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

“What Really Matters for Struggling Readers” by
Richard Allington
How much reading is enough?
 Depends on:
1.Children because they differ
2.The kind of readers you are satisfied with
3.Whether you want higher order
understanding
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.
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.
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.
Reading Volume of
Fifth-Grade Students of Different Levels of Achievement
(Based on In and Out of School Reading Logs)
Achievement Minutes of Words per
Percentile
Reading
Year
per Day
90th
40.4
2,357,000
50th
12.9
601,000
10th
1.6
51,000
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.
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)
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?
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.
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)
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
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.
How much reading do children need?
Allington recommends one and onehalf hours daily in school of actual
reading should be a minimum goal
given the data provided in the various
studies.
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.
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.
How much reading do children need?
Interruptions during the day
Three types of interruptions
1.From special areas (music, art, gym, library,
computer lab, etc.)
2.Children leave to attend instructional support
programs (resource room, speech, physical
therapy, ESL lesson, remedial reading,
psychological services, etc)
3.Public address announcements, interruptions at
the door by other teachers, counselors, specialists,
paraprofessionals, parents, and other visitors.
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.
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”.
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
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
How much reading do children need?
Reading and writing volume in Grades 6-12
Curriculums using a single source limits the
amount of reading.
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.