Final answer:
The teacher can use a stopwatch and a sample reading passage to determine the number of words per minute her students can read.
Step-by-step explanation:
To obtain information on how many words per minute her students can read, a fourth-grade teacher can use a stopwatch and a sample reading passage. The teacher can ask each student to read the passage aloud while timing them for one minute. The number of words read in that minute can be recorded.
For example, if a student reads 120 words in one minute, their reading speed would be 120 words per minute (wpm).
By repeating this process with all the students in the class, the teacher can gather data on each student's reading speed in words per minute.
To obtain a words-correct-per-minute (WCPM) score, students are assessed individually as they read aloud for one minute from an unpracticed passage of text. To calculate the WCPM score, the examiner subtracts the total number of errors from the total number of words read in one minute.
A normal rate for learning is 100-200 wpm, and for comprehension it is 200-400 wpm. Speed reading is normally done at a rate of around 400-700 wpm. Anything above 500-600 wpm means sacrificing comprehension, although this varies from person to person.