98th Percentile???? "Students who read independently an hour a day scored at the 98th percentile on standardized tests" according to Barbara Moss is AMAZING to me. I can't say that I am surprised...we've all know for a long time how important outside reading is to the kids we teach. I'm always surprised by parents when they ask what they can do to help their kids in school and they look taken aback when you say "read to them or let them read to you." It's such an important key to success in life yet we take it for granted.
It appears that not only do we take reading for granted, but we take IR for granted as teachers which was very eye-opening for me. It's in our Common Core Standards for English Language Arts across the country and yet it's only allotted 20 minutes a day in most schools or we give out reading logs to make sure our students are reading at home, but let's be honest...my kids come home with reading logs that ask them to read 30 minutes a week. That doesn't even cut it close!
I agree that students need to be able to choose their own books but I love the point made that modeling how to choose these books is so important. How many of us have had students that are natural bookworms and just can't keep a book in their hand fast enough and then the complete extreme opposite that can't seem to find the right book. I especially loved all the tips given to provide quality IR reading instruction for students (7 books/student, teacher scaffolding, peer conferences, oral reading conferences, and peer discussion). I must say that even my GT kids suffer from not enough IR time and boy was I surprised to see this in some of their STAR reports. I think it is important to really work on making sure I provide more and more of these opportunities to students even if they are GT.
I think some teachers still feel like they are wasting time if they are not standing in front of the class teaching. When given the opportunity, (and when reading a book that is right for them) kids LOVE to sit and read. When they have built stamina and have really been taught to think while they read, they quickly become reading fanatics! I saw it over and over in my classroom. Every day I would be asked, "Are we going to get to read today?" Duh! :) Even students who started out the year as reluctant readers eventually learned that reading is something you can enjoy. I wish more teachers saw the value in this.
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