Parma Plan It: READING - A Wildly Important Goal (WIG)

As we began our discussion on a school wide goal for this school year, there was no question that we wanted that goal to be reading. That was the easy part. We are a staff who feels passionately about reading. We are readers ourselves, and we want to instill that passion for reading in our students. We know that creating a culture of passionate readers is a "Wildly Important Goal." Then came the difficult part. What will we measure? How do we measure success with this goal? We know the research supports increasing time spent reading inside and outside of school. How can we possibly measure this and have the data be valid?

The research base on student-selected reading is robust and conclusive: Students read more, understand more, and are more likely to continue reading when they have the opportunity to choose what they read. - Allington

One thing we know is that a school wide goal of reading will require buy in and support from parents. We need our parents to understand the importance of reading outside of school and to realize the value in time spent reading. Regardless of the measure we choose to track, the success of this goal will require reading at home. Do we measure reading progress through reading levels? When I was asked what do you want? What are you ultimately looking for? Let me share a couple stories with you to answer that question. When Janet Tashjian came to our school she said that when her publisher sent her on a school tour for her new book, she wanted to visit schools who loved books and loved reading. While at camp, I smiled when I saw a student with a book at the breakfast table. I was almost plowed into in the hallway by a student who was reading a book on his way to class. I had to order more books after Janet's visit because we sold out. So, when I am asked what I want for Parma Elementary School, that is exactly what I want. I want students who are so into their books that they can't put them down at breakfast at camp. I want students who have their nose in a book and don't see people coming toward them in the hallway. I want a school that authors want to visit because we are all so passionate about books and reading. I want to not be able to keep books on the shelves in our classrooms. That is what I want. I'm not sure how we are ultimately going to measure that, but I want it, and I believe with all my heart we can have it.

It starts with us. It starts at our school, in our classrooms. Yes, we want to increase time spent reading at home and outside of school, but we don't have control of that. We can control what our reading instruction looks like at school and how much time we allow students to read. In The Book Whisperer, Donalyn Miller states, "No matter what intervention strategies you employ to support developing readers or what enrichment projects you provide to your most gifted ones, none of it is going to affect the reading achievement of all of the students in your classroom the way hours and hours of time spent reading will." There is so much research to support the correlation between time spent reading and reading achievement. In Pathways to the Common Core, Calkins, Ehrenworth and Lehman state, "If your goal is to accelerate readers' ability to comprehend increasingly complex texts, matching readers to books is necessary, but not sufficient. The engine that motors readers' development is the time spent in engaged reading and in talking and writing about that reading." They go on to say, "It will be important, therefore, for you to organize the school day so that students have long blocks of time for reading." Research in their book on the Common Core also states, "Although one can rely on common sense when concluding that in order to progress up the levels of text complexity, students need to read a lot, this is actually the one conclusion that is most supported by research. 94% of the tests on reading comprehension that collect data on volume of reading show that kids who are given more time to read do better than kids who have little time to read. " The NAEP Reading Report Card showed that at every level, reading more pages at home and at school was associated with higher reading scores.

A few of the links below share some of the other research. Understanding what that needs to look like in our classrooms has been discussed in book after book. The Cafe Book and Daily 5, and The Book Whisperer are books I strongly encourage you to read if you have not already done so. If you do not have a copy and want one, see me. Providing time to read and guiding students to "just right" books for them is a critical part of our reading instruction in order to see reading achievement for all students.

Reading achievement, the joy of reading, reading fluency, excitement about a book or an author.....of course we are passionate about this. Of course this is Wildly Important to us. Of course this is our school wide goal. I am confident we will see reading competency rise at Parma Elementary. I can't wait for that first student to bump into me in the hallway because he/she has his/her nose in a book.

Links worth Reading:

The 6 Ts of Effective Elementary Literacy Instruction - Allington: Notice that the first T is TIME
What At Risk Readers Need - An Ed Leadership Article by Allington suggesting EARLY intervention
If They Don't Read Much, How They Ever Gonna Get Good?
How to turn your classroom into a hotbed of enthusiastic readers
Daily 5 - Cafe Menu - Resource with several links for each strategy
Every Child, Every Day - ASCD article
Make Reading a Habit at Home - suggestions for increasing and enjoying reading at home for parents
10 Facts Parents should know about reading - Great information for parents about reading and the negative effect tv watching can have on student achievement.
Biblionasium
Silent Reading - Rick's Reading Workshop-A video modeling a reading workshop and conferencing
Reading at Home
Monarch book award nominees - 2014: The book trailers are great to show students

Videos worth Watching:

Interview/Podcast on Independent Reading: