One thing I hear over and over amongst even the most seasoned teachers is "there is no time" for independent reading. Little makes me feel more frustrated than teachers feeling this way. We have so many mandates of minutes for curriculum, but there is no curriculum that can ever do for our students what plain old reading can. I have heard teachers say, " I require they read at home." As a teacher who is also a parent and a voracious reader, I have a daughter who refuses to read at home and has for ten years. She called reading disgusting once. (cringe) I wish I could wave my magic teacher wand and get rid of demands on teachers so they can open up that time to have students read at school. I make it a huge priority in my class, but I have been at my school for 20 years, so no one is checking on me to make sure I am getting through every lesson of every piece of curriculum. Maybe they trust me because every year my kids are reading on or above grade level. Many of my kindergartners read at a second grade level.
What does reading do for a child? Adults, too, for that matter:
- Increased vocabulary
- Better conversation skills
- Stress and anxiety reduction
- Better analytical skills
- Increased empathy toward others
- Improved language acquisition
- Improved writing skills
- Increased global thinking
- More open mindedness
- Improved focus
From the NCTE (National Council of Teachers of English) article on independent reading:
Independent reading leads to an increased volume of reading. The more one reads, the better one reads. The more one reads, the more knowledge of words and language one acquires. The more one reads, the more fluent one becomes as a reader. The more one reads, the easier it becomes to sustain the mental effort necessary to comprehend complex texts. The more one reads, the more one learns about the people and happenings of our world. This increased volume of reading is essential (Allington, 2014).
For more inspiration on the impact of independent reading and what you can do as an educator to create a community of readers, I highly recommend The Book Whisperer by Donalynn Miller.
If there really is no way to make time in your day, I recommend some kind of incentive to read at home program. I wrote about it here.
My hope is we can turn the tide in education to focus more on what really matters and not waste so much time on the "have-to's" of curriculum made in a boardroom, far away from actual children and teachers.