Why Round Robin and Popcorn Reading Are Evil

Every day in thousands of classrooms, students are called upon to read out loud. Some teachers use round robin style, in which every students takes a turn reading a section. Other teachers use popcorn style, in which students call upon each other to read. For many teachers, these strategies are the primary means of working through a reading text with students.

Teachers claim that having students read out loud is important fluency and decoding practice. Teachers argue that this strategy holds students accountable for reading along with the class, unlike silent reading. Reading out loud builds comprehension because listening comprehension is generally at a higher level than silent reading comprehension. It also helps the teacher formatively assess student pronunciation, attention to punctuation, and inflection. Student love to read out loud and much prefer hearing a story read out loud than having to read the story silently and independently. Having students read out loud is as American as apple pie.

But, upon closer analysis, round robin and popcorn styles are not effective means of instruction. Instead, having students read out loud can actually be counterproductive.

First of all, having one child read out loud at a time is not good fluency practice. Effective fluency practice is leveled according to the instructional level of the student. The Read Naturally® fluency program uses a Brief Oral Screener to assess the fluency level of each student. The class novel or textbook may or may not be at the instructional level for the majority of your students.

Good fluency practice uses modeled selections. Students are not the best model readers in the class. Poor student readers reinforce poor reading skills such as inattention to punctuation, mispronunciation, and poor inflection. The more the teacher interrupts to correct student mistakes, the less fluency is practiced.

Good fluency practice requires lots of read alouds, including repeated readings. In any given reading, an individual student may read once or twice for a grand total of, say, one minute. Hardly enough practice to improve fluency.

Round robin and popcorn practice is poor decoding practice. Class novels and textbooks are not decodable texts. Real literature is filled with sight words. Additionally, students have different diagnostic decoding deficiencies. Correcting one student’s mispronunciation of the /ch/ in chorus may only address the needs of one or two students. And correction is not effective practice. Students need multiple examples, not isolated corrections, to improve decoding. Nor does correction improve syllabication skills.

Having students read out loud decreases reading comprehension. Jumping from one student to the next interrupts the flow of the selection. Reading comprehension depends upon the connection of ideas. Imagine watching a twenty-two minute episode of The Office with thirty different five-second commercials interrupting the show. Comprehension would obviously decrease. In round robin, students frequently anticipate where they will begin and silently practice-thus losing comprehension.

Not all students enjoy reading out loud. For some, this activity is the single most-feared classroom activity. Poor readers lose self-esteem when required to read out loud. Peers can be heartless and cruel. Too often, teachers use round robin or popcorn styles to “catch” students who are inattentive, which further disrupts fluency and comprehension and only serves to humiliate students.

Instead of round robin and popcorn styles, why not use strategies that are appropriate to the teacher’s instructional objectives. For fluency development, use a differentiated fluency plan with diagnostically assessed leveled selections with teacher read alouds or CD modeled stories and repeated practice. Or at least use choral readings or echo readings to provide some modeling. For decoding practice, use phonics worksheets assigned according to the diagnostically assessed needs of students. For reading comprehension, use specific guided reading comprehension strategies with the best model reader, the teacher, as the coach. For formative reading assessment, protect the self-concept of the student and the accuracy of the assessment by reading one-on-one periodically.