Read Between the Lines: Developing a Culture of Reading

Developing a culture of reading at home and at school is going to be a game changer for students this school year. Teaching reading in content areas boosts overall confidence and performance. As we master reading skills and strategies, we become strong readers. We are also empowered to become more independent learners. We're equipped to solve novel problems and address age-old issues.

Did you know?

• The average U.S. citizen spends only 16-minutes a day reading outside school and work; down from 22-minutes in 2005.
• People age 20 to 34 read the least outside school and work: 6-minutes a day.
• People age 75 and older read the most: 51-minutes a day.

Apparently, with wisdom comes the uncanny tendency to appreciate and engage with the wealth of knowledge at our finger tips. This post outlines strategies for developing a culture of reading, so we can outperform yesteryear versions of ourselves.

Getting Started

• Research shows that independent reading can improve student achievement in language arts and other content areas. Let's begin with book choice. We want to teach students how to choose appropriate books. In addition to choosing interesting books, they need to understand how to assess text complexity. Is the book on grade level? Is the book below a student's reading capabilities? Explicit instruction on Lexile measures, grade level AR measures, DRA reading levels, or other relevant reading measurements is paramount.

• I usually find myself reading in the same place. On occasion, change of scenery is necessary. Maybe I'll read in a restaurant or near the reservoir in my car. (I hate bugs!) It's not uncommon to wake up feeling different. Just as we enjoy the freedom to express ourselves differently, to behave differently, it's important to make room for flexibility in learning environments. We want to afford students similar flexibility. Yes, this includes flexible seating for reading. Click here for flexible seating ideas for home and school.

• Success is in your routine. In setting a routine for independent reading time, start small. Situate reading time in the middle of the day, class, or block. Reading shouldn't feel like a punishment nor an after thought. Students are best poised to be intentional when we're intentional about constructing learning opportunities. It's not necessary to write answers to comprehension questions during every scheduled reading. In this way, we promote love of reading. (Or, is it love for reading?)

Reading Pedagogy

• When facilitating student transition from reading to learn... to learning to read, assessment comes first. Assessments, tests, exams. Oh my! Do these words make you cringe? Only in a fantasy world are we able to get on with the business of providing effect reading instruction without making time for meaningful assessment. Since we know how much reading counts, it's important to concretize the gap between where students stand and growth expectations. Assessment results give us information needed to draft effective reading action plans. The best plans inform instruction, goal-setting, and feedback via student reading log and student engagement inventory (here's another inventory).

• To remain engaged students must see incremental improvements in their own performance, so we have to design learning experiences that yield quantitative results. Several web-based reading assessment programs offer individualized reading options and performance data. Reading journal prompts yield qualitative results and insight into the mind of the reader. One cool way to take this approach up a notch is by placing sticky notes with questions about the text inside the book. Also, consider impromptu verbal questioning throughout the day to infuse reading and comprehension skill into everyday life.

• Cooperative goal setting involves getting buy-in. Student patterns reveal opportunities to improve reading engagement (e.g., resisting distraction, choosing appropriate texts, increasing stamina) and strengthen comprehension performance (e.g., building vocabulary, leveraging textual evidence, thinking beyond literal meaning). Let's aim for several small victories over time. Armed with relevant samples of student work and performance data, schedule 5 to 10-minute goal-setting conferences to get students on board with setting smart goals via questioning. Consider writing a goal card (maybe used as a bookmark) as a reminder for the student. See deconstructed sample goals here. (Read one educator's experience with setting smart goals with her students here.) 

Raising Readers

• Reading goals are most impactful when teachers provide ongoing, real-time feedback. It's worth noting that reading support strategies are different than reading feedback strategies. Reading support may involve strengthening phonemic and phonological awareness skills (e.g., sounding out words); whereas reading feedback involves praising student ability to attempt to sound out words before asking for help. Another example of support involves providing additional context to drive home word meaning; in a similar case, feedback would involve commenting on a student's use of an online dictionary to independently make sense of an unfamiliar concept.

• When setting reading goals for learners and planning instructional supports, think about the nonverbals. How does engaged reading look? What does a focused person look like? How do we respond to the environment when we're immersed in a text? Whatever your answers, it's important that you're not just observing students, that you're also modeling reading engagement during student reading times. Young people do what we do, not what we say.

• Student motivation to read is linked to both enjoyment and perception of growth.(I advocate facilitating the transition from external to intrinsic motivation, so the end goal would be that more emphasis is on reading for understanding than on reading to demonstrate understanding. Still, this is a different conversation that I'll likely address in a future blog post; you're invited to share your experiences and thoughts on this distinction.) Dissect the difference between student perception of growth and actual growth; keenness in this area is key to addressing low reading motivation.

I'd love to be a resource as you work to develop a culture of reading. Schedule professional coaching for yourself and private tutoring for your student by visiting je411.com. You're also invited to keep the conversation going by sharing this content, leaving a comment, and clapping back in a guest blog submission.

Cure Unmotivated Readers

We know the benefits of reading, so let's challenge ourselves to make reading a fun experience for learners. If something is fun, adults are more likely to do it... So, why wouldn't this be true for children as well?

Though unequivocal differences exist, adults and children learn in similar ways. Both groups must experience motivation to learn. Whereas adults are more motivated by responsibility to family and career, young readers are almost entirely driven by intrinsic motivation. This refers to the "WHY" behind what we do and how we do it.

Read with purpose.

Setting explicit goals is one way to promote intrinsic motivation. Though effecting intrinsic (or individual) motivation seems a futile endeavor, research on human nature helps us create goals whereby learners choose to do the "heavy lifting". 

Bringing your child's reading goals into focus is well worth the effort. Get to know the child. Learn what drives them to take action. Keep reading to learn how...

Bring goals into focus.
Jeremy's teacher suggests that he read more often to build vocabulary and improve comprehension. Following a conversation with Jeremy, you learn he likes cars. He likes custom cars with "pimped out" add-ons, engines, and paint jobs. Your first thought is to buy a book about "pimped out" cars, and wait for his grades to improve.

However, a more effective approach involves setting explicit reading goals whereby Jeremy has input, attainment is uncertain, and short-term tasks are identified. To facilitate intrinsic motivation, these three criteria are integral:

1. Involve the student.
2. Ensure goals are not too easy and not too hard.
3. Develop a hierarchical plan with phases.

What do we know about human nature?

Learners are more likely to take ownership of a project if they have a say in how it unfolds. This first criteria is straightforward. However, we don't want to release children to their own devices without providing guidance.

Guidance with setting goals should be data-driven. That's to say, parents and educators want to examine performance data and set a goal that's neither too hard nor too easy. Human nature prompts us to avoid overly difficult and ridiculously easy tasks. The brain wants to solve a problem or resolve inconsistencies. As such, goal attainment should be probable, yet uncertain in order to achieve optimal levels of intrinsic motivation.

We're also hard-wired for immediate gratification. Since development of reading skill is a life-long process, we increase intrinsic motivation to read by emphasizing the short-term. An ideal approach leverages hierarchical goal systems to demonstrate how short-term tasks relate to a long-term goal. In this way, children visualize how puzzle pieces fit together to form the bigger picture.

How do we leverage goal-setting to make reading fun?

Jeremy's explicit reading goals as reported by the classroom teacher are to (a) build vocabulary and (b) improve comprehension. These are long-term goals. Let's transform the second goal into one that makes learning fun: improve comprehension.

First, we need input from Jeremy. What are Jeremy's ideas for building vocabulary? Depending on his age, he may have little to offer initially. Don't fret. Do research. Ask Jeremy to offer feedback on comprehension practice completed in class; observe his behavior at home for clues about activities that keep his attention.

Let's say Jeremy likes drawing or computer activities, so you challenge him to make comic strips that summarize each chapter of Cars on the Move. With this approach, Jeremy looks forward to reading about an enjoyable topic and drawing comic strips or building them online.

To recap... 

1. We involved Jeremy in developing an explicit, reading comprehension goal. 
2. Since he has the skill (but has not produced comic strips as summaries), it's reasonable to conclude attainment is uncertain. 
3. Comic strips are to be created for each chapter (rather than after reading the 24-page book), so we addressed the need for instant gratification. 

As with implementing any plan of action, remain flexible. Adjust. You may find it's better to create one comic strip frame every few pages. It may be ideal to switch from creating digital comic strips to drawing them by hand. Jeremy may suggest a different summary activity altogether.

Jackson Education Support promotes intrinsic motivation by involving students in setting challenging goals. Personalized learning plans leverage student interests to improve academic performance.

Access a more recently peer-reviewed publication on this topic here.