Give each student a different paragraph of the same difficulty level to read; the paragraph should contain between 70 to 90 words. Ask one student at a time to read his paragraph; use a timer to determine how long it takes him. For easy texts, the normal time for novice students, excluding those below the age of 10, is one minute. Repeat the process using the same text with all students exceeding that threshold; use the timer to measure their improvement when reading the now-familiar text.
If you have multimedia equipment available in the classroom, record a one-minute conversation from a television series at home and bring the DVD to the classroom. Write down the transcript of the conversation and make a copy for each student. Ask students to pay attention to the screen and focus on the actors' speaking rate. Afterward, ask one student at a time to read the transcript. Students may imitate the way actors speak and improve their reading rate.
Create teams of two players, each team consisting of a strong reader and a weak reader. Give each team a text to read twice; keep a separate timer for each player. For example, when John is reading, use the timer in your left hand. Stop the timer when John finishes and start the timer on your right hand for Neil. When both students have finished, add their times to determine the team's score. Declare the team with the lowest time the winner. This activity helps weak students follow the example of their stronger teammates and allows the whole class to improve their reading rate by competing with each other.
Type a text of 200 words and mention the number of words up to a point at the end of each line. For example, if the first line contains 12 words, write (12) next to the line; if the second line has nine words, write (21). Ask one student at a time to read the text as quickly as he can, as long as he's not rambling and you can understand him. Keep a timer; after a minute, stop the student. Mark the word where she stopped reading and count the words to its right until you get to the end of the line. Subtract these words from the number next to that specific line to calculate the score. The student with the highest score is the winner.