Lessons · Teaching · words correct per minute
Words correct per minute, and what it does not tell you
Fluency is reading accurately, at a workable pace, with expression; the number usually taken is words correct per minute, which is words attempted minus errors, scaled to sixty seconds.
Hone is a place to practise a career, one idea a day. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.
What it is for
A reader at sixty words correct per minute is spending so much on getting the words off the page that there is nothing left over for the meaning. The number tells you to go and look. It does not tell you what is wrong, and it says nothing at all about whether they understood a single sentence.
How to think about it
One minute, out loud, on a text at their level. Count everything attempted, subtract the errors, and scale to a minute if the timing was not a minute. Then ask one question about the meaning, because the number on its own is half a picture.
Worked example
Words attempted in 60 s: 96Everything read, including the words that were wrong.
Errors: 8A word said wrong, skipped, or supplied by you. A self-correction is not an error.
96 - 8 = 88 words correctThe count that the rate is built from.
88 words correct in 60 s = 88 words correct per minuteSixty seconds needs no scaling. Any other length does.
Your turn
A reader attempts 110 words in 60 seconds and makes 7 errors. Write the line that gives words correct per minute.
110 - 7 = words correct per minute
Solve one, graded on the server
The trap
Treating the number as the reader. Two people at eighty-eight words correct per minute can be opposites: one slow and accurate, one fast and guessing, and only listening tells you which is which.