built on that ability by scanning lines of text we were to read in multi-word chunks on a timed basis. The idea was to take the sight interpretation skill and extend it to reading phrases in a single glance, rather than reading and interpreting single words. And finally, there was application of these skills to real texts, for comprehension. Comprehension was of course focused on getting the meaning of a text, but also on vocabulary. New vocabulary was introduced in relatively simple texts, and re-enforced over time. I have no idea how well all this worked for average students. It worked beautifully for me, though.

> She also taught me to read 2000 words per minute with retention, Can you expand upon this and/or link to any resources related to the method?

by imron 4y ago

> She also taught me to read 2000 words per minute with retention, Can you expand upon this and/or link to any resources related to the method?

walnutclosefarm 4y ago

Well, we're talking about 55 years ago, so I'm pretty sure there wouldn't be any online references to the actual materials used, and the technology pieces were all pre-digital. (There was basically one time-share computer for public school students in the entire state I lived in at the time, and "interactive device" meant a KSR 33 teletype connected to that computer via 10 character per second dial-up modem). So, I can tell you a little about the methods, but that's all. First, we spent a small, but meaningful amount of time each day in drills to train our eyes and brains to rapidly recognize and interpret increasingly longer strings of symbols. This was done by flashing a sequence of numbers (first) or letters (as we got better) on a screen for a set period of time, and having students transcribe them onto paper. As we achieved accuracy for a given flash (say 5 numbers for .1 second), the flash interval was incrementally reduced, and the length of sequence increased. I don't recall the flash intervals, but I do recall that at the end of a year of doing these exercises for a few minutes each school day, I was routinely reading 15 or more digit sequences accurately in a single, very short glance. We also used machines (entirely mechanical) that built on that ability by scanning lines of text we were to read in multi-word chunks on a timed basis. The idea was to take the sight interpretation skill and extend it to reading phrases in a single glance, rather than reading and interpreting single words. And finally, there was application of these skills to real texts, for comprehension. Comprehension was of course focused on getting the meaning of a text, but also on vocabulary. New vocabulary was introduced in relatively simple texts, and re-enforced over time. I have no idea how well all this worked for average students. It worked beautifully for me, though.