Dra level 10 reading passages

Benchmark Passages | Assessments | Reading A-Z

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Target students' instructional needs by assessing their reading skills with developmentally appropriate texts while recording reading behavior. Benchmark Passages are short text selections that are one part of a three-part process to provide effective reading instruction for students and to assess their readiness to progress to more difficult text.

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Assign and listen to recordings of Benchmark Passages and Books.
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More About Benchmark Passages

Showing 116 of 116 Passages

The Animals in Summer

Animals have sun, grass, and mud in summer. Nonfiction, Lexile BR60L

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My Animals

A child lists his favorite stuffed animals. Fiction, Lexile BR40L

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The Spring Day

Children enjoy spring weather. Nonfiction, Lexile BR10L

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The Little House

A child plays with a doll house. Fiction, Lexile BR80L

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Here is a Number

Here are numbers 1-7. Nonfiction, Lexile BR110L

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He Has Two

A man has two of a number of things. Fiction, Lexile BR10L

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This Plane

A plane moves in different ways. Nonfiction, Lexile BR90L

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Three Birds

Three birds show different positions related to a birdhouse. Fiction, Lexile BR90L

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Big and Little

Many things are big and little. Nonfiction, Lexile BR20L

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Ted Sees a Pond

While on a walk, Ted and his dog see a pond and the things that live there. Fiction, Lexile 40L

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Near the Pond

Many animals are near the pond. Nonfiction, Lexile BR50L

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We Read About Animals

A child and an adult read a book about some animals. Fiction, Lexile 50L

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You know the feeling of annoyance when interesting books accumulate on a shelf or in a tablet, but you just can’t get out to read them all? Vika Anistratova took a speed reading course to understand how to learn how to quickly study books and whether it can be done in ten days.

Why did I need speed reading

One day I heard a curious statement about how the brain works. Allegedly, if you are often distracted by extraneous thoughts while reading, then you are reading more slowly than you can. The brain gets bored and tries to do other tasks at the same time. I don't know how true this statement is, but it seemed interesting. I just lately often forget while reading. And then I find myself at the end of the page without a drop of knowledge in my head.

I've been dragging out a 500-page book for three months because of absent-mindedness. So I decided it was time. I got out of the bins a ten-day author's speed reading course by blogger Olya Kilina, which I received in 2019 and which, of course, I never used. But now I wanted to test whether it is really possible to learn to read faster in just ten days.

Besides, they say that speed reading helps not only to read more books. It is useful for learning when, for example, you need to complete a textbook in a short time. And at work, if you need to read a lot of documents. Speed reading helps to prepare for public speaking, to remember the forgotten material.

How to learn to read faster

With the help of discipline and exercises. The course gives a theory about why speed reading is important, what factors slow down reading, and which, on the contrary, speed it up. Also in the course there are test texts to assess the speed and understanding of the text. Plus exercises for training.

To learn speed reading, I had to master several skills and get rid of "bad habits":

learn to read with the help of peripheral vision;
learn to work more carefully with a book;
stop saying words with your lips or in your head;
stop going back.

Exercises

Concentration training

Constantly returning to what you read slows down the speed of reading. To get rid of this habit, you have to train attention. The method that was suggested in the course is to cover the read text from above with a sheet of paper. It's like reading the credits and there's no chance of going back. There is another exercise: to read with your index finger or pencil so that your eyes follow the line. But the way with a sheet of paper approached me more.

For self-examination, I chose a new text and read it in this way for two minutes. After that, she marked the place and again reread the same text two more times, trying to move on.

Getting rid of the pronunciation of words

Another factor that slows down reading is the pronunciation of words. Some literally move their lips while reading, others pronounce the words in their heads. Instead of words, you need to learn to read whole phrases (ohhhh!).

For lips, the solution is simple - a pencil in the teeth while reading. The brain is more difficult. Task: to see the words as a whole, and not to read them syllable by syllable in the head. Then the eye will slide along the line, instead of stopping at each word. To do this, I opened the page and highlighted key phrases with a pencil. And then read the page. This trains the brain to see the line and read it as a whole.

Development of peripheral vision

Peripheral vision proved to be the most difficult to work with. It is necessary so as not to slide your eyes along the line, but as if to see the entire page as a whole, reading diagonally or from top to bottom (we were taught to read from left to right). You can train peripheral vision using Schulte tables.

An example of a Schulte table

You need to keep your eyes on the central number and try to name the rest as quickly as possible without taking your eyes off. The optimal result is 25 seconds.

I hated this exercise the most. I was still somehow able to cope with numbers, but it was very difficult to read the text, keeping my eyes on the center of the page. Each time the brain physically hurt, and the eyes refused to obey. Looking ahead, I will say that in ten days I did not manage to develop peripheral vision.

In addition to Schulte tables, the course offered two more reading methods to choose from: reading between lines and reading within boundaries. In the first, it was necessary to read the text in line intervals, clinging to the upper parts of the letters with your eyes. The second involved reading the page with small indents on both edges, moving along the page with the letter S. But none of them worked for me - I continued to train on the Schulte tables, although it also hurt.

Rules for choosing books

As it turned out, speed reading depends not only on the speed and level of understanding, but also on the selection of books. If you buy an uninteresting book, you are unlikely to read it even at a speed of 500 words per minute.

To really read, you need to study the book before you buy it. For example, Olya Kilina records a live broadcast on Instagram* every Friday, where she briefly retells books. Most often these are works about self-development, good habits and curious facts about the human body. You can watch these broadcasts and notice whether you want to read a book or not (I have been doing this for three years now). Olya saves them on IGTV.

But even with reviews, you need to study the book before buying. Look at the table of contents to understand what is going on. Open the book to any page and read a couple of paragraphs to see if the author's language is appropriate. E-bookstores typically offer a preview of a book prior to purchase.

The advice seems to be simple, but personally I didn't think of it. Because of this, the poor Roman writer Seneca is gathering dust on my bookshelf, and the abandoned Aristotle is crying in his waistcoat. Every time I take it upon myself to read them, my teeth hurt with boredom. But for now, I hope to grow up one day.

The process of reading

In addition to the exercises, the course devoted time to the importance of the setting and purpose of reading. And, of course, discipline, where would be dear without it.

Purpose

We need to understand why to read. This will help determine the speed. To capture the essence, it is enough to skim through the paragraphs, clinging to the key words with your eyes. If the chapter is boring or the essence is already clear, you can scroll further. And if time is really running out, you should reduce reading to the first and last paragraph of the chapter: as a rule, the main idea is contained there.

Furnishings

It is necessary to think over the convenience of reading to the smallest detail. Not only tea and a cozy armchair. Notes, bookmarks, even paper quality can affect reading. In e-books, you can twist the font and text wrapping to comfortable values. For some, for example, it is convenient to read in night mode even during the day.

Discipline

In the discipline training course, it is suggested to set limits. For example, allocate a certain amount of time for reading during the day. Or divide the number of pages by the period for which you want to read the work.

The 10-minute rule helped me establish regularity. No matter how tired I am, no matter how busy I am, ten minutes a day should be devoted to reading. This is how I trick my brain, which is not afraid of big values like "one hundred pages in half an hour."

How I tracked my progress

In addition to exercise, I measured my progress. I read a passage of text with a stopwatch and determined the number of words by the resulting time. A speed in the range of 400 to 500 words per minute is considered a good result. 200-300 words - average speed, less than 200 - slow reading. On the first day, I found out that I was reading at a speed of 345 words per minute, which is good.

Next came the comprehension test. According to the passage, ten statements were given. It was necessary to determine what was true, what was false, and what was not in the text at all. And here I am suffering again. All. Ten. days. It turned out that I remember the text so-so. On the first day, the result showed 60%. And no matter how hard I tried to read the words, my result remained at about the same level, or even lower.

I immediately remembered how our reading speed was tested at school. I sat next to the teacher and tried to read as many words as possible in 30 seconds. My results were among the best. Only the understanding of the text no one asked me. And now, it seems, this backfired.

What happened as a result

On the first day of the experiment, my reading speed was 345 words per minute , text understanding was 60% . On the last day - reading speed 400 words per minute , understanding of the text - all the same 60% . And here's what my results look like by the days:

Day	Exercise	Result
1	DETRODING DETITION DETRODING DETITION DETRODING DETRODUCTION DETITION.	345 words per minute, 60% comprehension
2	Eye training to unlearn going back. Practicing peripheral vision. Determination of reading speed and level of understanding.	300 words per minute, comprehension - 50%
3	Fight against extraneous thoughts: set a timer for 15 minutes and read without thinking about anything else. Gently bring yourself back if distracted. Read text using traditional left-hand reading and peripheral vision. Record the time and percentage of understanding.	300 words per minute, comprehension - 60%
4	Practice to stop pronouncing words: read a passage of text in phrases in 27 seconds.	52 seconds
5	Speed training: reading between lines and reading within boundaries Training to stop pronouncing words: read a passage of text in phrases in 27 seconds. Determination of reading speed and level of understanding.	30 seconds 480 words per minute, 50% comprehension
6	Determine the optimal speed available.	477 words per minute
7	Get rid of the information noise: remove books that will not be read, unfollow uninteresting social media profiles, clean up email, check subscriptions, start a "cork" book. Training to unlearn pronunciation of words: read a passage of text in phrases in 27 seconds.	30 seconds
8	Preview the book, set goals and objectives, prepare markers and stickers for notes, create conditions. Training to unlearn pronunciation of words: read a passage of text in phrases in 27 seconds.	28 seconds
9	Consolidation of exercises. Determining reading speed and comprehension.	400 wpm, 70% comprehension
10	Strengthening exercises. Determining reading speed and comprehension.	400 wpm, 60% comprehension

For the first six days, I was sure nothing was happening. I did the exercises, but my results did not improve. And sometimes they got worse. It was difficult for me to read quickly and at the same time understand what I was reading. I was infuriated by the eternal requirement not to run my eyes over the lines, but to look at the text as a whole. This made me understand even less. One of the tests showed that I could read at a speed of 477 words per minute, but this seemed like a cruel joke.

But the exercises actually worked. In parallel with the training, I was reading my unfortunate 500-page book, One Hand Clap. By the beginning of the course, I had read 282 pages in three months. And for ten days of the course there are already 159 pages - half of the previous result. While my mind was sure that nothing was happening, the brain was doing business at that time. I was actually able to speed up. And I started going back to what I read.

But you need to work with attention. The course did not help me develop it in ten days, but I realized that there was a problem with memorizing the text. It's a matter of practice. Also, to better remember, you can highlight the key ideas of the book. It is also useful to arrange a test work: after reading the chapter, write down 5-10 main thoughts that you remember.

So I can say that speed reading really works.