Hello All!
I am writing today to advocate for protected, routine, silent independent reading time in classrooms. If you already do this - amazing work, you can read below all the fantastic benefits your students are reaping from these sessions!
If you are not yet on board with independent reading time - you're about to be!
I have more than once had to defend this time against the opinions of others as 'wasted' instructional time.
I could not agree less.
Every single day, my students come into the classroom and immediately settle down with a book of their choosing for 15 minutes. I'm a little old-school... I won't let them read on their iPads during this time. This is only a personal preference as I think nothing beats the feeling of a book in your hands, with fine motor benefits in holding and turning the pages of books. It also helps to foster responsibility and respect for classroom belongings. We also have a few times a week a DROP EVERYTHING AND READ session (D.E.A.R) where students literally drop everything and choose whatever they want to read. I'm often met with a loud cheer when I tell them to drop everything and read!
Independent reading time has a host of benefits I am about to share with you:
1. It prepares them for the demands of high school and university by creating skillful, habitual readers
Being able to read for a sustained amount of time is an important skill the prepares students for high school, college and many other careers. Students who engage regularly in sustained silent reading have been shown in a multitude of research to boost overall reading achievement.
2. It improves comprehension abilities
Independent reading provides students with an abundance of opportunities to extract meaning from texts without teacher support, which consequentially results in improvements in reading stamina. Giving students a chance to rehearse this skill with reading materials of their own choosing boosts motivation to engage in reading for extended periods of time.
3. Independent reading boosts vocabulary
The more children read, the greater their vocabulary, which transfers to both their speech and writing. Students who read more express themselves with a wider variety of language than those who read less. It also offers students opportunities to use contextual clues to determine word meanings and definitions, or to investigate unknown vocabulary with tools such as dictionaries.
4. Engagement is increased
When students are allowed to self-select tests that pertain directly to their interests, true engagement is achieved. Students who are interested in what they are reading, and are given empowerment and choice over their learning in the classroom will naturally enjoy the act of reading more. There is voluminous research spanning 40 years to support the conclusion that reading for simple enjoyment is a major aspect of successful reading development.
5. It improves reading ability!
The more one reads, the better one reads! Independent reading has been shown to improve fluency, automaticity, comprehension, writing style, vocabulary, grammar and spelling, reading volume, concentration, and effort in reading.
Many students will not have access to texts or facilities with texts outside of school hours so we owe it to our students to give them protected independent reading time. If we want students to develop a love of reading and learning we must foster that within the classroom.
The key is providing a wide variety of materials that appeals to a wide range of tastes and abilities to develop skillful and critical readers. I have linked down below some scientific literature for reference and further reading if you are interested.
Let me know in the comments below if you are going to try integrating silent sustained reading in your classroom!
References & Further Reading
Anderson, R. C., L. G. Fielding, and P. T. Wilson. 1988. Growth in reading and how children spend their time outside of school. Reading Research Quarterly 23: 285–304
Clark, M. M. 1984. Literacy at home and at school: Insights from a study of young fluent readers. In Awakening to literacy. Edited by H. Goelman, A. Oberg, and F. Smith. Exeter, N.H.: Heinemann Educational Pub
Krashen, S. D. 1989. We acquire vocabulary and spelling by reading: Additional evidence for the Input Hypothesis. Modern Language Journal 73: 440–64.
Taylor, B., P. Frye, and G. Maruyama. 1990. Time spent reading and reading growth. American Educational Research Journal 27: 442–51.
Watkins, M., and V. Edwards. 1992. Extracurricular reading and reading achievement: The rich stay rich and the poor don’t read. Reading Improvement. (Winter): 236–42.
