8. Acceleread Lesson 6 & 7

ACCELEREAD LESSON 6

Lesson 6 of Acceleread (iOS app; see previous posts for more) is also 7 minutes long.  The instructions say that the reader should now be keeping up the WPM speed of the guide in terms of comprehension.  I have been able all along, so that's good.

Diamond Highlighter: I'm getting better, able to read far words in periphery, but not quite able to follow the story.  Perhaps I should practice on my own with familiar text?

Hopscotch: This time, words appear in the middle of the line as well as leaping from the perpheries; they quickly disappear so fast focus is what needs to be trained.

Sight Stretcher: It's just numbers.  I wish it used words as well, but the other tools do effectively the same thing anyway so I suppose it would be unnecessary.

Hopscotch: The second time around the chunks are much bigger, so quick central focus, as trained in other tools, is an applied skill now.

Word flash: Now we have wide chunks of 7 words or more at times!  It's hard to focus on all the words with peripheral vision alone. I tried just to follow the story without concentrating on technique — this was no problem.  My eye movements were very minimal! and mostly centralized.  The speed was such that I didn't have time to scan word by word anyway.

I am continuing to duplicate my efforts on the iPhone version lesson by lesson and day by day after having completed the iPad version — the app is not sync'd in the cloud, so it's as if they could be two individuals' separate progressions.  I appreciate the duplication, and see daily improvement.  Whether one has an iPhone or iPad, on a singular device one may repeat a lesson as many times as desired.  I'm just trying out both options for the heck of it, for the sake of curiosity and faster improvement.

During the final iPhone Word Flash for Lesson 6, I decided to cover one eye for about 30 seconds, and then the other eye for another 30 seconds, and in the remaining 30 seconds of the exercise used both.  My peripheral vision range seemed increased!  As with training eye muscles for visual acuity (something I do to maintain 20/20 vision despite all the nearsight-inducing reading I do), monocular training for speed reading for a period seems to result in much improved binocular vision.


ACCELEREAD LESSON 7

Lesson 7 is 9 min long, and the opening summary indicates that this lesson will train the reader to incorporate the more advanced technique of slowing down when necessary — reading at variable speeds.

Word Flash: The text started at about 600 WPM and slowed to 400 WPM when it came to some quotations in dialect; then back up to 600, and back down to 400 for a more complicated scene.

Sight Stretcher: We have now reached the eighth circle; and instead of contracting to the 1-circle each cycle, it would stop at 3 and 5 before expanding again on a couple of the final cycles.

Diamond Highlighter:  In the same pattern as Word Flash, it appeared to start slower at about 350 WPM for harder passages and speed up at the end to 550 WPM for an easier passage.

Columns Highlighter: Plenty of variation here as well, seemingly in the same pattern as the above: 370, 470, 410, 512 WPM were what I glanced down to observe.

Word Flash: The final Word Flash did the same as the above, varrying between 576, 449, 589, 602.  All the text exercises have always started at a slightly slower WPM rate and increased through the exercise.  This is the first time that slowing has also occurred.

I look forward to Lesson 8!