The NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress) repeatedly shows that reading scores are flat, and everyone wonders why. Why aren’t America’s students reading better? What can schools and parents do about it? Brainstorm when it comes to teaching reading. Here are some ideas. If you have thoughts to share, please do. Everyone has good suggestions about this topic.
I wrote this post several years ago. We’ve since been through Covid, and the Science of Reading controversy has dominated discussions.
Here is an updated list of ideas that may help children to do better in reading.
- Provide children with various picture books (Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library).
- Address poverty, including homelessness.
- Ensure that all children get healthcare.
- Make good preschools like Head Start available.
- Provide services for children with reading disabilities and lower class sizes.
- Invest in beautiful school libraries with updated books.
- Expect a qualified librarian to work in the school library.
- Emphasize the importance of a school library.
- Stop calling reading a crisis or an emergency.
- Quit treating kindergartners like they should already be reading.
- Quit testing children so much.
- Teach all children a variety of subjects.
- End Common Core State Standards.
- Give teachers back their classrooms.
- Value parents. Parents and teachers should work together.
- Stop pushing children to read before they’re ready.
- Quit holding up third grade as the “read or die” grade.
- Quit trying to justify grade retention since it hurts children to fail.
- Children will work better after breaks called recess.
- Read to students in middle and high school.
- Quit reinforcing reading with prizes. Reading is its own reward.
- Stop idolizing online learning as more than a supplemental tool.
- Make sure children get vision and hearing screenings.
- Read interesting books to children with flare like an actor.
- Learning Alley is a good program (audiobooks).
- Stick word labels on items around the house and school.
- Show children words in places other than books (grocery store, museums, etc.).
- Build instructional units around a storybook theme.
- Make reading magical. Decorate rooms with storybook characters and pictures.
- Explore other countries with social studies.
- Share with children beautiful multicultural books to teach tolerance and diversity.
- Always carry fun books around to hand to children when they are bored.
- Purchase a Little Golden Book for children to read while shopping.
- Hand a child a book instead of an iPad whenever possible.
- Don’t bypass picture books or underestimate the power of pictures.
- Give every child a copy of Richard Scarry’s Best Word Book Ever.
- Teach science to young children noting their interests, then let them choose books on those topics.
- Help children learn to love vocabulary with games.
- Give every child a journal to scribble and write their thoughts and draw pictures.
- Teach spelling of short rhyming words.
- Teach cursive handwriting if children enjoy practicing it.
- Include art with a real art teacher, because it teaches visual discrimination.
- Children develop language skills by singing songs, and visual discrimination by playing instruments.
- Put on school plays and encourage children to act in plays during summer vacation.
- Teach how enjoyable reading can be in middle and high school.
- Get children excited about books before introducing phonics.
- Universities must equip professional teachers with the necessary skills to create literacy rich classrooms.
- Don’t interrupt story time to ask too many questions.
- Trust children to ask questions if they are interested in the story.
- DO NOT force children to time how much they read at home.
- DO NOT set up class reading competitions showcasing the best readers.
- Don’t force a child learning to read to read a book they don’t like.
- Let children know it’s O.K. not to like every book.
- There are a million ABC books, so find at least one a child will love.
- Provide comic books. The short sentences and interjections in comic books are easy to read.
- Play school using practice books from the store, if the child likes them.
- Go for funny.
- Include magazines—favorites are Highlights, Ladybug, Ranger Rick, et cetera.
- Roam around the local library with your child.
- Check out the children’s programs at the library.
- Get children their own library card when they are old enough.
- Let children pick out their own books to read for free reading and do it often.
- If a child wants a book with more difficult words, it’s O.K.
- If a child chooses a book at their reading level, it’s O.K.
- If they choose a book that is easy, or is all pictures, it’s O.K.
- If children have trouble reading, provide extra assistance in school.
- Give every child a rich reading environment at home and in school.
- Group children by needed reading skills and change groups frequently.
- Make books mysterious by describing some interesting facts about them.
- All children need access to picture books when they are young.
- Let children pick out a book/s they’d like to purchase.
- Offer the Scholastic Book Clubs in school for good book deals.
- Let children see you giving books for gifts on special occasions.
- Don’t force reading assignments over the summer.
- Provide students a summer list of books they can choose from.
- Read to children even when they are older.
- Read instead of watching TV and the computer screen.
- Get children hooked on a book series.
- It’s fine if a child perseverates on one book, it helps them remember words. Be patient.
- Never give up on helping a child learn to read better no matter how old.
- Invest in good middle and high school reading enrichment programs.
- Demonstrate good reading habits as adults.
- Teach children sign language.
- Provide one-on-one tutoring.
- Help children learn how to sound out letters and words.
- Provide phonics instruction especially for children who need it.
- Make reading even more fun with Story S-t-r-e-t-c-h-e-r-s.
- Offer some foreign language instruction that’s easy and is often intriguing to children.
All school should implement Orton Gillingham based programs: systematic, explicit, and intensive phonics and spelling instruction.
Spelling should be taught through eight grade using an Orton Gillingham approach.
Remediation is necessary: not just accommodations.
Stop pushing reading expectations down a grade level.
Fourth grade should be a plateau year. Children are still learning to read in many ways, and they should not be reading to learn.
Thank you,
I would not put every child through Orton Gilliam. Not all children require intensive phonics. I agree about spelling, not so much fourth grade. Teachers should work with children from where they are and we understand how to determine a problem. Why make any year stand out? I think that makes everyone unnecessarily nervous.
Thank you for your comment. I appreciate it.
I am certified in Orton Gillingham and it is only good for very specific reading problems for some students. It should never be given to all children. It is isolated skill instruction and many children cannot generalize it to regular reading and some cannot understand the abstract concepts–also the comprehension part is not as strong as other methods. Also, it is tedious and counterproductive to students who learn to read naturally.. Reading is about meaning, not sounding out words. Students need tremendous exposure to real reading; only a small part should be on stuff about reading. That said, I use Orton based materials and techniques with my students as needed. It is a great practice to know about and use–but kids need a whole lot more.
Thank you, Nancy. Absolutely agree.
All good suggestions. But it misses a fundamental point. Our teachers do not know how to teach reading. The current teaching methodology is broken. And that is the primary point we are failing so many kids. NAEP scores are not just flat, they are abysmal. And it’s not our teacher’s fault. It is the universities that are failing all of us. Whole word reading teaching method works for some but not for all. Structured Literacy ( https://bit.ly/2eyp01v) is the correct approach. Libraries are great. Reading to kids is great. But teaching them to read requires the right approach for all readers, particularly those who currently struggle in our schools.. Until that is fixed. Reading scores will not improve.
It always troubles me when I read blanket criticisms about teachers. I know teachers who do an excellent job teaching reading, despite lousy policies that have pushed excessive high-stakes testing into their classrooms.
Also, while I understand the difficulties children with reading disabilities face (my area of study and teaching), I don’t think treating all children like they have reading problems is the answer either. Phonics has been around for years. In fact, I think we should look carefully at when phonics is introduced. It’s important for many children, but not as important for others.
I appreciate your comment even though I don’t totally agree.
As a teacher I know that not ALL kids need one kind of instruction. That is why I’m heartbroken that our district adopted a K-5 scripted reading curriculum that severely limits our time as teachers to do many, not all, of the wonderful items on your list. This being our first year with this curriculum I now know what to expect and will plan many more enjoyable reading activities for my classroom.
School districts have done this for years. The best teachers can do is work around the script and do like you sound you are doing, implement more enjoyable reading activities. I wish teachers could own their classrooms and choose the resources and materials they know will be best with their students. Thank you for sharing, Susan.
Interesting that both of the posts here are pushing some formulaic way to teach reading. Most of these suggestions are about how to get kids excited about reading.
Reading in my family was never forced on us. My parents or older siblings read books to me every night before I went to bed. My parents were seen regularly reading a newspaper. We listened to an old time radio show that told a good story, mystery or adventure, every Sunday on our way to visit my grandfather. Sometimes sitting in the car for a few minutes to hear the ending. I was “reading” as soon as I could memorize parts of a book and couldn’t wait to read for myself. Neither of my parents had more than a high school education.
Until we start making reading an important part of our lives as a society again reading will continue to decline. No matter what method we use to teach it.
Thank you.
Train teachers in linguistically based science of our language.
Train teachers in more than just Whole language strategies
Look at word families instead of rhyming words
Look at a words history and Origin
Study Greek and Latin structure to understand how English was built.
Look at Old English and study our beautiful language
Thanks, Jennifer!
“Until we start making reading an important part of our lives as a society again reading will continue to decline. No matter what method we use to teach it.”
AMEN!
If we just let kids read the things they are interested in, reading scores would improve. All kids have their own unique interests, so feed them books to quench that thirst.
When we use only a standardized test to label a child’s reading ability, it hangs on
timed, pressured, potentially boring reading passages. Most adults would score poorly if they were tested like this.
I’m with you, J. Rick Roach!
The biggest element I see missing in the push for children to read is that children need to see their parents read–magazines, books, electronically, anything at all would help. I would support communities making reading materials available to the adults in charge of children.
I would also support better evidence based training in reading and writing for teachers.
If children learned a foreign language sooner, they might also pick up the parts of speech in English, which can help with reading.
Here’s what I don’t see helping children read better. An over reliance in the classroom of letting children listen to the assigned reading material rather than read on their own–some of my children have reported that the kids who are supposed to be listening often look like they are sleeping, And the kids who are not reading are not picking up new vocabulary if they are sleeping or not paying attention. Sometimes listening is okay; however, too often it seems to be used to warehouse children in a classroom. Language arts classrooms need better staffing ratios.
What about the 5+% of students with dyslexia?
http://news.bitofnews.com/this-is-what-reading-is-like-when-you-have-dyslexia/
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-3480257/What-s-REALLY-like-read-dyslexia-Simulator-reveals-letters-words-appear-people-condition.html
https://www.dyslexia.com/question/what-dyslexics-see/
I say with no. 66 to give students assistance when they need it.
Having been a resource teacher for students with learning disabilities all children deserve extra help when needed in learning to read.
Thanks for the resources, Rick.
From Karen-Again,
I have read all of the above comments. My son is 11 with inattentive ADHD, a learning disability, and disgraphia. As a child, I read to him for 45 minutes at a time, two times a day. My husband and I have massive libraries in our home. My son sees us read all of the time.
I am a certified reading specialist, and I taught first grade for 11 years. Orton- Gillingham is an unscripted program and and easily integrated into any curriculum. I wrote my own program when I combined Orton-Gillingham with the required anthology based reading curriculum of my school district. Parents often commented that they actually learned and understood spelling rules from the way I taught it to my students: one of those parents was a college professor of English.
My point: my son had all of the reading advantages that are claimed in the e-mail posts and he still struggles and hates reading. Yes: I have let him choose what he wants to read, unfortunately there are not enough nonfiction baseball books at his current reading level. Yes: he only wants to read nonfiction baseball. I am involved parent who ensures that my son receives the therapies and medications he needs.
My son just rides along with “support” and no remediation. There are many, many gaps in his education and I must fill in those gaps. His IEP is so general that it could apply to any child. His reading IEP states that he will make progress in reading. I cannot get this changed no matter how hard I try.
Concerning my comment about spelling through 8th grade. This is a suggestion by the International Dyslexia society. According to their statistics, 1 in 5 adults are dyslexic. Of the population with reading IEP’s, one in eight has some level of dyslexia. Research indicates that spell check is only fifty percent effective for children with learning disabilities.
Dyslexic organizations also suggests that cursive needs to be brought back to school as it prevents fewer reversals. As to possible, upcoming comments that children don’t need handwriting because we have computers: computers don’t eliminate the need to write by hand, they simply provide another option. I use pens and pencils all of the time in addition to the computer.
And yes, Orton-Gillingham does teach morphemes and Greek and Latin bases in late middle school.
To make reading improvements, we must lower special education case loads to seven children. This will allow an instruction to be truly individualize, even while the children are mainstreamed. Fewer students on a special education teacher’s case load also means improved communication with families.
Thank you for reading and for posting.
Karen
Thank you, Karen. I agree with much of this and did a recent post on class size. I appreciate Orton-Gillingham and I like what you said about combining it into your plans. My concern is doing any kind of scripted instruction for all children. Some may not need it. But schools should address the needs of all children. Your son is lucky you are able to fill in the gaps. And your students sound lucky too.
Thanks for the post. I have been missing reading your site. I would add that reading changes as the children grow up. We need to teach our subjects with attention to reading outside class and being responsible to discussion and writing about it in class. Unfortunately, materials to read these days are generally sliced up into small pieces and read out of context. Children who can need to be introduced to monographs and journal articles at an early age. But only when they can understand, and not as a pre-requisite for entry into college. Some kids grow up quicker than others where reading is concerned. My daughter, soon to be twelve, is deep into Jane Eyre. I could have never done that. Making her do that was not something I ever considered, for it is more important at this stage of her development that she come away with a life that values reading than that she come away with another notch on her literary arsenal. It was her excellent teachers who knew both her and Jane Eyre and introduced them when the wedding of the two might be expected reasonably.
Excellent point, Roy. If students are not curious about stories they won’t want to read, and sometimes they are more ready for certain books than we think. Good English teachers can usually determine how ready students are for certain topics, and if they have any doubts it is always easy to discuss with parents. Thank you!
Can’t emphasize audiobooks and read aloud enough- it is a HUGE component for a lot of kids to build that background knowledge, but I have a lot of parents who insist that it’s cheating and won’t even *allow* their kids to listen at home! Parents that encourage it (reading with their kids, listening with their kids) find that they have readers at the end of the year, somehow…
I agree. I think it’s especially important for students who have reading disabilities. I know parents with children diagnosed as having dyslexia who swear by audiobooks.
Thank you!
Reduce class size. One of only a handful of reforms cited by IES that have been proven to work through rigorous evidence — along with One-on-one tutoring by qualified tutors for at-risk readers in grades 1-3 and Instruction for early readers in phonemic awareness and phonics
https://www.classsizematters.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/rigorousevidence_guide_IES__3_1.pdf
[though I agree that many children don’t need phonics at all and learn how to read without it, so that this should be focused on those who do.]
Absolutely!
Thank you, Leonie.
I am happy to see a post that publishes a variety of Comments. Ability to read is a serious issue that needs our attention, especially for the large percentage of children who are not proficient readers or for those children who struggle to learn to read. Children who are dyslexic deserve a research-based approach to reading….and well before the are designate as 4th grade “reading failures.” Children are not failures. When we don’t meet their needs we are the failures.