ERIC EJ996187: Improving Reading in the Primary Grades

2012·0.37 MB·English

by  ERIC

Improving Reading in the Primary Grades
Improving Reading in the Primary Grades
Nell K. Duke and Meghan K. Block
Summary
Almost fifteen years have passed since the publication of the National Research Council’s
seminal report Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children, which provided research-
based recommendations on what could be done to better position students in prekindergarten
through third grade for success in grade four and above. This article by Nell Duke and Meghan
Block first examines whether specific key recommendations from the report have been imple-
mented in U.S. classrooms. They find that recommendations regarding increased access to
kindergarten and greater attention to and improvement of students’ word-reading skills have
been widely adopted. Others have not. Vocabulary and comprehension, long neglected in the
primary grades, still appear to be neglected. Contrary to the report’s recommendations, atten-
tion to building conceptual and content knowledge in science and social studies has actu-
ally decreased in the past fifteen years. In other words, the easier-to-master skills are being
attended to, but the broader domains of accomplishment that constitute preparation for com-
prehension and learning in the later grades—vocabulary knowledge, comprehension strategy
use, and conceptual and content knowledge—are being neglected. Near stagnation in fourth-
grade students’ comprehension achievement is thus unsurprising.
The authors then turn to research and reviews of research on improving primary-grade reading
published since 1998, when Preventing Reading Difficulties was issued. They discuss several
instructional approaches identified as effective in improving word-reading skill, vocabulary and
conceptual knowledge, comprehension strategies, and reading outside of school; they discuss
advances in interventions for struggling readers, and in whole-school literacy reform.
Duke and Block then identify three key obstacles that have prevented widespread adoption of
these best practices in teaching reading. The first obstacle is a short-term orientation toward
instruction and instructional reform that perpetuates a focus on the easier-to-learn reading
skills at the expense of vocabulary, conceptual and content knowledge, and reading comprehen-
sion strategies. The second is a lack of expertise among many educators in how to effectively
teach these harder-to-master reading skills, and the third is the limited time available in the
school day and year to meet unprecedented expectations for children’s learning. Policy makers,
the education community, and parents must attend to these three challenges if they wish to see
meaningful improvements in the reading skills of American children.
www.futureofchildren.org
Nell K. Duke is a professor at the University of Michigan. Meghan K. Block is a doctoral candidate at Michigan State University.
VOL. 22 / NO. 2 / FALL 2012 55
Nell K. Duke and Meghan K. Block
Af ourth-grade student is work- decade.3 Yet, two-thirds of fourth- and eighth-
ing diligently on the National grade students still do not reach the “profi-
Assessment of Educational cient” category, and performance gaps by
Progress (NAEP) in Reading.1 socioeconomic status are as great as they have
The student finishes reading ever been.
an informational article on the blue crab and
then encounters the following question: In this article we consider the role of instruc-
tion in the progress, or lack of it, in improving
The growth of a blue crab larva into a reading achievement in the primary grades.
full-grown blue crab is most like the Has reading instruction in the primary grades
development of of U.S. schools changed? If so, in what ways?
A) a human baby into a teenager For better or worse? What important areas
B) an egg into a chicken and strategies for improvement remain? And
C) a tadpole into a frog what obstacles do schools face in successfully
D) a seed into a tree adopting best practices in teaching reading?
The answer to this question is not explicitly The Preventing Reading Difficulties
stated in the text. Reading the words in the in Young Children Report
question accurately and fluently, while neces- In 1995 the U.S. departments of education
sary, is not sufficient to answer the question. and health and human services commissioned
The fourth-grader also needs vocabulary the National Research Council (NRC) to
knowledge (such as understanding the study the prevention of reading difficulties.
meaning of larva and development), specific A committee made up of a diverse group
reading-comprehension strategies (the ability of respected experts in reading and related
to make connections to prior knowledge and areas investigated various aspects of the prob-
draw analogies), and conceptual and content lem and, in 1998, issued a report, Preventing
knowledge of the life cycles of four different Reading Difficulties in Young Children. The
organisms, in addition to that of the blue crab. report was designed to translate research
into advice and guidelines about what could
As the student works, the teacher sits anx- be done in preschool through grade three to
iously at the head of the classroom, wondering better position students for reading success
whether all of the school’s efforts to improve in later schooling.4
reading instruction in the primary grades
(kindergarten through grade three) will pay While not without its detractors, the report
off. In recent years, enormous attention and was widely lauded and can be viewed as
resources have been put into primary-grade representing a broad consensus, as of 1998,
education, most notably through the federal regarding how literacy should be developed
No Child Left Behind legislation, enacted in in the early grades. To answer our questions
2001. A central goal of this measure was to on the state of reading instruction in the
have all students reading at grade level by the primary grades, we have chosen six key
end of third grade.2 As Sean Reardon and recommendations from the report (listed in
colleagues document in their article in this table 1), to assess whether and how widely
issue, fourth-grade achievement on the NAEP they have been adopted. We then review
has shown some improvement in the past research and reviews of research published
56 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN
Improving Reading in the Primary Grades
Table 1. Six Recommendations Drawn from the Report Preventing Reading Difficulties in
Young Children
Recommendation adopted?
Recommendations Yes To some degree No
Kindergarten access: Provide all children “access to early childhood environments √
[including prekindergarten as well as kindergarten] that promote language and literacy
growth and that address a variety of skills that have been identified as predictors of later
reading achievement.”
Word-reading skill (and its foundations): Provide “practice with the sound structure of √
words; to develop knowledge about print, including the production and recognition of
letters.” Provide explicit instruction and practice “that lead to an appreciation that spoken
words are made up of smaller units of sounds, [and to] familiarity with spelling-sound
correspondences, ... common spelling conventions and their use in identifying printed
words, [and] ‘sight’ recognition of frequent words.”
Vocabulary: Provide instruction “designed to stimulate verbal interaction; to enrich √
children’s vocabularies.”
Conceptual and content knowledge: Engage in “actively building linguistic and conceptual √
knowledge in a rich variety of domains.”
Comprehension strategies: Promote comprehension “through direct instruction about √
comprehension strategies.”
Outside-of-school reading: “Promote independent reading outside school by such ? ? ?
means as daily at-home reading assignments and expectations, summer reading lists,
encouraging parent involvement, and by working with community groups, including public
librarians.”
Source: Derived from Catherine E. Snow, M. Susan Burns, and Peg Griffin, eds., Preventing Reading Difficulties in Young Children
(Washington: National Academy Press, 1998). The ordering, clustering, and some wording of the recommendations are the
responsibility of the authors.
since 1998 on reading instruction and discuss Reading Panel report focused on K–12.
the implications of our assessment for Second, the authors of Preventing Reading
improving primary-grade reading. Difficulties relied on a methodologically more
inclusive body of literature, providing a richer
Some readers may wonder why we have not basis for guidelines and recommendations.5
taken as a basis for our analysis the Report Notably, Preventing Reading Difficulties does
of the National Reading Panel, issued in not contradict the National Reading Panel
2000. Developed under the auspices of the but is much broader in its methods and range
National Institutes of Child Health and of recommendations. Third, the National
Human Development, this report appears Reading Panel report generated considerably
to have had a greater impact on policy and more controversy than Preventing Reading
practice, in part because its recommenda- Difficulties.6 Fourth, the National Reading
tions influenced the No Child Left Behind Panel focused exclusively on instructional
legislation. Although the findings from this procedures, whereas Preventing Reading
report and its impact are woven throughout Difficulties included information about
this article, we believe the NRC’s recom- societal and familial sources of reading dif-
mendations offer a better point of departure ficulties and made recommendations for
for our discussion for five reasons. First, the policy changes that extended well beyond the
NRC report focused specifically on preschool classroom walls. Fifth, as part of the National
through grade three, whereas the National Academies, the National Research Council
VOL. 22 / NO. 2 / FALL 2012 57
Nell K. Duke and Meghan K. Block
is arguably the most respected body in the Implementation of the Six Key
United States for developing a report on a Recommendations
complex and consequential topic such as The first recommendation concerns access
preventing reading difficulties. to kindergarten. Ensuring that all children
have access to kindergarten is fundamen-
In the nearly fifteen years that have passed tal to providing reading instruction in the
since the publication of Preventing Reading primary grades. Although kindergarten
Difficulties, subsequent research has rein- remains optional in many states, rates of
forced its major recommendations. The attendance are high and, we suspect, increas-
report’s emphasis on developing word- ing.11 Availability of full-day kindergarten
reading skill (and its foundations), build- programs remains limited in some places,
ing vocabulary and conceptual and content however, despite some evidence that full-day
knowledge, teaching comprehension strate- programs are more effective than partial-day
gies, and promoting reading outside of school programs in fostering literacy and other areas
have more than stood the test of time. of academic development.12 Ensuring that all
children, particularly those at risk for reading
Of course, as one would hope, subsequent difficulties, have access to full-day kindergar-
research has offered some new findings that ten programs should be a policy priority.
could augment recommendations of the
report. For example, several recent studies Word-reading skill and its foundations, the
point to the importance of cognitive flexibility subject of the second recommendation,
in reading comprehension. Children who are consists of phonological awareness, which
better able to simultaneously consider letter- is the conscious awareness of the sounds in
sound and semantic (meaning) information words (being aware, for example, that she has
about words are better comprehenders both two sounds, /sh/ and /ee/, whereas sheep has
in the short and long term.7 Research also three, /sh/ /ee/ and /p); knowledge of which
shows that interventions in cognitive flexibil- letters represent which sounds; decoding,
ity can have significant benefits for reading or processes for figuring out the pronuncia-
comprehension in young children.8 Young tion of an unfamiliar written word; and rapid
children also appear to gain reading compre- recognition of familiar words. Instructional
hension when they are taught about multiple- attention to word-reading skill has increased
meaning words, such as spell or plane, and since the publication of Preventing Reading
multiple-meaning sentences such as The Difficulties, especially in kindergarten and
woman chased the man on a motorcycle.9 first grade, with concomitant improvements
Self-regulation, or the ability to control both in student achievement.
emotions and cognition, has been shown to
be related to young children’s reading devel- In the only direct comparison study of
opment, and intervention in this area has instruction time spent on word-reading skill
positive consequences for reading achieve- that we are aware of, researchers found that
ment.10 Recognizing that the field continues first-grade teachers in Reading First schools
to develop, for the purposes of this chapter were spending seven minutes more a day,
we focus on recommendations for specific and second-grade teachers ten minutes
instructional attention or practices in long- more a day, on reading instruction than they
standing areas within reading pedagogy. had before the institution of Reading First.
58 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN
Improving Reading in the Primary Grades
(Reading First schools are supported by state classrooms for a total of 600 hours and found
grants, which in turn came from the federal no instances of planned vocabulary instruction
government, to, among other things, “ensure in any classroom.18 Teachers did provide
that every student can read at grade level or students with word meanings or definitions;
above” by the end of third grade. The cre- however, there was no evidence of repeat
ators of the Reading First program explicitly exposure to those words or of purposeful
drew on the National Reading Panel report, teaching of the words. Wright concluded that
and not Preventing Reading Difficulties, in the vocabulary instruction was opportunistic
identifying essential components of read- rather than planned. After observing in 325
ing and reading instruction.)13 In first grade, K–3 classrooms over a three-year period,
those extra minutes tended to be devoted Rebecca Donaldson found that fewer than 63
to phonological awareness and phonics. In percent of teachers taught vocabulary and that
second grade, the extra minutes included vocabulary instruction constituted less than 5
vocabulary and comprehension instruction, percent, on average, of a typical teacher’s
as well as phonics. literacy instruction.19 Vocabulary instruction of
any kind occurred in fewer than half of the
Whether or not teachers are spending more observed kindergarten and first-grade class-
time on word-reading instruction than they rooms. These two studies testify to the dire
once did, they are clearly spending consider- state of vocabulary instruction in primary-
able amounts of time on the activity. Stephanie grade classrooms—a situation that is particu-
Al Otaiba and her colleagues observed larly problematic given the substantial
kindergarten teachers spending an average of social-class and racial gaps in vocabulary
33.15 minutes a day on phonological aware- among even young children, and the central
ness and phonics instruction—more than half role of knowledge of word meanings in
of all time spent on literacy instruction.14 comprehension.
Carol Connor and others found that first-grade
teachers spent an average of 23 minutes on The fourth key recommendation we consider
word-recognition and phonics instruction.15 called for promoting reading comprehension
William Teale and his colleagues noted similar “by actively building linguistic and concep-
findings in many urban Reading First schools; tual knowledge in a rich variety of domains.”
they also concluded that literacy curricula Although vocabulary represents both linguis-
adopted by these schools favored instruction tic and conceptual knowledge, conceptual
focused on word-reading skill and its under- knowledge is broader than vocabulary knowl-
pinnings.16 Not surprisingly, students’ decod- edge—it includes knowledge about and under-
ing ability at the end of first grade in Reading standing of the world. How are educators
First classrooms has shown gains in recent doing in that respect? Jack Jennings and Diane
years.17 Rentner, the authors of a report written for the
Center on Education Policy, determined that,
Even though both reports emphasized the as a result of No Child Left Behind mandates,
importance of building vocabulary, the third teachers are spending much more time on
recommendation in Preventing Reading skill-focused reading and math instruction at
Difficulties, very little vocabulary instruction the expense of content-area instruction.20 The
appears to occur in primary classrooms. Tanya report found that of all content-area instruc-
Wright observed fifty-five kindergarten tion, social studies was the most affected,
VOL. 22 / NO. 2 / FALL 2012 59
Nell K. Duke and Meghan K. Block
perhaps because it is not one of the subject knowledge through text but also to build
areas for which the legislation requires assess- knowledge about this type of text (including
ment. Other studies are consistent with this indexes, diagrams, maps, tables, and glossa-
finding. In one, researchers found that primary ries). This concern may be allayed, however,
teachers tended to view social studies as one by the substantial emphasis placed on read-
of the least important curricular areas.21 The ing and writing informational text in grades
same study found that primary teachers were K–5 in the Common Core State Standards.
spending less time on social studies instruction (The Common Core State Standards, pub-
than in the past. lished in 2010, were developed through
the leadership of the National Governors
Science also appears to have been neglected Association Center for Best Practices and
in recent years. George Griffith and Lawrence the Council of Chief State School Officers
Scharmann conducted an online survey of and, to date, have been adopted by forty-five
teachers on changes in science instruction states and the District of Columbia.)
since enactment of No Child Left Behind.22
They found that science instruction had been In sum, the time spent on science and social
on the decline in elementary schools even studies instruction has decreased in the
before the No Child Left Behind reading and primary grades, and no clear increase has
math mandates were implemented. Those been detected in the amount of content-
mandates further reduced the instructional focused text used. While the failure to build
minutes devoted to science. The survey found conceptual and content knowledge in the
that 59 percent of teachers had decreased primary grades may not affect reading devel-
science instruction, 71 percent of them by opment in the short term, given the role of
thirty-one to ninety minutes a week. As a background knowledge in reading and the
result, more than half of the teachers sur- demands of tasks such as the NAEP ques-
veyed reported spending less than an hour tion presented at the outset of this paper,
and a half a week on science instruction. the long-term results of this failure may be
substantial.
Considerable evidence shows that primary
school students, particularly those in schools The fifth recommendation called for specific
that serve large numbers of disadvantaged instruction in comprehension strategies—
students, are given few classroom opportu- “deliberate efforts by a reader to better
nities to learn about the natural and social understand or remember what is being
world through text.23 This finding is true read”—that research suggests are associated
despite evidence that young children can with stronger reading comprehension skill.26
comprehend and write such texts if given the Yet little classroom time is devoted to teach-
opportunity24 and that increasing children’s ing this skill.
exposure to informational text in the primary
grades does not hamper development of In a classic 1978 study, Dolores Durkin found
word-reading or basic writing skills.25 that teachers were spending less than 1 per-
cent of instructional time on comprehension
The neglect of informational text in the pri- instruction in the intermediate grades.27
mary grades constitutes a missed opportunity While time spent on comprehension instruc-
not only to build social studies and science tion has increased some over the years,
60 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN
Improving Reading in the Primary Grades
prompting and support, to describe the
While the failure to build connection between two individuals, events,
ideas, or pieces of information in a text and to
conceptual and content
identify the reasons an author gives to support
knowledge in the primary points in a text. They are also expected to be
able to actively engage in group reading
grades may not affect
activities with purpose and understanding.
reading development in the Notably, the Core Standards initiative identi-
fies these expectations as standards for
short term, the long-term
informational text, so they could be addressed
results of this failure may be in content-area instruction rather than only in
the English language arts or literacy block of
substantial.
the school day.
The sixth recommendation called on schools
the subject appears to continue to receive to promote out-of-school reading activities
relatively little attention. Carol Connor and for their students, as the additional practice
her colleagues found almost no compre- and knowledge building this provides is likely
hension instruction in third grade.28 In her to accelerate reading development. We know
observation of 325 classrooms in twenty-two of no studies that have examined whether
urban, rural, and suburban schools, Rebecca schools and school districts have increased
Donaldson found that K–3 teachers in or decreased their efforts to promote inde-
Reading First classrooms typically spent an pendent reading outside of school, although
average of 23 percent of their literacy instruc- efforts to promote such reading have been
tional time on comprehension instruction.29 an element of specific research studies, as we
Overall, however, explicit comprehension discuss later.
instruction occurred in only a quarter of the
classrooms, typically in whole-group settings. In sum, then, how has reading instruction
Given these findings, it is perhaps not sur- in the primary grades changed in the fifteen
prising that Beth Gamse and her colleagues years since publication of Preventing Reading
found no statistically significant improve- Difficulties? Certain aspects of instruction
ment in students’ reading comprehension appear not to have changed at all. Most
after participating in Reading First or that notably, vocabulary and comprehension,
U.S. students more broadly have shown little long neglected in primary-grade education,
improvement in reading comprehension in still appear to be neglected in classrooms.
NAEP assessments.30 Not surprisingly, fourth-grade students
of low socioeconomic status have shown
The Common Core State Standards may spur little improvement in comprehension. But
greater attention to reading comprehension in other aspects of instruction have changed.
the primary grades, particularly if assessments Some of these changes, including increased
are aligned with them.31 These standards set attention to and improvement in students’
high expectations for comprehension, specify- word-reading skill and somewhat greater
ing that by the end of kindergarten children kindergarten access, are for the better.
will (among many other things) be able, with Others, namely, the decrease in attention to
VOL. 22 / NO. 2 / FALL 2012 61
Nell K. Duke and Meghan K. Block
building conceptual and content knowledge The review found that phonological aware-
in science and social studies, are decidedly ness instruction is most beneficial when it
for the worse. Teachers are attending to the is paired with the teaching of phonics, or
easier-to-master skills—skills some articles letter-sound relationships. Similarly, students
in this issue refer to as procedural. But the benefit when teachers teach not only the
broader areas of reading accomplishment that phonological-awareness skill but also how to
constitute preparation for comprehension apply it. For example, teaching blending (that
and learning in the later grades—referred is, putting sounds together to form a word, as
to elsewhere in this issue as conceptual in the sounds /ch/ /i/ /m/ and /p/ to form the
word chimp) and then showing students how
skills and knowledge—are being neglected.
to use that knowledge to decode words is
Overall, primary-grade reading instruction
more effective than merely teaching blending
shows much room for improvement.
and expecting students to make the con-
Areas and Strategies for nection to decoding themselves. (And such
Improvement instruction is likely to be more effective when
focused on words the students actually know,
Fortunately, research conducted since
rather than on unfamiliar vocabulary items.)
Preventing Reading Difficulties was published
Put another way, instructional time devoted
provides considerable additional guidance
exclusively to phonological awareness may
regarding instructional practices. We high-
not be as effective as when it is combined
light some recent research studies and
with alphabetic and decoding instruction.
reviews of research that suggest promising
strategies for improving primary-grade
Notably, the National Reading Panel recom-
reading, including for children of low socio-
mended limiting instructional time devoted
economic status.
to phonological awareness in kindergarten
to no more than eighteen hours in a given
Word-Reading Skill and Its Foundations
year, with no one lesson exceeding thirty
Research continues to demonstrate that
minutes.33 Based on research in this area and
many approaches to word-reading skill and its
our own observations, many kindergarten
foundations work to improve primary-grade
teachers and programs are spending consid-
reading. We use as an example instruction
erably more time than recommended on this
in phonological awareness (which, recall, is
skill. If there is a point of diminishing returns
conscious awareness of the sounds in words).
(that is, a point when additional instruction
does not mean greater achievement), this
A review of research on phonological-
additional time might be better spent on rela-
awareness instruction carried out as part tively neglected curricular areas.
of the work of the National Reading Panel
showed several approaches to be effective Vocabulary Instruction
in aiding children’s acquisition of reading The recommendations in the NRC report
and spelling skills.32 This review also found regarding promoting vocabulary and concep-
that underprivileged students benefited tual knowledge were prescient. Many studies
from phonological awareness instruction as conducted since 1998 have confirmed that
much as did students from more privileged vocabulary, which in part reflects conceptual
backgrounds. knowledge, is predictive of the ability of
62 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN
Improving Reading in the Primary Grades
elementary-school students to comprehend “non-examples” (things the word is or is not
what they read.34 By the later elementary- or does not describe—for example, a spring is
school years, vocabulary, and language flexible but an iron bar is not) and planning
knowledge in general, surpasses word reading specific encounters with the new word over
as a predictor of reading comprehension.35 several days. As a result of rich instruction,
Moreover, evidence suggests that this rela- Beck and McKeown reported, kindergarten
tionship is causal, that is, vocabulary instruc- students successfully acquired new, sophisti-
tion promotes reading comprehension.36 cated vocabulary.
As explained, vocabulary instruction in the Developing Conceptual and
primary grades is often left to chance, and Content Knowledge
frequently those chances occur in read- Research has also shown the effectiveness of
alouds, in which the teacher reads a book instructional approaches that aim to develop
aloud to the class, often also asking ques- conceptual and content knowledge beyond
tions and commenting on the text. Although vocabulary. Of particular note for this article
children do seem to learn words simply from are effective approaches that simultaneously
being read to, the children who come with an seek to develop conceptual and content
already well-developed vocabulary are often knowledge along with literacy skills. One
more likely to develop additional vocabulary example is the Science IDEAS model, which
from the read-aloud, leading to a “rich-get- uses supported reading of age-appropriate
richer” effect.37 text along with hands-on activities to develop
knowledge of specific science content (such
Studies show that more deliberate, systematic as measuring tools and types of forces). This
efforts to develop vocabulary in the primary model was found to have positive impacts
grades can be effective. Edna Brabham on both science and literacy achievement
and Carol Lynch-Brown determined that of first- and second-grade children.40 An
when the reader interacts with the students integrated approach to teaching social studies
throughout the read-aloud and encourages and literacy skills closed the achievement
discussion of vocabulary terms, students gap between children in low- and high-
demonstrate higher vocabulary knowledge.38 socioeconomic status school settings on
The researchers concluded that teacher standards-based measures of social studies
explanation of vocabulary terms, coupled knowledge and content literacy skills.41
with students’ discussion of those words In sum, research offers many effective
throughout the read-aloud, fosters students’ approaches for developing vocabulary,
acquisition of new vocabulary. conceptual, and content knowledge; the
policy challenge is bringing these approaches
Isabel Beck and Margaret McKeown exam- into widespread use.
ined the impact of what they termed “rich
instruction” on kindergarten children’s Promoting Comprehension Strategies
vocabulary learning.39 Rich instruction The call to improve comprehension “through
entailed defining words for children during direct instruction about comprehension
read-alouds, helping children make personal strategies” mirrored long-standing advice for
or textual connections with the word, facili- older learners, but teaching of comprehen-
tating conversations about examples and sion strategies was somewhat unusual for
VOL. 22 / NO. 2 / FALL 2012 63
Nell K. Duke and Meghan K. Block
to engage in it, the panel said.44 Notably, U.S.
U.S. students rank near the students rank near the bottom of students
around the world in their attitudes toward
bottom of students around
reading, suggesting that generating motiva-
the world in their attitudes tion is a formidable and challenging task in
U.S. schools.45 Teachers, the panel said, could
toward reading.
create a motivating environment, helping
students to understand the benefits of reading
and to feel successful in their reading, by
offering choice in the topics and texts that
the K–3 population at the time Preventing
they read, and by providing opportunities for
Reading Difficulties was issued. Many years
students to work together to achieve a goal or
later, in 2010, this recommendation was
complete a task.
validated in a review of research by a federal
panel focused specifically on ways to improve
Reading Outside of School
reading comprehension in the primary
Research has continued to affirm the impor-
grades.42 This panel gave the recommenda-
tance of reading outside of school. For exam-
tion to “teach students to use comprehension
ple, John Guthrie found that fourth-grade
strategies” a rare “strong evidence” rating
students who read only at second-grade level
under guidelines issued by the What Works
engaged in no outside reading.46 Fourth-
Clearinghouse in the federal Institute of
graders reading at third-grade level read
Education Sciences; the rating concerns the
for only fifteen minutes a day outside the
strength of causal and generalizable evidence
classroom (including homework). Students
to support recommended strategies, pro-
reading on grade level read twice as much
grams, or practices.
outside of school (thirty minutes a day), and
those reading two grade levels above read for
Comprehension strategies include predicting,
a full hour a day outside of school on average.
questioning, visualizing, drawing inferences,
Guthrie suggests that the benefits of reading
and summarizing or retelling. The federal
outside the classroom are bidirectional: stu-
panel identified as effective several specific dents who are better readers tend to be more
approaches to teaching comprehension strat- interested in reading outside of school, but
egies. Many of the approaches are consistent more reading outside of school also makes
with the “gradual release of responsibility” students better readers.
model, in which teachers offer a significant
amount of support at the initial presentation Research has revealed specific interventions
and early practice of a strategy and then grad- that bolster reading during summer vacation
ually reduce the level of support as students and that have clear positive effects on
practice.43 Teachers cycle back to provide reading development of children of low-
greater support as texts and tasks become socioeconomic status, a group whose reading
more difficult, then again release responsibil- skills often decline over the summer months.47
ity slowly as students gain competence. For three years, Richard Allington and
colleagues provided books to first- and second-
Applying comprehension strategies is hard grade students to read over the summer;
mental work, so students need to be motivated the students could choose the books they
64 THE FUTURE OF CHILDREN