The
Key to Copious
Reading –
Time and Access
At Willits Charter School, I teach English to all grade levels.
The foundation of my reading program is reading-for-pleasure.
Research and observation show that students who read a lot become not
only better readers but also better learners. Students who read
the most read because they have access to and are interested in the
books that they read. Therefore, I concentrate on getting the books to
the students that they want to read.
In addition to providing the students with access to books, our entire
school has a twenty-minute silent-reading period every day after
lunch. In my classes, I provide another half hour each week of
silent reading time. During this half hour, I monitor the
students’ involvement in their reading. If a student does not
seem to be enjoying the book he or she is reading, I will suggest
another one.
In this way, at the Willits Charter School, we give our students both
the access to the books they want to read and the time to read
them. This program has been successful on several levels.
Primarily, it has been successful in that it has reached almost all of
the students who have come through my classes during the past five
years. There have been only about a half dozen students who I
have not been able to convince that reading is fun.
Secondly, our STAR test scores reflect the positive effects of a
reading-for-pleasure program. The spring 2002 Star Tests showed
the annual yearly progress index (API) rose 21 points. In the
autumn of 2002, I introduced the reading-for-pleasure program at the
Willits Charter School. The spring 2003 API rose 75 points, from
709 to 784. In the spring 2002 English language scores, 33% of
seventh graders were deemed proficient, 25% of eighth graders were
deemed proficient, and 27% of ninth graders were deemed
proficient. In the spring 2003 scores, the proficiency scores
were 43%, 36% and 36% respectively. In the four years that the
program has been in place, the scores have maintained that level,
increasing slightly. The spring 2006 API was 805. Star test
scores can be viewed at http://star.cde.ca.gov/star2006 .
Finally and the most rewarding for me, most students at the Willits
Charter School love to read. I have watched countless
freshly-arrived students looking around with disbelief when seasoned
Charter School students dig into their own personal-choice books.
In time, these new students will join the chorus of voices pleading to
be allowed to read all day, every day. In two of my classes, the
average number of pages read each week is 250, with no incentives other
than the joy of it. It is perfectly natural for children and
young adults to enjoy reading.
Concerns
Parents of students who enjoy reading often express concern that their
children aren’t reading the books they should read. First of all,
I share their concern. I do think quality counts. I do
nudge my students towards books of increasing value to them, whether it
is for the content, the integrity of the writing, or the intellectual
challenge. However, holding primacy is the innate drive that each
student has to choose the book that he or she wants to read at that
moment in time. The satisfaction of this drive is what inspires
the love of reading. The love of reading inspires more reading,
and eventually, an ingrained love of reading will inspire a student to
overcome the challenges of a book that might have killed an appetite
for reading if a forced reading had been required.
Another concern parents, and indeed, educators have, is that reading
comprehension must be taught and the only way to do this is with guided
reading. All students in a class must read the same book at the
same pace, all the while participating in teacher-guided
discussions. In some cases, the increased comprehension will
broaden or even spark a student’s appreciation of literature.
However, “forced” reading too often kills any belief that reading can
be pleasure. Which would you rather read, a book someone else has
decided you should, or one you have been salivating over every since
you first heard about it and now it is in your hands? Yet, I
respect the power of guided and shared reading. Therefore, I combine
these opposing truths in my classes through shared reading of short
pieces, both fiction and nonfiction, with intensive analysis of both
craft and content.
You
Can Help
With every year at the Willits Charter School, more pages are read per
student per week. While many students enjoy reading the same books,
there are just as many who have more individualized tastes.
Finding books for everyone is an entirely enjoyable process and one on
which I spend a lot of time, both in research and in reading.
However, the success of our school’s reading-for-pleasure program
constantly pushes against the limits of available funding. In
short, the students are devouring books faster than I can find ways to
pay for them. You can support reading-for-pleasure at our school
by donating money for books. Or, if you are willing to commit the
time, I have some ideas of ways to create permanent fund raising
support.
Come talk to me.
ONE: READ
FOR PLEASURE YOURSELF
As Nancie Atwell reminds us in her book, The Reading Zone (2007,
Scholastic), “Every measure that looks at pleasure reading and its
effects on student performance on standardized tests of reading
ability—and science and math—tells us that the major predictor of
academic success is the amount of time that a student spends
reading. In fact, the top 5 percent of U.S. students read up to
144 times more than the kids in the bottom 5 percent.”
And from The Kids and Family Reading Report (2006 June)
commissioned by Scholastic and viewable at
http://www.scholastic.com/aboutscholastic/news/readingreport.htm
,
we have the following statistics:
In other words, the most important thing parents can do to encourage
their children to read for pleasure is to read for pleasure
themselves. If you haven’t read a book for a while (or
ever)
the best way to start is at your local library or your local
bookstore. Most bookstores have a “central table” of their
employees’ best recommendations. Peruse these books: look at the
covers, read the back cover, read the first paragraph. Both
librarians and book store personnel can help you select a book that
might interest you. Talk to them. Then read. Let
yourself lay around reading. If the first book you choose doesn’t
catch your interest, find another one. You will have to put some
effort into this endeavor, but the goal is to enjoy reading: go for the
can't- put-it-down feeling, the can’t-wait-till-I’m-done-here-
so-I-can-go-get-my-book feeling, the don’t
–care-what-time-it-is-I-don’t-really-need-that-much-sleep
feeling. Then when you finish your first reading-for-pleasure
book, find another.
TWO:
READ TO YOUR CHILD
Now that you know what reading for pleasure is like (or if you already
do) you are in the best position to help your child partake in the same
pleasure. If your child is pre-school age, read to them.
Learn what stories appeal to them most and find more like them.
Keep them supplied with books. Again, talk to librarians and book
store personnel. Children blessed with this early reading
environment will turn down just about any activity when given the
option of having a story read to them.
THREE:
BE YOUR CHILD’S PRIMARY READING ADVOCATE
If your child is already in school and you have provided a good reading
environment at home, there are two approaches for you to take to
perpetuate this environment into the school years. You may
approach the school and see if they already foster a
reading-for-pleasure environment, and if they don’t, you may see if
they are amenable to developing one. Most schools do a good job
teaching children to read. However, the very process of “learning
to read” can often kill “the pleasure of reading” for many
children. In fact, many of those who teach children to read,
don’t read for pleasure themselves, or even believe such a phenomena
exists: reading for them is a task that is “good for you” and must be
undertaken, along with so many of life’s less than pleasant chores.
Therefore, the second approach for parents of a school-aged child is to
assume the role as the primary advocate for their child’s potential to
love reading. If your school will not match your child with the
books that will interest him or her, if your school does not provide
silent reading time in quantity, then you must. And even if your
school does all this for your child, you know your child the best, and
you can do the most for him or her.
FOUR: SEARCH
FOR BOOKS
As you have searched for books that will interest you, so will you
search for the books that will interest your child. Keep in
mind only one thing: whether or not he or she will like this
book. A lack of access to books they want to read is the
number one reason cited by children as to why they don’t read more than
they do. You can provide this access.
AND FINALLY:
Reading for
pleasure is the key to reading a lot. However it is
true that reading is not all pleasure. Learning to read can be
frustrating for some children. All students will, at some point
in their education, be confronted with having to read something they
don’t like. Even for those who grow up loving to read, there will
come the time when some work is needed to push one’s patience with
“slow-going” books in order to open up whole new avenues of reading
pleasure. Experienced, mature readers will know that an
occasionally challenging book is essential to keep reading pleasure a
vital pleasure. But those children who have learned that reading
is pleasure at an early age and who also have a full “bank” of
experience with reading pleasure at an early age will be more able to
take reading challenges in stride as they encounter them.
In today’s world, a child will go through twelve, sixteen, twenty years
of schooling to become educated. Books, and in the age of
cyberspace, the printed word, are the bedrock of this education.
A truly educated person, however, is someone who educates his or her
self. An infant who reaches out to grab something does
this. Anyone who seeks a book to read does this. A person
who grows up reading for pleasure knows that the pleasure is in the
learning, in the engagement between the reader’s mind and the writer’s,
and in the questions asked that the books answer. Reading is
pleasure because learning is pleasure.
'06/'07
Student Favorites
LIGHTNING THIEF by Rick Riordan
SEA OF MONSTERS by Rick Riordan
OLIVE'S OCEAN by Kevin Henkes
SERIES of UNFORTUNATE EVENTS by Lemony Snicket
SCRIBBLER OF DREAMS by Mary E. Pearson
ARTEMIS FOWL by Eoin Colfer
TWILIGHT by Stephanie Meyer
MAGYCK by Angie Sage
ERAGON by Christopher Paolini
CLOUD OF SPARROWS by Takashi Matsuoka
ELDEST by Christopher Paolini
IMMORTALS by Tamora Pierce
THE NECESSARY BEGGAR by Susan Palwick
AIRBORNE by Kenneth Oppel
SKYBREAKER by Kenneth Oppel
KEYS TO THE KINGDOM by Alison A. Armstrong
AS SIMPLE AS SNOW by Gregory Galloway
THE TOMORROW SERIES by John Marsden
I AM THE MESSENGER by Markus Zusak
The EXTRAORDINARY ADVENTURES of ALFRED KROP by Rick Yancey
and for older readers...
RUNNING WITH SCISSORS by Augusten Burroughs
NEVERWHERE by Neil Gaiman
A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY by Libba Bray
A MILLION LITTLE PIECES by James Frey
Don't Let's Go to the Dogs Tonight by Alexandra Fuller
NEVER LET ME GO by Kazuo Ishiguro
A GLASS CASTLE by Jeannette Wells
HARBOR by Lorraine Adams
CHINA'S SON by Da Chen
for
Moms…
The Painted Veil
W. Somerset Maugham
Lost in a Forest
Sue Miller
Daughter’s Keeper
Ayelet Waldman
I Know This Much is True
Wally Lamb
Never Let Me Go
Kazuo Ishiguro
Poisonwood Bible
Barbara Kingsolver
Corelli’s Mandolin
Louise de Bernieres
The Birth of Venus
Sarah Dunant
The Dive From Clausen’s Pier
Ann Packer
Highwire Moon
Susan Straight
Once in a Promised Land
Laila Halaby
The Good Wife
Stewart O’Nan
The Glass Castle
Jeannette Wells
The Other Boleyn Girl
Philippa Gregory
|
and/or
for Dads…
Shantaram
Gregory David Roberts
Saints and Villains
Denise Giardina
The Life of Pi
Yann Martel
The Killer Angels
Michael Shaara
Acts of Faith
Philip Caputo
Peter the Great
Robert K. Massie
Great River
Paul Horgan
Rain of Gold
Victor Villasenor
Queen of the South
Arturo Perez-Reverte
Harbor
Lorraine Adams
The Devil’s Highway
Luis Alberto Urrea
A Thread of Grace
Maria Dora Russell
|
Links
Good places to find suggestions for books for school-aged children.
http://misterkreads.blogspot.com/
http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/booklistsbook.htm
Places to find more information about the benefits of reading for
pleasure.
http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/About/OECDrelease.html
http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/awardsscholarships/literaryawds/literaryrelated.htm
scholastic
report
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