QUALITIES OF AN EFFECTIVE INDEPENDENT READING PROGRAM What makes an independent reading program successful? Literacy experts and researchers examined programs to determine which ones boosted reading achievement and student motivation to read (Pilgreen, 2000) and identified several features and practices that are particularly critical: AVAILABLE ANYTIME, ANYWHERE Students must have opportunities to read for pleasure, whenever and wherever the mood strikes. Fully 96% of teachers, principals, and school librarians say that providing year-round access to books at home is critical to enhancing student achievement (Scholastic & YouGov, 2017). That viewpoint is strongly supported by research. One study examined the effect that book access in and out of school had on the reading scores of fourth graders. They found that access significantly predicted reading achievement and mitigated the effects of poverty. Book access was also a significant predictor of the difference between Grade 4 and Grade 8 reading scores, suggesting “that ‘late intervention’ in the form of recreational reading is not only possible but can be effective” (Krashen, Lee, & McQuillan, 2012, p. 28). Access to high-quality books outside of school is even more critical for striving readers. In reviewing dozens of studies, researchers found that when students with low reading abilities have access to books at home, they practice more, and as a result, their reading skills improve more than those of their peers with less exposure to books at home (Mol & Bus, 2011). Technology can help provide equitable access to books outside of school. In 2014, a nationally representative survey of over 1,500 U.S. parents found that nearly two out of three children age 10 and under had either a tablet or a dedicated ereader at home. About half of those children regularly read books on their devices (Rideout, 2014). In addition, nearly three out of four low- to moderate-income U.S. families had a laptop or desktop computer connected to the internet at home, providing a means to access digital books for students living in communities that lack adequate resources like bookstores and libraries (Rideout & Katz, 2016). Digital books address equity by providing many students with simultaneous access to the same book, solving the conundrum faced by many school librarians that there are never enough paper copies of a popular title to go around. As one student lamented to a researcher investigating school libraries in high-poverty communities, “‘I know I won’t ever get a Star Wars book. My class comes to the library too late in the day, and someone else has it’” (Constantino, 2008, p. 61).
SCHOLASTIC LITERACY PRO FOUNDATION PAPER 10
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