Marie Carbo originally designed Carbo recorded reading after discovering the benefits of allowing a child with weak skills to listen repeatedly to a short passage that had been recorded for him or her. After noting the student’s rapid progress, Carbo began recording short selections for her student every day. From this beginning with an elementary student, the recorded reading strategy developed and is now used with first graders through adults.

Carbo maintains that this strategy is of optimum benefit when recordings are made for a specific student. Personal messages can be left for the student along with the appropriate recorded reading material. Keep the recording brief and use it every day. According to Carbo, the benefits of this strategy include:

• increase in confidence - students are guaranteed success,
  
  
• increase in vocabulary development - vocabulary is transferable to other texts with continued practice,
  
  
• improvement in fluency and expression,
  
  
• improvement in comprehension through the use of phrasing. Readers with weak skills tend to struggle with individual letters or words; modeling meaningful phrases will eventually teach students to think in a new way while reading.
  
  

If this strategy does not work, one or all of the following changes need to occur:

• read from easier material,
  
  
• read more slowly,
  
  
• shorten the selection.
  
  

The key is to keep recordings short and to read phrases slowly. Do not worry about quantity. Quality and confidence are the goals.

Students of all ages resist anything new. Teachers who persist in a calm but firm manner will see resistance melt away as students begin to experience success in reading.


Preparation

Select a short story or passage from a story or book that is of interest to the student.

• Read very slowly for approximately two to five minutes, breaking the text into meaningful phrases or chunks. Length of reading will depend on the age of the student and the difficulty of the material.
  
  
• The more difficult the text is for the student, the shorter the passage should be. Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder (ADHD) children will not be able to attend to a tape for more than a few minutes.
  

• Ask the student to listen and follow the text silently with a hand or an index card flowing under the line of print. The child will not do oral reading at this time.
  
  
• After listening to the same short passage two to three times, ask the student to read orally.
  
  
• After oral reading, it may be appropriate to apply the Carbo method to the next section of the story or chapter.
  
  

In a long story or chapter, summarize parts and only record sections of greater relevance. Use a variety of strategies in addition to the Carbo method.


Creating Tapes

For repeated home and school practice, tape short sections and allow students to listen a minimum of three times before reading to the teacher. When creating the tapes, remember to:

• Tape only one section on each side of the tape (for approximately two to three minutes on each side).
  
  
• Label the two sides carefully so that your students will be able to locate the parts.
  
  
• State the name of the story and the exact page numbers included on the recording.
  
  
• In a whispered voice, tell the students when to turn to page (next page).
  
  
• At the end of the recording, tell the students that the selection is finished and it is time to rewind the tape and listen again.
  
  
• Ask the students how to improve the recordings.
  
  
• Buy very short, inexpensive tapes for short recordings.
  
  

If finding the extra time to create tapes becomes too difficult, allow others to do the actual recording. For example, older students with good reading skills, parents, volunteers, and grandparents can be asked to help tape short selections.