How to use this Page

In a recent issue of Educational Leadership (Vol 69 No 6), a publication of ASCD, the focus was on reading, the core skill.  Richard L. Allington and Rachael E. Gabriel, in their article “Every Child, Every Day”, outlined six research based elements for effective reading instruction.  Allington, a member of the Reading Hall of Fame, researches and writes about reading difficulties. ”Despite good intentions, educators often make decisions about instruction that compromise or supplant the kind of experiences all children need to become engaged, successful readers.” Here are six elements of instruction Allington and Gabriel outline that children should experience daily:

1. Every child reads something he or she chooses.  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 they choose what they read.
2. Every child reads accurately. Research shows reading at 98% or higher accuracy is essential for reading acceleration, below 90% accuracy doesn’t improve reading ability at all.
3. Every child reads something he or she understands. Research shows here too, that remediation that emphasizes comprehension can change the structure of struggling students’ brains. It takes lots of reading and rereading of text that students find engaging and comprehensible to enable the brain to develop the ability to read.
4. Every child writes about something personally meaningful.  Writing provides a different modality within which to practice the skills and strategies of reading for an authentic purpose.
5. Every child talks with peers about reading and writing. Research has demonstrated that conversation with peers improves comprehension and engagement with texts in a variety of settings. Even small amounts of such conversations can improve standardized test scores.
6. Every child listens to a fluent adult read aloud. Listening to an adult model fluent reading increases students’ own fluency and comprehension skills, as well as expanding their vocabulary, background knowledge, sense of story, awareness of genre and text structure, and comprehension of the texts read.  Teachers should spend a few minutes a day reading to their students.

So, how to do this?  Allington and Gabriel give us two easy suggestions: First, eliminate almost all worksheets and workbooks.  Second, ban test-preparation activities and materials from the school day. Eliminating both provides time and money to spend on the things that really matter in developing readers.