Why Read?

Reading is a research supported activity beneficial for student learning – a language or acquiring knowledge.  However too often schools don’t support and promote reading programs because of many administrative and institutional pressures and traditions.

Reading we know works when several things are in place:

1. There is student choice. Students read what they want and are interested in.
2. Students read text that is at their right level. 90 -98% of the words on a page should be understood.
3. The teacher supports student reading and models reading.

Here is a nice reading list we put together and which in total supports an extensive reading approach for teaching English. Let’s get our students reading!

• Independent study more useful than contact hours, study suggests | THE News
• Learning to Read to Learn | Harvard Graduate School of Education 3 Key Findings
• Reading Is a Form of Nutrition for the Mind – WSJ
• How to Help Students Develop a Love of Reading | MindShift | KQED News
• Russ on Reading: Independent Reading: A Research Based Defense
• The Input Hypothesis with Dr. Stephen Krashen | Teacher David
• How to Help Students Develop a Love of Reading | MindShift | KQED News
• Educators say acquiring language skills key to becoming global citizens
• If we stop telling kids what to read, they might start reading again – The Washington Post
• How a School Library Increased Student Use by 1,000 Percent | Cult of Pedagogy
• Is listening to a book ‘cheating?’ – The Washington Post
• Do You Assign Enough Reading? Or Too Much? – The Chronicle of Higher Education
• Extensive reading: why it is good for our students… and for us. | TeachingEnglish | British Council | BBC
• http://erfoundation.org/ERF_Guide.pdf
• The Reading Rules We Would Never Follow as Adult Readers

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Also published on Medium.