I have been teaching my little cousin to play the clarinet. After two and a half years, he has finished the gr.3 exam and is doing his gr.5 exam this summer. He does play quite well and often practises - However, his sight-reading skills for clarinet is far from satisfactory, and despite the effort we paid together, he could not manage to sight-read and play pieces correctly and coherently. That's really, really frustrating. - ____ -"

What methods could I use to improve the situation? Are there any good collections of pieces which can be used for practices (apart from the abrsm one)?

I will appreciate it very much if you could kindly help

As with any other instrument the more things he reads the better it will get.
Do you play his pieces to him before he attempts them or do you expect him to at least try first?

Does he play in an ensemble of any sort? This would help with sight reading it would also give him a reason to need to be able to read reasomably well.... or you could try some duets with him (don't play his part for him but get him to read it for himself).

Try practising sight-reading rhythms with him away from the clarinet. In many ways that's the toughest bit of sight-reading, and also it's the one that's easy to practice independently from the instrument. If his fluency in reading rhythms improves it will mean he's got one less thing to think about in his sight-reading.

Duets I agree are an excellent idea. Start with easy ones, and work up.

If you can work out what he is finding hard, then you can tailor your approach to his weak areas.

Have you tried the "Improve your sight-reading" books which I am 99% sure are available for clarinet?

Remember that he doesn't just have to practice loads of sight-reading examples: sight-reading lower grade music, indeed any music, will help.

There are also sight-reading random extracts you can print out on www.practicespot.com - there are two sight-reading things, one is for piano and the other is for melody lines, I'm afraid I don't remember which one is which but there's definitely a melody-line version.

Are there any books of sight reading examples for clarinet pupils like the piano ones by Paul Harris (isn't he a clarinettist). You could start him off with a lower grade eg. 2 or 3 depending on his ability and work up to grade 5 gradually (as well as all the other suggestions made by the other readers).

The piano sight reading is called Improve your Sight Reading, published by Faber

Yes, Paul Harris is indeed a clarinettist.

The Improve your Sight Reading series is published for clarinet, in four books, grades 1-3, 4-5, 6 and 7-8. It's a worthwhile series of books to get.

Plenty of practice in sight reading is the way to go - the more you do, the more experience your pupil will get. I certainly agree with the comments above about ensemble/duet playing. Do encourage your pupil to keep going when sight reading, and to avoid the temptation to go back and correct mistakes.