What Really Matters: Kids Need To Read a Lot Chapter 2

1. What Really Matters: Kids Need To Read a LotChapter 2 “What Really Matters for Struggling Readers” by Richard Allington

2. How much reading is enough? • Depends on: • Children because they differ • The kind of readers you are satisfied with • Whether you want higher order understanding

3. Contrastive Studies: Lower achieving readers read less in school than higher achieving students • Studies between 1977 and 1989, the average higher achieving student read approximately three times as much each week as their lower achieving classmates, not including out of school reading.

4. Contrastive Studies: Lower achieving readers read less in school than higher achieving students • Collins (1986) found that with first grade instruction, higher achieving students spent 70% of their instructional time reading , discussing or responding to questions. Lower achieving students spent 37% with word identification drills, letter sound activities spelling, and penmanship activities replacing reading activities.

5. Contrastive Studies: Lower achieving readers read less in school than higher achieving students • More recently found that the volume of reading students did during school to be one of the important differences in more or less effective teachers’ classrooms • Results may be biased by 1 student reading aloud in small group vs. everyone reading silently.

6. Reading Volume of Fifth-Grade Students of Different Levels of Achievement (Based on In and Out of School Reading Logs)

7. Contrastive Studies: Lower achieving readers read less in school than higher achieving students John Guthrie suggests that increased practice results in increased proficiency. In order to accelerate struggling readers, they need more practice. The problem is that struggling 4th graders may need 3-5 hours a day of successful reading practice.

8. Correlational Studies • At every age level, reading more pages in school and at home each day was associated with higher reading scores. • Many children spent an inordinate amount of time on workbook activities (research says that effective reading instruction emphasizing extensive reading and writing activities instead of workbook activities is best)

9. Correlational Studies • Homes that had environments that fostered reading activities had higher reading achievement. • Studies showed positive correlations between the measures of reading activity and reading comprehension and vocabulary development. • But, does better reading lead to more reading or does more reading lead to better reading?

10. Explanatory Studies • In spite of numerous studies that describe the relationship between volume and reading proficiency, few states or school districts have developed standards for volume of reading.

11. Explanatory Studies • New York has an extensive reading standard where 25 books have to be read in a school year across all of the curriculum areas. (Books vary so this may be a bad standard) • The evidence is that when more time for reading and reading instruction is planned, there was higher reading achievement. (This was especially true for lower achieving readers)

12. Explanatory Studies • The evidence shows that direct, silent reading and not oral reading or workbook activities resulted in reading growth. This was later disproved by additional research) • Evidence showed the importance of good modeling and demonstrating good reading strategies to improve reading achievement. • Designing an intervention focused on improved reading achievement. • Evidence to support volume of reading as a central part of the intervention

13. How much reading do children need? • No metric to answer this question. But, regardless of how the volume of reading was measured, there is a strong relationship between volume and reading achievement. • In addition, children whose reading development lags behind their peers engage in far less reading than their higher achieving peers.

14. How much reading do children need? Allington recommends one and one-half hours daily in school of actual reading should be a minimum goal given the data provided in the various studies.

15. How much reading do children need? • How more effective teachers structure an hour of reading lesson time? • Five to ten minutes preparing the children to read the material and five to ten minutes engaging the children in activities following the reading. While the children were reading, the teacher worked with children in small groups or individually at their seats.

16. How much reading do children need? • Restructuring school days to make time for reading • Capturing more academic time • How many students are reading or doing math within 60 seconds of the actual start of the class period • Need to maximize productive reading time and minimize wasted time. • Reading lessons with too little reading • In the most effective classrooms, teachers used a commercial reading series only one or two days a week because there are too many non-reading activities associated with the series. • The same is true in Science and Social Studies textbooks.

17. How much reading do children need? Interruptions during the day Three types of interruptions From special areas (music, art, gym, library, computer lab, etc.) Children leave to attend instructional support programs (resource room, speech, physical therapy, ESL lesson, remedial reading, psychological services, etc) Public address announcements, interruptions at the door by other teachers, counselors, specialists, paraprofessionals, parents, and other visitors.

18. How much reading do children need? • Creating uninterrupted blocks for instruction • Provide each classroom with at least two and one-half hours of uninterrupted time (no pull outs, no push-ins, no specials) • Eliminate use of P.A. system except for emergencies • Limit who can knock on the classroom door during the day.

19. How much reading do children need? • Creating uninterrupted blocks for instruction • Hang signs on doors that say, “Great Minds at Work, Do Not Disturb” • Currently, every special teacher creates a program that works best for them without considering the classroom’s teachers need to teach. • Longer periods of instruction are needed to help solve a problem of “reading endurance”.

20. How much reading do children need? • Rethinking the design of special programs • Fewer class interruptions for longer periods of time (twice a week for fifty minutes instead of 4 or 5 days a week for 20 or 25 minutes a day) • Move special area instruction (instrumental music classes, remedial reading, speech, special services after school for some kids) Special Area Teachers would need flex time

21. How much reading do children need? • Creating standards for reading volume in the elementary grades • A lack of standards results in a wide variation between the amounts of reading done in each classroom. • Weekly Reading Volume Standards instead of daily provides flexibility in planning • Also include a thirty to forty-five daily volume standard for writing. • Whole Day Plans – Each day is a different subject to be taught all day

22. How much reading do children need? • Reading and writing volume in Grades 6-12 • Curriculums using a single source limits the amount of reading.

23. Summary 1. Kids need to read a lot if they are to become good readers 2. Schools need to develop standards for expected volume of reading and (writing) 3. Effective school organizational plan is allocating sufficient time for lots of reading and writing. 4. Reclaim time from non-instructional activities and with the support of the teachers 5. All teachers must understand the benefits of enhancing the volume of reading. 6. Reading and Writing must be integrated in all subjects.