Create an Army of Readers

WHY DOES READING MATTER AND WHAT DO WE DO??

Reading Makes Students Smarter in EVERYTHING

• “Independent reading is an essential practice, one that develops background knowledge, improves fluency and comprehension, heightens motivation, increases reading achievement, and helps students broaden their vocabulary” (Miller & Moss, 2013).

Reading Narrows the Achievement Gap

• Students who read widely and frequently are higher achievers than students who read rarely and narrowly regardless of their family income; so students from lower income families who read a lot score higher on reading achievement tests than do their more privileged peers who don’t read (Guthrie 2012; Brozo, et al., 2008).

The Best Way to Be a Better Reader is to Practice

• The volume of independent, silent reading that students do in school is significantly related to gains in reading achievement. (Allington, 2012; Guthrie, 2004).

Access to Books is Critical

• Frequent readers have, on average, 205 books in the home and infrequent readers (a child who reads for fun less than once a week) have 129 books in the home. (Allington, 2012; Hiebert, 2014).