Reading Laboratories:  An Idea for Reading Improvement  

by Jack Humphrey

     As Indiana middle, junior, and senior high schools examine their reading ISTEP and verbal SAT scores and reflect on improvements needed, they may feel a need to upgrade their reading offerings for all students.  One way to mobilize for reading is to establish a reading laboratory to help move reading into the mainstream of school life. 

       While reading laboratories may serve many purposes and be organized in various ways, all have three important components:  teacher leadership; facilities, equipment, and materials; and a schedule that allows students access to the reading laboratory.

      Most Indiana middle, junior, and senior high schools have at least one teacher with a reading specialist license or reading endorsement.  Those few that don’t, surely have teachers willing to obtain this certification.  As long as the reading laboratory class size is the same as other classes, no additional staff members are needed.

      A reading laboratory should have enough space for seating the average number of students in regular classes; for a table for group work; for computers; and for shelving and displaying books, magazines, newspapers, and instructional materials.  (Reading print and nonprint materials will be displayed by hundreds of publishers at the International Reading Association’s Annual Convention in Indianapolis from April 30 to May 5, 2000.) 

      The scheduling of students should include classes for students who need to improve their reading skills as identified through ISTEP as well as for all students seeking to improve their vocabulary, comprehension, and rate of reading. 

      A reading laboratory can’t do everything needed to have a good reading program.  The regular curriculum should provide reading classes for all students through the eighth grade.  Participation in the Young Hoosier Book Award Program for middle school students and the Eliot Rosewater High School Book Award Program for high school students should be encouraged.  School libraries should purchase and promote books, magazines, and newspapers, as evidenced by high circulation results.  The faculty should be good reading role models and read and discuss books of current interest, such as bestsellers.  They should read aloud to their students.

      Students who participate in reading laboratory programs will have increased reading skills that carry over into other academic areas.  Schools demonstrate what is important by the time and resources they allocate.  If reading is important, then schools allocate ample time and resources for reading.  A reading laboratory is one way for middle grades schools to help their students increase their reading abilities and, by providing resources and time, to demonstrate that reading is an important part of the curriculum.

In a study done in Connecticut, it was found that in comparable schools, students in schools with reading consultants had higher reading test scores (Klein, Monti, Mulcahy- Ernt, and Speck, Connecticut Association for Reading Research Report, 1997).

 “The process of reading is reciprocal:  the book is no more than a formula, to be furnished out with images out of the reader's mind.”   Elizabeth Bowen