How Many Pages Do They Read?

Dr. Beth M. Frye

Figuring Out How Many Pages Students Can Read In A Specified Amount of Time

When planning your reading lessons( guided reading, DRTA, literature circle, independent reading, or homework), you need to consider what is a reasonable amount for your students to read in the time you have allotted.

Here is how to figure it out:

1. Expected Words Per Minute (Silent or Oral Rate) X the # of minutes they will read = total words read

• For example, we might conclude that a normal 5th grader reading silently would read 150 words in a minute
• As a teacher you have planned 20 minutes for silent reading (a 20 page chapter).
• 150 wpm X 20 = 3000 total words (that you can expect a normal 5th grader to read in 20 minutes)

2. Total words read / # of words on the page = total pages read. To get the number of pages read, the total words read needs to be divided by the average number of words on a page for the book being read.

• Total words read / # of words on the page = total pages read.
• For example, a typical 5th grade book has 200 to 250 words per page
• 3000 words read / 200 words per page = 15 pages in 20 minutes

This example illustrates that for most situations, 20 minutes reading time might not be enough. So you would increase the amount of time you give students to read. So let's increase this to 30 minutes:

For example, if we had an average 5^th grader reading Bud, Not Buddy then this is how we might figure out how many pages of text, at a silent rate of 150 wpm, the child would read in a period of 30 minutes.

150 wpm X 30 minutes = 4500 total words

4500 total words/200 words per page = 23 pages

So, in a period of 30 minutes, most 5^th graders will be able to silently read about 20-25 pages from Bud, Not Buddy.

Use this formula to make sure you give your students enough time to read what they need to before completing an assignment.

Also, this example will help you see how important reading rate is for students. Suppose you have a 5th grader who is only reading 100 wpm. In 30 minutes he will have read 1,200 fewer words, 6 pages fewer than the normal reader. It would take this reader another 10 minutes to finish the same 20 page reading assignment. So think about what is reasonable to ask your students, all of them, to do when you assign reading, and give them enough time to read.

Reading Rates: SILENT

Reading Rates: ORAL