DURHAM, N.H., Sept. 29 (UPI) -- With little or no progress in U.S. student reading proficiency, a U.S. English professor suggests students may be reading too fast.
Thomas Newkirk of the University of New Hampshire in Durham says students would get more enjoyment and have greater success if they slowed down when reading.
"We can gain some pleasures and meanings no other way," Newkirk says in a statement. "Schools need to take a stand for an alternative to an increasingly hectic digital environment where so many of us read and write in severely abbreviated messages and through clicks of the mouse."
A confessed slow reader, Newkirk says there is real pleasure in slowing down.
"We can gain some pleasures and meanings no other way," he says.
Newkirk suggests students take time to learn "by heart" some of their favorite passages and advises continuing the practices of reading aloud beyond elementary school.
"Memorizing enables us to possess a text in a special way," Newkirk suggests.
Newkirk makes the case for slow reading in an article published in Education Leadership.
