HOW IT CAN WORK ON THE GROUND As part of their project on reading outside of school, Fisher & Frey (2018) encouraged schools in the study to schedule additional family information sessions to “keep focused on reading volume” (p. 93). Principals took the reins in these meetings, pointing out that “Getting your kid to read every night is as important as getting them to brush their teeth.” And they encouraged parents to institute family reading time— time without screens, when families could read and talk.
The Results Are Powerful:
• Higher library checkout rates in the current year (+9%) than for the same students during the same period the previous year;
• Higher writing scores on district benchmark tests (+4%) compared with other district schools;
• Higher fluency rates (+2%) compared with the students’ past reading records or with other schools in the same district; and
• Students and parents anecdotally reporting reading more books (Fisher & Frey, 2018).
PROVIDING PARENT TRAINING AND SUPPORT
The benefits of home libraries for students are irrefutable, but they can be supercharged if parents are offered training and support to enhance and encourage student learning. In a 2006 study of a voluntary fourth-grade summer reading intervention, young readers were given eight books over the summer. Parents and families were provided with comprehension strategies to employ with children. The results were remarkable, with small, mighty libraries eliminating summer reading loss—suggesting that the impact of home book collections was maximized when parents were engaged in the process (Kim, 2006). It is important to underscore the fact that students and families are not choosing to forgo reading during summer and out-of-school time. In fact, research broadly shows that the opposite is true— when children are provided with books outside of school, families are eager to engage with them and support reading growth .
HOME LIBRARIES TOPIC PAPER 17
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