DEFINITION
Echo reading is a rereading strategy when a student or a group of students reads exactly (echoes) what a skilled reader has just read.

PURPOSE AND BENEFITS
Echo reading helps struggling readers with fluency and comprehension.

EXAMPLE VIDEO:
How To Teach A Child To Read With Games
Introduces students to echo reading and how it fosters expressive and fluent reading.

ECE–GRADE 1

• Echo reading involves students in the reading experience. 

• It helps students read with expression and fluently. 

• Students learn that the printed word is the same as the words we speak out loud. 

• Echo reading builds self-confidence. 

• It increases motivation. 

• Echo reading can be done with the whole class, small groups, or in pairs.

GRADES 2 AND UP

• Echo reading involves student in practicing proper phrasing and expression. 

• It assists with learning sight words. 

• It challenges students to read material that would be too difficult to read alone.

PROCEDURE:

• Read a sentence or a phrase out loud. 

  • Students should be able to see the words as they are read. 

• Use a big book, a projection of text on a white board, etc., and move your finger under the words as you read. 

  • Note: Do not use echo reading with the first reading of a big book or patterned book (decodable text). 

• Beginning readers can have a copy of the text and finger point to the words while reading. 

• Read the passage with expression in your voice. 

• Prompt students to read the same line, modeling your example.

• Tell each student when it is her or his time to read until the process is understood. 

• The students “echo” by repeating the same section after you finish reading it, using the same phrasing and tone as demonstrated by the teacher. 

  • The student must simply repeat the phrase. Do not correct the student; as appropriate, simply reread the line and have the student echo-read it again. 

MODIFICATIONS

• Occasionally ask who, what, where, why, and how questions, which lead to better understanding and gradually promote comprehension. 

• allow students to respond to the passage and become active readers. 

• Use a toy microphone, which is fun while it amplifies reading.

SUITABLE TEXTS FOR ECHO READING
The best passages to use for echo reading are short and motivating passages of high interest.

Big books and picture books
Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See, by Bill Martin Jr. and Eric Carle
Hattie and the Fox, by Mem Fox and Patricia Mullins
Do You Want to Be My Friend? by Eric Carle

Books of poetry
The Random House Book of Poetry for Children, selected by Jack Prelutsky
Sing a Song of Popcorn: Every Child’s Book of Poems, selected by Beatrice Schenk de Regniers, Eva Moore, Mary M. White, and Jan Carr (Scholastic, 1988)
Treasure Chest of Poetry, by Bill Martin Jr., with John Archambault and Peggy Brogan
The 20th Century Children’s Poetry Treasury, selected by Jack Prelutsky (Knopf, 1999)

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON ECHO READING:
PDF file on echo reading:
“Paired Repeated Reading: A Classroom Strategy for Developing Fluent Reading”: http://www.aea8.k12.ia.us/documents/filelibrary/documents/professional_development/differentiating_instruction/Paired_Reading_021706180323.pdf
http://www.readwritethink.org/professional-development/strategy-guides/choral-reading-30704.html

Corwin Resource “Echo Reading (Grades K-3)”: http://www.corwin.com/upm-data/18980_McEwan_Fluency_K_3_Pgs_41_42.pdf