As we come to the end of another school year, I find myself reflecting on how education has changed in the past few years, which then takes me down the rabbit hole of reflecting on how education has changed over the course of my 30-year (I can’t believe it!) career as an educator. There is so much I could say about education and what is most important, but when I really think about it, for me, it all comes down to reading.
Although I was never really a struggling reader, from middle school until my first year teaching, I was what you might call a nonreader. I could read very well, I just didn’t. You’re probably wondering how one can major in English and not love reading. The answer is simple: no teacher instilled a love of reading in me. My teachers didn’t give me choices of what to read. Instead, I was only given books to read that I had no interest in or connection to, and then tested on them. That did not equate to enjoyment for me.
It wasn’t until my first year of teaching that I found how enjoyable and powerful reading could be. One of my students was a voracious reader and always had a book in her hand. I recall seeing her with My Sergei by Ekaterina Gordeeva (Grand Central Publishing) one day and asked her about it. She gave me a summary and I told her it sounded interesting. Shortly after that conversation, she gave me the book and suggested I read it. Though I didn’t want to read it, as the teacher, I was supposed to love reading, so I did. To my surprise, I couldn’t put it down – it was great. When I finished the book, we did what readers do; we talked about that book. Soon after, she gave me another, and another, and before long, she had turned me into a reader.
I learned firsthand the value of how finding great books can turn nonreaders into readers. And as an educator, I understood the influence and power that student choice has on reading comprehension. Like anything, if you want to get better, you have to practice, and practicing by reading about something you want to read makes it more likely to happen. From that point on, turning students into readers has been a significant part of my life’s work.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand and advocate for the need to get High Quality Instructional Materials (HQIMs) into classrooms. I’ve worked with EdReports for almost 10 years to make sure students get the best instructional materials, but I think sometimes, with that, we lose sight of what students want and their choice in reading materials. Fortunately, many HQIMs have independent reading built into their programs, but unfortunately, this often gets overlooked due to the other curricular priorities.
Several years ago, I became familiar with the Children’s Rights to Read initiative, launched in 2018 by the International Literacy Association (ILA) to ensure every child has access to the education, opportunities, and resources needed to read. You should check it out. It focuses on 10 rights essential for individuals to reach full personal, social, and educational potential. As the former High School ELA Specialist in a large district, my job was to lead the work of literacy in more than 20 high schools, and this document became a part of that work. While that is no longer my role, I feel this document is still, and maybe more relevant than ever as we think about helping our students become better readers. Instruction and HQIMs matter, but so does student choice. I know this first-hand, and from years of teaching experience.
So how do we turn students into readers? We advocate for reading in many ways, all of which are part of the Children’s Rights to Read. I am a huge advocate (for obvious reasons) of giving students choice in what they read (Right no. 3), and encouraging them to read for pleasure (Right no. 5). Students need to read what they love and are interested in. Those choices should be texts that mirror their experiences and languages or provide windows into the lives of others (Right no. 4).
As teachers, we show students what we value by how we spend our class time; therefore, setting aside time for students to read is important (Right no. 7) as is providing diverse and relevant classroom libraries surrounding students with great texts (Rights no. 2, 4, 5, and 10). Finally, we must encourage and support our students by providing safe, literacy-rich environments in which students support one another (Right no. 6) and share what they are reading and learning with one another through various modes of communication, such as reading, writing, and speaking (Rights no. 8 and 9). What I love about ILA’s Children’s Rights to Read, is that most, if not all, of the rights can be found already integrated into HQIMs.
Throughout my career, I have seen nonreader after nonreader turn into readers. Teachers have facilitated this transformation by giving students both access to high-interest books and choice in their reading. Our ultimate goal is to improve students’ literacy, and we know that in order to do so, students need to read. Yes, standards are important. Yes, grade-level texts are important. But unless students will actually pick up a text and read, none of that matters. The need to improve literacy outcomes demands students to read, and to do that, we must give them not only access and instruction using HQIMs, but student choice that leads to enjoyable and engaging experiences with texts.
If you are interested in ideas for implementing Children’s Rights to Read, ILA’s Children’s Right to Read Advocacy Manual is organized based upon the role of various stakeholders (e.g., teachers, instructional coaches, librarians, administrators, families, policy makers).
ILA Children’s Rights to Read image used with permission from the International Literacy Association.