Julie Niedrach Blog #2 No More Independent Reading Without Support, Section 2 Why Not? What Works?

Clearly, it has been proven through many research studies that independent reading has a direct correlation to improved achievement in schools throughout the nation.  I like what I read in this section that students must have access to a variety of books in their class and the school library, and be allowed to choose some of the books they read.

I was introduced to a better class library when I was in the 5th grade.  Before that, my classrooms didn't have a good variety of books to read, and we didn't always get to go to the library freely like the students do now.  In my 5th grade classroom, my teacher had filled her book baskets with lots of interesting mysteries, and other historical fiction novels.  This was the year I became more interested in reading, and I also became a better reader.  I believe when students get to choose books they are interested in reading, they truly begin to enjoy reading, and they show improvement.

Once the students have the books to read, they need teacher monitoring and assessments to determine their gains.  From there, a teacher needs to set up a conferencing time with the students, so they are accountable.  Teachers could also use reading logs, story summaries and written responses to achieve comprehension.  I especially liked the exercise called "Reciprocal Teaching".  This is the discussion of a text based on four reading strategies...1) questioning, (2) clarifying, (3) summarizing, and (4) predicting.  These help students monitor and develop their own comprehension.  This is also a scaffolding strategy to help the student work towards independent discussion.  Research shows this is especially important for the English Language Learners. They always need the scaffolding to help with text-based comprehension.

  One of the studies mentioned in this chapter included a reading incentive program. called "California Reads".  This study included two school districts, and the participants were ELLs and striving readers assigned to one of three groups.  Only one group included informational books, and ongoing teacher support with students and professional development.  The other two groups were given books but no professional development or teacher support.  Students in the first group showed significant gains in both fluency and comprehension.  This showed that incentives and books alone were not enough to increase achievement in reading.  This study also backed up the research for teacher monitoring and assessments to achieve gains in reading comprehension.

This research has motivated me to try some restructuring in my class, to make room for at least 20 minutes of independent reading.  The research has definitely been proven that even 10 to 15 minutes a day of independent  reading with the teacher monitoring, can increase reading comprehension and fluency.  Now I just need to create a more interesting class library.