Increase Speed & Accuracy of Reading Decoding Skills

Does your student know their vowels and vowel combinations but need to improve their reading speed and accuracy? Have you used our 5 Fun Ways to Teach Vowels, Vowel Combinations, and Digraphs but still need more help?

Check out this fun and effective vowel tracking exercise:

1. Select 1 of our 4 vowel tracking exercise levels based on your student’s needs: List 1 reviews short vowels. List 2 reviews short vowels and vowel combinations (i.e., two vowels go walking the first one does the talking). List 3 and 4 review all vowels, and vowel combinations.
2.  Have your student place the exercise in front of them with their hands in their lap or beside the paper.  The student should say the sound the letter or combination makes (not the letter name(s)).
3. Start reviewing only 4-5 lines at a time. If the student is frustrated, only do 2-3 and work you way up to more and more.
4. Once your student can make it through the entire list with improved accuracy, start working on speed! Have your student try to make it through each list in 1 minute or less with only 2 errors or less! Have them time themselves and try to beat their own time.

Need more fun ways to use this activity? Select a vowel tracking exercise level and hang the sheet on a wall. Have your student stand about 3-5 feet from the wall. 

1. Level 1 Stand in front of the page and do the above instructions.
2. Level 2 Have your child say the sounds to a metronome beat. Gradually increase the rate to where it is challenging but not too frustrating.
3. Level 3 Add a physical movement like jumping up and down on a mini-trampoline or just on the floor. See if your student can say one sound for each jump. If that’s too hard, do a sound for every two jumps and gradually get faster.
4. Level 4 When the student sees and says a short vowel sound, he jumps with his legs out. When he sees and says a long vowel combination sound, he jumps with his feet together. 

Here are the materials you will need: vowel-tracking-pages  &  vowel-cheat-sheet-for-parents HAVE FUN!!

---

Enrichment Therapy & Learning Center has locations in Johnston and North Liberty, IA, with virtual services also available. We provide individualized speech-language therapy, dyslexia and reading intervention, academic support, and executive functioning services to help children build skills and confidence. Contact us to learn more about how we can support your child.