APRIL 2013
Is Vo s l u e 1 1
FROM THE STACKS JEMS/JEHS Library
Jessica Schmitz - Librarian
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April 14-20, 2013 National Library Week
. E E D T O R E A D.. W H Y W RE N S M E J / S H E J at SS
Revisiting the research about recreational reading and test scores...
First sponsored in 1958, National Library Week is a national observance sponsored by the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries across the country each April.
SS R: A good st a r t t h a t w e ne e d t o c o nt i nue and b ui l d u pon eading in school may not be every students favorite thing to do. We have had some struggles this year getting students to read in SSR, but we need to remember that it is everyone’s job in the school to encourage learning, and that means encouraging reading. Modeling the behavior is one of the best ways to do this. Remember, we have just begun this initiative and it can only get better from here as we learn how we can make it better. One thing I have found is that one day is not enough time. If that is the only time in the week a student reads for fun, it is not enough. Instead of giving study hall time to students on a Friday (or a Tuesday or Thursday where they are not being requested), make it mandatory for students to continue to read in their SSR books. And if you have a difficult student who says they can’t find something to read please send me his/her name and I’ll help him/her find a book that they will enjoy. Sometimes it’s just about getting the right book into the
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students’ hands. I hope we can continue to work to make the SSR initiative a success. As the Librarian and an English teacher, it is one of my jobs to encourage and support reading. But we need to also remember that the Common Core Reading and Writing standards are also specific for teachers of History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects. You can find these standards at www.corestandards.org. One thing we can all do to help students read better is to supply them with time to do so. Revisiting the Data: There is a strong correlation between time spent reading and performance on standardized tests. Those in the 98% read 90.7 minutes per day and read an estimated 4,733,ooo words per year. Those in the 50% rank read 12.9 minutes per day and read an estimated 601,000 words per year (Gallagher 2009). Students in the top five percent of national reading scores read 114 times
more tan students in the bottom five percent (Dougherty). Students who read the most for fun scored higher on standardized reading AND writing tests (Gallagher 2009). Only 16% of adults are “frequent” or “avid” readers of literary texts (Gallagher 2009). This means the only modeling of reading for fun that our students might get is from us. SSR is much more than “just letting kids read”; “it is setting aside time to make sure that students have a chance to read, providing access to good books, and doing things that encourage reading” (Dougherty). Works Cited: Dougherty, G. (N/A). Creating a successful SSR program in a high school classroom. Retrieved from www.otterbein.edu/ education/JTIR/volumeII/ dougherty.pdf Gallagher, K. (2009). Readicide. Portland, Maine: Stenhouse Publishers.