engaging readers

ASLA NSW State Library Day

Engaging Readers

Susan La Marca

February 2004

Reading for me, is a means of thought. One way of saying this is that literature gives us images to think with.

(Chambers, 1991, p. 14)

Reading literacy is needed to function well in adult life, whether in fulfilling personal goals, progressing in the labour market or participating more widely in society.

OECD (2000) Reading for Change: Performance and Engagement Across Countries. Results form PISA

2000 (Executive summary): OECD - PISA (Program for International Student Assessment). p. 3.

Reading

What children learn with books is a whole initiation into such matters as: how do you know whether you are reading a story or a factual report, how do you know if someone in a story is telling the truth, how do you learn to play an author’s game of being tricked by red herrings, seduced by charmers, repelled by the wicked and much, much more. In fact, most, if not all, the reading we do as adults rests on the bedrock of having learned as children the devices and techniques of narrative that have been developed over thousands of years in literature.

Michael Rosen in The Reading Solution by Paul Kropp with Wendy Cooling, Penguin, 1995.

Reading

We all read ourselves and the world around us in order to glimpse what and where we are. We read to understand, or to begin to understand.

Manguel, A. (1996) A History of Reading. London: Harper Collins. p. 7.

Reading

A print- rich environment leads to more reading and free voluntary reading is the best predictor of comprehension, vocabulary growth, spelling and grammatical ability and writing style.

Lonsdale, M. (2003) Impact of School Libraries on Student Achievement: a Review of the Research (Report for the

Australian School Libraries Association - ASLA ). Melbourne: Australian Council for Educational Research, p. 1.

Reading and school achievement

The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 1999 long-term reading assessment found that reading for fun had a positive relationship to average scores. At all three ages (9, 13, 17 years), students who said they read for fun scored higher than peers who said they never read for fun.

Campbell, J. R., Hombo, C. M., & Mazzeo, J. (2000) 1999 Trends in Academic Progress: Three Decades of Student Performance, [online report]. NAEP (National

Assessment of Education Progress) Department of Education, Washington DC. Available: www.nifl.gov/nifl/facts/reading-facts.html [Accessed 18th November, 2002].


Students who read independently become better readers, score higher on achievement tests in all subject areas, and have greater content knowledge than those who do not (Krashen 1993; Cunningham and Stanovich 1991; Stanovich and Cunningham 1993).

Cullinan, B. E. (2000) Independent Reading and School Achievement, This manuscript was commissioned as part of a national study - Assessment of the Role of School and Public Libraries in Support of Educational Reform, Westat,

In., 1998-2000. (Originally prepared for the U.S . Department of Education). New York: American Library Association.


(from Conclusion)

Independent reading is the kind students choose to do on their own; it is not assigned or assessed, but it has a positive effect on learning and school achievement. Research about the effects of independent reading on school achievement and programs planned to promote it demonstrates these common factors:




-The amount of free reading done outside school has consistently been found to relate to achievement in vocabulary, reading comprehension, verbal fluency, and general information.




-Students' reading achievement correlates with success in school and the amount of independent reading they do.




Student engagement

Students who read well tend to be active readers. They gain in terms of both motivation and experience from reading regularly outside the context of school work.

OECD (2000) Reading for Change: Performance and Engagement Across Countries. Results form PISA 2000

(Executive summary ): OECD - PISA (Program for International Student Assessment). p. 12.



Some important factors such as students' home background are hard to influence. Others, such as the way in which schools are organised, are more amenable to change. One crucial factor that education systems can work on is the degree to which students are active and well motivated readers. This report shows that the degree to which students are engaged in reading is a crucial factor associated with reading proficiency.


(Executive summary): OECD - PISA (Program for International Student Assessment). p. 3.


The results show how important it is not just to teach students to read but to engage them in reading as part of their lives.


(Executive summary): OECD - PISA (Program for International Student Assessment). p.12.

OECD (2000) Reading for Change: Performance and

Engagement Across Countries. Results form PISA

2000 (Executive summary ): OECD - PISA (Program for

International Student Assessment)

Australia

Enabling adult: the teacher-librarian

Attitude

Bertland (1988) found that students' patterns of borrowing books from the library for recreational reading hinge on the attitudes of their teachers. Teachers who consistently bring their classes to the library for skills lessons and to do content-area research have students who frequently use the library for independent reading. On the other hand, teachers who do not bring their classes to the library to select books have students who check out fewer books per person.


In., 1998-2000. (Originally prepared for the U.S. Department of Education). New York: American Library Association. p. 3.

Relationships

(Executive summary) Libraries, reading, literacy and learning (point 3.10)

Research shows that the relationship between school librarians and teachers has a significant impact on the quality of learning in schools. Better integration, mutual understanding and respect need to be developed.

CILIP (2002) Start with the Child: Report of the CILIP Working Group on Library Provision for Children and Young People (report ISBN 0 9543792 2 5). London:

Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals.

Enabling adult

Teacher-librarians typically place the right book in the right hands at the right time and encourage a lifelong love of reading (Barlup, 1991). The role of the teacher librarian, connecting young people with books that interest them, has been underestimated.

Haycock, Dr Ken (2003) The Crisis of Canada's School Libraries: The Case for Reform and Re-Investment, Association of Canadian Publishers. p. 27

Available at: http://www.publishers.ca

To be successful there should be:

–a large, varied collection of reading materials

–knowledgeable library staff who know both the collection and the students with whom the work

–adequate access to reading materials both during structured reading programs and out of school hours

– varied forms of reading materials in an array of reading ability levels

Reading environment

To be successful there should be:

–modelling by staff of positive attitudes towards reading and their students as readers

–whole school support for reading as a necessary part of life

–an encouraging, welcoming physical environment

–a sense of ownership by the students of their own reading development and their reading environment

Next

Reading environment

It should come as no surprise that if reading is valued and promoted, young people will need interesting and relevant material to read. Access to these materials becomes critical. Further, the larger the library collection, the larger the impact on reading and achievement.



Reading environment

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A good reading environment, including comfort and quiet, as well as larger library collections, affect reading, literacy development and reading scores.

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Reading environment

What is it that enabling adults, teachers especially, do? They provide, stimulate, demonstrate and respond.

They provide books and time to read them and an attractive environment where people want to

read. They stimulate a desire to become a

thoughtful reader. They demonstrate by reading aloud and their own behaviour what a

‘good’ reader does. And they respond, and help others respond, to the individuality of everyone in the reading community they belong to.

Chambers, A. (1991) The Reading Environment. NSW: PETA, Thimble Press, p. 92.

Reading environment

The enabling adult