Friday. February 13. 1953 University Daily Kansan
Page 5
Reading Lab Successful in Building Up Speed
By BILL FOOSE
The speed reading division of the Reading and Study laboratory in the basement of Fraser hall has established, over the last six years, a successful program designed to help students improve their reading speed and accuracy.
Dr. H. P. Smith, director of the Reading and Study lab, says that at the completion of 30 hours of practice in speed reading techniques, many students find that they have doubled or tripped their reading speeds with no loss in comprehension. Enrollments are now being accepted for a speed reading course to begin Feb.16.
A student interested in learning to read faster is first counseled by an instructor in Room 18, Fraser hall. In most cases, students have had little formal training in reading methods.
Throughout his school career the student has been constantly corrected in his writing and speaking habits, but his reading development has been left in his own hands. The counselor's duty is to decide whether the student will benefit most from work in the speed reading or reading and study methods divisions.
speed reading of reading it. If he is a normal reader, he will be enrolled in the speed reading course. At the start of the course and at the end of every 10 hours work thereafter, he will be given tests to check his rate of progress.
All such data is recorded by the lab for experimental purposes. The student's progress depends for the most part simply upon his desire to help himself.
He is first introduced to the two machines used in the course: the reading accelerator and the tachistoscope. Dr. Smith considers the reading accelerator to be the most important of the two.
It is simply designed to cover up the page as the student reads in order to prevent him from going back and duplicating his work. A book, the Razor's Edge for example, is placed in the machine.
By turning a dial, the student is able to make the sliding screen cover up the page at faster and faster rates, until at last he is being forced to read at his fastest speed. He must learn to read quickly and accurately, or lose his chance to read at all.
If the student is reading 500 words per minute on the machine, he is not necessarily reading 5,000 words every 10 minutes in the lab, however, because of the time it takes to operate the machine. For this reason, sincerity takes the place of magic, and outside reading becomes a great help.
As the bottom of a page is reached, he pushes the slide back to starting position and turns the page. The dial indicates the number of words per minute being read.
The tachistoscope is a slide projector with a camera-like shutter fastened to it. Its purpose is to flash five, six, or seven-digit numbers on a screen in order to increase the reader's span of recognition. The 50-minute lab periods are about equally divided between the two machines.
Progress is frequently slow until after 15 or 20 hours have been completed, and then a rise in speed may come fairly suddenly as habit barriers begin to break down.
Scholastic credit is not given for the work, and of course no outside work is demanded. The only request is that students complete the full 30 hours work at three hours a week in order to supply complete data on their work.
Students may schedule their meetings from 2-3, 3-4, or 4-5 in the afternoons, for either the Monday-Wednesday-Friday series or the Tuesday-Thursday-Saturday series. Saturday classes run from 9-12 in the morning.
The office in 18 Fraser is open from 3-5 during the week, and students may come in at any time for counseling or to enroll for speed courses being offered later in the semester.
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