Are you a reader? 5th graders respond

A teacher challenges her students to become real readers. Along the way, the students identify just exactly what that means.

Teachers have come under increasing pressure to improve student reading. Ensuring that students learn to read has become a key indicator of teachers’ individual effectiveness as well as a yardstick of success for their school, community, and state (Afflerbach et al., 2011).

Teachers understand that using evidence-based practices can support their success in teaching reading. These practices include creating a classroom culture that fosters motivation; teaching reading to gain meaning; and supporting students’ developing knowledge of phonemic awareness, vocabulary, comprehension, and fluency. Additional research-based practices that boost reading success include:

Providing access to books and boosting the time children have for self-selected reading;
Using multiple texts to build background knowledge;
Supporting student collaboration around learning;
Integrating technology and 21st-century literacy expectations; and
Differentiating instruction based on assessments (Gambrell, Malloy, &Mazzoni, 2011;Reutzel & Cooter, 2013).

This list supports the complex knowledge and skill set teachers need to effectively teach students to read (Morrow & Gambrell, 2011). However, even when teachers engage in all the practices listed, there’s still no guarantee that students will view themselves as readers — as individuals who choose to read. For students to succeed in and beyond school, they need to achieve this goal. Just teaching them to read is not sufficient.

Being a reader — a person who chooses to read — depends to some extent, of course, on the amount of time that students spend reading. The research on this topic is both interesting and disappointing. In 1984, Gambrell found that students read about 14 minutes each day in and out of school. In 1992, Foertsch observed that that amount of time had remained unchanged. And in 2001, Donahue and colleagues reported that 4th graders acknowledged reading about 10 or fewer pages each day, averaging eight to 10 minutes in all. Clearly, the amount of reading that students engage in has remained constant and dissatisfying over the decades. Further, the Elementary Reading Attitude Survey found that student attitudes about reading became more negative the longer they were in school (McKenna, Kear, & Ellsworth, 1995).

At a time when most students read minimally in and out of school, how can teachers foster a love of reading in students? This is not easy to accomplish because struggling readers and readers who only see reading as an onerous school task have established patterns to avoid reading, and these patterns are difficult to change (Miller, 2009).

Are you a reader?

Recently, a teacher discovered this lack of seeing oneself as a reader in a most vivid way. Becky, a 5th-grade teacher, asked students on the first day of school, “Who would describe himself or herself as a reader?” Not one hand went up. She wondered how this was possible. Her school in Clark County, Nev., had always received the most stars awarded by the state for exemplary instruction, especially in language arts and math. At this school, which had a mix of students from middle-class families to families living in poverty, students were successful on all mandated assessments. How could it be that students didn’t identify themselves as readers? How could her school teach students to read but not create students who wanted to read?

Becky decided that her most important task was to change their identity from students who can read but don’t to students who enjoy reading and self-select what they read. She believed that if their reading identity remained stagnant, her students wouldn’t perform well in later grades or in the work environment, where reading is connected to all disciplinary areas.

Her plan was to challenge students to read 50 books during the year. This required an enhanced classroom library and conversations with the school librarian to ensure the availability of books that students wanted to read. All students had to do was read and record the books they read. There were no book reports, projects, quizzes, or prizes after reading.

Becky also engaged students in literature circles so they could read and discuss books each day with their peers. In literature circles, students gather in small groups to read the same book; take on a variety of roles, such as director or fact finder; and contribute their ideas during each discussion. The combination of these two instructional events — having students read 50 books and engaging in daily literature circles — as well as the teacher’s focus on delivering both direct and differentiated instruction was the sum total of her instructional plan.

Seven characteristics of good readers

As the year progressed, the 5th graders defined what it meant to be a reader — and whether those characteristics applied to them. Becky once again engaged them in discussion about the qualities of a reader. As they shared their opinions, they created a list of the essential characteristics of a person who is a reader.

#1. Good readers read for fun.

Students said readers who read for fun are always looking for the next book to read. They might even have accumulated a stack of books to read in their bedroom. Reading for fun means having a variety of books to read that the reader — not someone else — has chosen.

#2. Good readers talk about books.

Good readers continually talk about books. As they read, they might lean into another student and talk to him or her about some point in the book. They recommend books to others, and they appreciate getting recommendations. For example, when students discovered Michael Buckley’s Sisters Grimm series, they begged their teacher and librarian to buy more copies. Although adults might want to begin at the beginning of a series and move through it linearly, these students were happy to read any book in the series in any order. They just wanted to read these books and talk about them.

#3. Good readers usually finish a book.

Students believed that good readers typically finish almost every book they pick up. They talked about how at the beginning of the year, they would just randomly select books; they’d go to the library, find a book, bring it to their desk, flip through it, and return it. To move away from this practice, students decided a good reader would read at least the first four chapters of a book before abandoning it. They discovered that it was always difficult to start a new book because you had to learn about the characters, plot, and so on. When they reached the end of the fourth chapter, they had a pretty good idea of what the book was about, and they were usually excited to complete it.

#4. Good readers relate to the characters in the book.

Students said their reading had developed in a way that called on them to focus on understanding the characters. In addition, they said some characters were tough to figure out, whereas others were easy — especially when they were either good or bad. One student said, “I hate the idea of finishing this book! I want to know more about the character. What is she going to do next?” Students may often choose to read a book series because they can reconnect with their favorite characters from book to book.

#5. Good readers often choose a specific genre to read.

Good readers usually are experienced enough as readers to know about the range of genres — and they’ve often targeted their favorite. In Becky’s class, fantasy and realistic fiction were the favored genres. Students also preferred book series, such as Michael Buckley’s Sisters Grimm, Jeff Kinney’s Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson, or Rachel Rene Russell’s Dork Diaries.

#6. Good readers spend more time on task.

Good readers need to be able to sit for an extended period of time just reading. Students were aware of how easily they were distracted. They often walked around, looked at other students, or got up from their reading to choose a new book. However, as the year progressed, they noticed that they often were lost in a book and were surprised when their teacher said it was time to engage in another activity. Many students were shocked that they had become so involved with their reading that they were unaware of their friends or other activities in the classroom.

#7. Good readers read lots of books.

At the beginning of the year, students thought that reading one book during the entire year might be sufficient to identify them as readers. However, as the year progressed, they felt satisfied that a reader would complete at least two books each month. Interestingly, most students were reading two or more books each month, and these books were outside of what they were reading in class.

For the love of reading

By the end of the year, these 5th graders had become what they considered to be good readers. The change was gradual; many students had never read a book from cover to cover before. As they read, they also were able to put into practice the strategies and skills their teacher had taught them. For example, they learned to read to connect with characters and understand their personalities. They examined the plot and why an author made each decision within the plot structure. For many, it was the first time they had read any text long enough to do so. The result? On the end-of-year state assessments in English language arts, 95% of the students were successful as measured by state norms.

It took just one simple question — Who would describe himself or herself as a reader? — to discover that although students could read, they didn’t identify themselves as readers. What might the picture look like for students who attend high-poverty schools? Despite all the constraints and the lack of resources, if teachers could provide additional space for independent reading and more socially constructed reading groups, they might move more students from nonreaders to students who choose to read. Becky shifted her literacy curriculum to enable small groups of students to read daily and to provide space for independent reading. These shifts reduced the amount of other literacy instruction that tied more directly to district and state assessments. She worried that students might not be as prepared for these assessments as they had been in previous years. Although this was a constant worry, she discovered that being a reader and engaging in reading were critically important to her students in life and even on assessments.

What Becky learned from this experience — and what we want to emphasize for readers — is that teaching students to love reading is just as important as teaching them how to read.

References

Afflerbach, P., Kim, J., Crassas, M., & Cho, B. (2011). Best practices in literacy assessment. In L. Morrow & L. Gambrell (Eds.), Best practices in literacy instruction (4th ed.), pp. 319-340. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Donahue, P., Finnegan, R., Lutkus, A., Allen, N., & Campbell, J. (2001). The Nation’s Report Card: Fourth grade reading 2000. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences.

Foertsch, M. (1992). Reading in and out of school: Achievement of American students in grades 4, 8, and 12 in 1989-1990. Washington, DC: National Center for Educational Statistics.

Gambrell, L. (1984). How much time do children spend reading during teacher-directed reading instruction? In J. Niles & L. Harris (Eds.), Changing perspectives on research in reading/language processing and instruction. Third Yearbook of the National Reading Conference (pp. 193-198). Rochester, NY: National Reading Conference.

Gambrell, L., Malloy, J., & Mazzoni, S. (2011). Evidence-based best practices in comprehensive literacy instruction. In L. Morrow & L. Gambrell (Eds.), Best practices in literacy instruction (4th ed.), pp. 11-36. New York, NY: Guilford Press.

McKenna, M., Kear, D., & Ellsworth, R. (1995). Children’s attitudes toward reading: A national survey. Reading Research Quarterly, 30 (4), 934-956.

Miller, D. (2009). The book whisperer: Awakening the inner reading in every child. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Morrow, L. & Gambrell, L. (Eds.). (2011). Best practices in literacy instruction (4th ed.). New York, NY: Guilford Press.

Reutzel, D. & Cooter, R. (2013). The essentials of teaching children to read: The teacher makes the difference. Boston, MA: Pearson.

Citation: Barone, D. & Barone, R. (2016). Are you a reader? 5th graders respond. Phi Delta Kappan, 98 (2), 47-51.