Literacy Connections Consulting

      Reading is an acquired skill that demands reading practice. To become proficient as readers, children must first be taught the skills and strategies of reading in a systematic way and then practice those skills by reading a lot. Why? Because reading volume – the amount of reading of developmentally appropriate books that students do both in and out of school – contributes to their reading proficiency. The more students read, the better they read, and the better they read, the more they read.

      According to the research findings, a case can be made for the reading of books as both a cause and an outcome of reading proficiency. The amount of reading that students do enhances their reading comprehension by building fluency, background knowledge, and vocabulary (Reutzal & DeBoer 2002). Books are a rich source of knowledge and academic vocabulary. The amount of academic vocabulary – the language of school – used in books far exceeds the amount of academic vocabulary used in oral conversation.  By reading widely and frequently, students not only improve as readers, they also increase their general knowledge and their overall verbal ability (Shefelbine 2000).

      Access to developmentally appropriate and engaging books contributes to how much students read; and how much they read is a factor in how well they read. When students are provided with well-designed classroom libraries, they interact more with books, spend more time reading, exhibit more positive attitudes toward reading, and exhibit higher levels of reading achievement (NAEP 2002). According to a study of both fourth and eighth grade scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (Wenglinsky 2003), students exposed to real texts – books and stories – rather than short passages in basal readers preformed better in reading comprehension.

      All students, regardless of their cognitive abilities, benefit from reading practice, and trade books are the tools that provide students with this practice. Trade books and individual book choice motivate students to read. A study of reading motivation factors (Guthrie & Humenick 2004) found that access to interesting texts in the classroom far outranked other key student motivation factors. Highly effective literacy educators understand that access to engaging books increases reading motivation and reading volume, and they create print-rich classrooms in which the classroom library is a vital component (Wolfersberger, et.al. 2004).

      Large classroom and school libraries play a key role in literacy learning (Mosenthal, et.al. 2001). Students become fluent readers when they have opportunities to practice their reading with books they want to read and can read with success (Armbuster, Lehr, & Olson 2001). Classroom libraries also help to level the playing field for students who have limited exposure to books in their home and community environments (Neuman 2000); however, equitable access to a quality classroom library is not an option for every student, as classroom libraries frequently vary in size and quality within schools and across districts.

(Fractor, et.al. 1993).

      Nothing can take the place of a knowledgeable teacher and high quality reading instruction; however, the importance of reading widely and voluntarily cannot be overemphasized. Kids who read, succeed.  By providing students with access to books and the time to read them for a variety of purposes during the school day, educators can mediate for the cognitive differences among students caused by the lack of print exposure and reading volume.