Guidelines and Research on Reading Volume
At Long-View we make reading a priority and talk about “reading ambitiously.” It is our recommendation that children read for at least ten hours a week. While some of these reading hours occur during our day at Long-View, we have found a greater rate of success in reaching this goal when families set aside at least one dedicated hour at home, every school day, for their child to spend on reading. This is our minimum recommendation—meant for everyone, whether a child is an early reader or a fluent/experienced reader, able to navigate complex texts. A mountain of research supports the fact that success in reading is directly related to the amount of time a person spends reading. Two examples:
“Every measure that looks at pleasure reading and its effects on student performance on standardized tests of reading ability—and science and math—tells us that the major predictor of academic success is the amount of time that a student spends reading. In fact, the top 5 percent of U.S. students read up to 144 times more than the kids in the bottom 5 percent.” (Atwell, 2007, p. 107).
“The NAEP Reading Report Card for the Nation shows that at every level, reading more pages at home and at school was associated with higher reading scores.” (U.S. Department of Education, 1999).
At Long-View, we work to be sure that literacy instructional time goes to activities that involve “eyes on print.” We protect time for independent reading, and know that explicit and high-level instruction, access to high-interest texts, and time to read at length are crucial components within the school day. That being said, learners need even more time for independent reading than is available here at school.
With this in mind, we ask parents to periodically take stock of their child’s reading volume and decide as a family how to work to meet the goal of two hours a day, five times a week, even (or especially) during school breaks. And it’s always a good time to recommit to helping a child push toward more ambitious daily reading, and to be sure their “reading diet” is varied.
If a child is an early reader, then meeting this two-hour goal each day may involve reading aloud with a family member, as well as reading a variety of texts independently. Perhaps within this two hours, your child reads alone for 20 minutes, reads to a parent for 20 minutes, reads a nonfiction article out of National Geographic Kids for another 15 minutes, reads a news article on newsela.com for 20 minutes, is read to for 30 minutes, or reads a storybook to a younger sibling for 15 minutes. And likely these chunks of time are spread throughout the day, rather than one two-hour block. It’s important that a child is reading “just right books” when reading alone; this means he or she can read the text with 96% or better accuracy. (A proxy for this 96% accuracy level: When reading a text for independent reading, a child should not sound like they are working hard to decode new words. It should sound relatively easy and fluent.)
If a child is a more confident, fluent, and experienced reader, parents may still have to make time and space (and help with self-discipline) to be sure that two hours of reading happens daily. It’s also important to encourage an equal balance of reading informational texts and fiction. By 4th grade, a child’s “reading diet” should be equally balanced between fiction and non-fiction. Reading books together at this level is just as valuable as it was at earlier stages of reading development; parents might read aloud, or perhaps both parent and child are jointly reading a chosen book and can talk about it together. You could hand your experienced reader your Time magazine, Popular Science, or Foreign Affairs with appropriate articles marked. Or you might help her find an article on one of our favorite resources, Science Journal for Kids And Teens. Or have him read a beautiful paragraph you found in the novel you are reading to yourself. Keep your eye on variety, but pay close attention to whether your child is hitting the mark on volume.
If your child resists your efforts to increase reading volume, whatever you do, PLEASE do not offer external rewards or incentives like money or candy. We can help you come up with other ideas, but we know from research about motivation that external rewards such as these can impede intrinsic motivation. If you’d like to read more about this, see this article from the New York Times titled “No, Your Child Shouldn’t Get a Gold Star for Reading.”
Long-View learners have access to an extensive collection of high-interest texts in our library, located right in between the rooms where most literacy instruction takes place. We so deeply appreciate the support of Long-View families in keeping the library collection fresh and up to date! Right now, we are especially seeking newer nonfiction texts that vary in complexity.
As a boost to reading at home, we encourage you to visit public libraries and bookstores, as well as literary events in town, like the Texas Book Festival.
Finally, as you work to keep an eye on reading volume, we also want to draw the connection to the role of knowledge in reading comprehension. The ability to comprehend complex texts is deeply intertwined with background knowledge, so keep up the great work exposing your child to the world through experiences, documentaries, and dinner table discussions—all of that also helps with reading. You might find this article helpful: How Knowledge Helps: It Speeds and Strengthens Reading Comprehension, Learning–And Thinking.
In addition to the national research that supports the importance of a high reading volume, we have seen first-hand the impact that a rich reading life can have on a learner’s thinking, reading achievement, contributions in Campfire, connections in science, and even imaginative play at the park. It can be hard work to make time and space for your child to read extensively at home, but it is a crucial driver of a meaningful and deep education.
