Have you ever taken a speed reading course?

I never have, but in 7th grade literature, I still remember my teacher telling us how you’re supposed to look at a hunk of three words at once, and read the sentences in 3 word groupings.

I enjoy reading slow, so I’m still trying to shake off the three word thing. I read a book in four hours yesterday that I wish would’ve lasted at least a week, so speed reading kinda depresses me. :] (It sure is great for textbooks, though. :P)

I took a speed reading course at the local community college one summer when I was 14. Based on my speed, comprehension, and retention, I already had a “B” at the start of the course. I never really needed to use the scanning technique that the class taught, although I did enjoy learning about word roots. I’ll occasionally use that method for really dry, technical reading.

Since speed reading is a matter of training yourself to follow a certain pattern, I would think that you could pretty easily re-train your brain to stop using it.

I also was encouraged to learn to speed read. For me I had to actually train myself to have 2 different reading styles. Some things I really need to get a good understanding of everything and I have to force myself to look at every word in the sentence. There are some things though I just want to see what the main point is and those I speed read.

I took the Evelyn Wood course. I think it helps quite a bit but takes some of the fun out of reading.

I took a course in high school. I was taught to focus above the words and read them as groups of four or five. I aced the class because I pretended that my speed increased four fold. Actually I really stunk at it so gave up very early on. From the sound of it I am fortunate!

I took Debate, and too many years of Forensics. So yeah, I know how to speed read – and “speed talk” you could say.

In 10th grade, our English teacher actually had to test us on how fast we could read. I thought it was interesting. I think it was required from the state.

They had this machine that would flash a sentence, litterally just flash it – and you had to read what was there. It was like a projector thing.

I never actually took a course in it, but my AP Lit teacher had us speed read through certain texts and then would quiz us on it, because he said that was what the AP test would be like. It totally messed me up, because I’d feel stressed to get the reading done as quickly as possible so I didn’t retain the meaning, only snatches of passages. Needless to say, I don’t use that technique in my real-life reading.

I learned to read phonetically- (hooked on phonics, anyone? :0) ) Unfortunately, along with the speed reading and comprehending, I also learned
how to read faster with skimming the main points. I
would really like to be able to
read more slowly and spell
better. (Not using phonics!)

No because I can read fast anyway. I am a readaholic. I also taught Title I reading. The way you describe does not sound helpful.
Think of that as yesterday and start today reading the way you wish. You may have to use a recipe card to hide the words ahead for a while. Do not worry about the stutter just read the word when it gets in your brain. Read some subjects you really like. You can change Oh Happy Day :-)

No but I’ve taken speed while reading, of course.