Did it sound like kids learning to read...?

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...sound like robots?

As a child, I learned to read fairly quickly. So I had trouble believing that they needed to teach us reading in school. I already knew how!

So then, when the teacher had kids read things aloud, most kids spoke in this halting, 'quasi-robotic' manner of speaking. I don't think I read aloud like that. But I do remember it sounded strange to me when other kids read aloud. Like 'having problems READING?!' (not that I ever said that).

I can't stand to hear a lot of people read... they read word by word with no cadence or inflection. Aaargh!

I don't know if I have proper drama inflection... I try to read like I hear the recorded books people do, but it's harder than it sounds. But I do read in sentences, with pauses and emphasis.

Not... Chop, chop, chop. Stutter, er, chop, chop, chop.

And I'm talking adults.

my guess, you had a more advanced vocabulary then those who you see as having the robotic way of reading. The robotic stuttering is due to the unfamiliarity with the words and the time it takes to decode them. The more advanced vocabulary the easier it is to follow the flow of the sentence orally. Their still learning to read instead of reading for meaning.

Try reading allowed a technical paper for a field you have no experience in ( Legal is good if you don't have any experience there). The wording takes sometime to get used to ( you are learning to read the big new odd words instead of reading a sentence for its meaning)

But see, this is the problem: They WEREN'T sounding out the words. For some crazy reason the school used a system that does not start with phonics. I was taught how to read with phonics. But even though they weren't sounding out words they sounded strangely robotic. Very wierd.

I was home schooled for the majority of my years in school so I wasn't in school to hear kids learn how to read, and I also learned how at an early age. But When I started attending school in 9th grade I was surprised when I listened to people read out loud cause they didn't read with correct inflection (and a lot didn't read with any inflection). I'm in my first year of college now and there are many adults who don't read well at all and it's still weird to me. Teachers always seem surprised when they ask me to read out loud to a class because normally I don't speak loudly and I'm monotone, but when reading I sound really normal.

Sound like the global method. It's suck. No wonder the kids were having difficulty...

Urg, that bothers me too. :/ Though I'm guessing it does have to do with how often someone reads and what their vocabulary is like, and if they're actually gaining any meaning from the sentence rather than just saying each word. They might as well be reading a string of random words aloud.

ughh, yes i hated that. in english classes in high school when we had parts to read aloud out of books i actually made it sound like someone was saying it rather than droning it. consequently i got many remarks from my peers that i'd make a good narrator & such and they thought it was awesome. but they all read it so dead, without feeling. i almost wanted to snatch it away from them and just do all the parts myself.

maybe it's just a difference in the wat i learned to read. i lerned to read whole words at a time. none of that stumbly syllable by syllable phonics bullcrap.

i can read 240 words per minute and still unsterstand what i'm reading. 4 words per second. not skimming, just FAST reading. so i guess maybe i just have enough time to both understand the line and anticipate better how it should be read as i'm reading it. advantage?
so wheni read books i take in words fast enough to basically just paint the scene in my head as it happens in the story and i space off while i read and get lost in it. then resurface when i need to shift my weight, go to the bathroom, or realize i should prolly be doing simething or get hungry

Ugh.. I totally understand that. Even in high school, there were a lot of supposedly 'not dumb' kids who'd read like that. I learnt to read before I started school.. I remember even when we were about 8, the teacher would have to read test questions aloud for the majority of the class.

Sounds like me. I never understood why the other kids read like that, either. Nor did I understand why the teacher let them get away with behaving badly (since I thought they were making it up.) Sometimes when I got home I'd mimick them and read the text in the same manner. I wasn't mocking them in absentia, I simply didn't understand. Thanks heaven I'm introvert and never said it in class!

I was in 4th grade when I finally understood that they actually had problems reading. I don't know if this is normal age for kids to get it or if it was lack of ToM.
I was always bored out of my mind when they were called upon to read in class. They never got through an entire sentence it seemed.