STAMINA Readers Need It!

By: Laura Robb

Most of us view stamina in reading as the ability to concentrate on reading for at least 30 minutes. And indeed, that is part of stamina! But there’s more to it, and I’ll illustrate this additional aspect with a literacy snapshot.

            A student, Jenna, who I tutored for several years, left fifth grade reading a year above grade level. In fifth grade, her teacher had 15 minutes of independent reading of self-selected books every day. In addition, students had modified choice when selecting instructional reading texts, as the teacher offered students a range of texts to choose from with their instructional levels. Total time spent reading for fifth graders was 35 minutes a day in their hour-long ELA class.  By the end of the year, most students were getting the hang of reading longer books and enjoying them. 

In sixth grade, volume in reading stopped. Independent reading of self-selected books was spotty.  Students’ instructional reading was on a computer, and they read six to ten paragraph selections and answered 10 questions for each one. Just as Dick Allington’s research predicted, Jenna and her classmates began losing reading gains because they weren’t reading. Many showed this backward slide on benchmark testing and a criterion-referenced test administered mid-year.

            Recently, Jenna called me. “Will you help me with reading this summer?” she asked.

            “I’d love to read some books together and talk about them, but you’re reading is fine.”

            ‘That’s the thing,” she said. “I’m having trouble reading longer books at home. I get through three chapters, then I can’t remember stuff, so I stop.”

Readers Need This Kind of Stamina!

            Jenna describes a type of stamina that relates to focus and concentration and improves with practice. To read a long novel, students have to remember characters that appear in the beginning and pop up later in the book. They also have to hold in their memories different settings, plot details, conflicts, and decisions made earlier that affect a character in the middle and near the end of the book. Informational texts pose similar problems when learners have to recall names, places, data, and myriad details.  Students on a steady diet of short texts don’t meet or practice these types of reading demands. Reading. Long. Books. Does. Develop. Them.

What Good Readers Do

            Students expected to improve by practicing on computer programs often don’t make progress because they are missing what students who read long books do to continually move forward:

• discuss texts with peers;
• compose their own discussion questions;
• write about reading in notebooks;
• develop analytical and critical thinking skills;
• take time to reflect on their reading;
• connect ideas between and among books;
• confer about their reading with a teacher and peer; and
• explore authors and genres and develop personal literary tastes.

So, over the summer, Jenna and I will read longer and longer texts. We’ll discuss chunks. We’ll make connections. We’ll do some writing and analytical thinking.  Hopefully, she’ll regain her losses and develop both kinds of stamina. It’s interesting to note that in a research study published in ILA’s Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy (2000), educators identified indicators for students who scored high in reading on the international PISA test (The Program for International Student Assessment). The top indicator was that students read long texts. The second was that they completed a great deal of independent reading.

A Call to Action

It always amazes me that schools invest in programs that totally ignore the research on how and why students develop reading expertise. Exemplary teachers continually enlarge their knowledge of best practice and their skill set. Teaching skill develops with experience and through ongoing, self-directed professional learning.  Students need skilled teachers who respond to their needs. Students need skilled teachers who read aloud every day and invite students to learn from relevant books representing diverse cultures.

STAMINA…Readers Need It! INVEST in teachers! INVEST in books! And develop the stamina students require to become lifelong readers and critical thinkers.

Follow Laura on Twitter @LRobbTeacher

Check out Evan’s blog posts on ScholasticEDU!

Learn more about Laura’s ideas on reading- check out- Teaching Reading in Middle School

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