August 8, 2023
The Value of Stress-Free Practice
In order to become strong, independent readers, kids need to have a positive emotional relationship with reading. If reading is difficult, as it is for many beginners, it can cause unnecessary stress. Even strong readers can feel this stress if they are constantly worried about making a mistake. Stress is counterproductive and undermines learning. Therefore, it’s important to create a stress-free environment for children when they read.
Kids have a strong natural desire to please. Reading aloud to parents and teachers can cause stress if kids are worried about whether they’re doing a good job. For many of these kids, reading alone or to a sibling, pet, or stuffed animal can be less stressful and more productive (McDonald, Reluctant Readers Allowed, Scholastic, April 4, 2013). It is important that some reading sessions are completely stress and guidance free. These sessions allow children to grow more comfortable reading aloud and practice their fluency (link to post about fluency). Reading aloud also greatly increases silent reading fluency, so it is important children incorporate stress-free reading aloud into their reading routines.
Though stress free, the downside of reading alone is that a child can’t benefit from the guidance a parent or teacher can provide. Rally Reader aims to bridge that gap by providing kids with the opportunity to practice their reading in a stress-free environment, while also reaping the benefits of targeted feedback. Rally’s error-correction philosophy is based on the science of reading. It is important that children are not corrected on every single error as they learn to read, as this can be demoralizing. This practice can also discourage children from attempting to self correct their errors, as they may come to rely on adult intervention. Rally corrects about 75-80% of errors made by children when reading aloud. This percentage allows for children to correct their own mistakes and not become overwhelmed by focusing too much on the errors that they make.