In this season of free voluntary reading a-plenty (hallelujah!) I have recently had some collaborative brainstorming sessions on piloting a new reading project with colleagues who, like me, feel concerned and motivated to continue to build our school’s culture of reading. Inspired thus, I just reread Stephen D. Krashen’s The Power of Reading: Insights from the Research, which has started me down a happy rabbit hole of reading about reading. This has helped me rediscover some excellent advice for professional practice and affirmations of why we do some things we do.

Sometimes (what I consider to be) the most engaging and creative parts of this job are the things that have trouble making their way into daily library life; things like enticing, timely, and thoughtful displays, eye-catching promotional bulletin boards, and book talks. Revisiting and recommitting to the power of reading and its role in education is exciting, and helps focus my own summer work; thereby re-engaging through some deep fun.

AASL’s Position Statement on the School Librarian’s Role in Reading currently comes with a disclaimer of sorts, indicating that the statement is currently under review to align with the new National School Library Standards. Be that as it may, it’s pretty good as is and I don’t imagine the gist will change much. The last bullet point reads as follows: “Along with classroom and reading specialist colleagues, school librarians provide and participate in continual professional development in reading that reflects current research in the area of reading instruction and promotion.”

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[Hey, look, I have all these books about reading! Let’s read them, shall we?]

Here’s what I’ve revisited in the last few days:

Bernadowski, C., & Kolencik, P. L. (2010). Research-based reading strategies in the library for adolescent learners. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Libraries Unlimited.

Farwell, S. M., & Teger, N. L. (2012). Supporting reading in grades 6-12: A guide. Santa Barbara, Calif.: Libraries Unlimited.

Krashen, S. D. (2004). The power of reading: Insights from the research (2nd ed.). Westport, Conn.: Libraries Unlimited.

Krashen, S. (2016). The purpose of education, free voluntary reading, and dealing with the impact of poverty. School Libraries Worldwide, 22(1), 1+. Retrieved from Academic OneFile database.

Miller, D. (2015, February 8). I’ve got research. Yes, I do. I’ve got research. How about you? [Blog post]. Retrieved from The Book Whisperer website: https://bookwhisperer.com/2015/02/08/ive-got-research-yes-i-do-ive-got-research-how-about-you/

Miller, D. (2019). If kids can’t read what they want in the summer, when can they? School Library Journal. Retrieved from https://www.slj.com/?detailStory=if-kids-cant-read-what-they-want-in-the-Summer-when-can-they

Richardson, J. (2014). Maryanne Wolf: Balance technology and deep reading to create biliterate children. The Phi Delta Kappan, 96(3), 14-19. Retrieved  from JSTOR database.

Questions I have:

• If, according to Krashen, direct vocabulary teaching is less efficient than reading, how can research/library specific vocabulary best be acquired, especially for ELLS?
• While I hope that our learners consider the school library to be a comfortable place conducive to free voluntary reading, students can’t spend all of their reading time there. Do we as a boarding school create or even allow space in our schedule and facilities for reading?
• Extrinsic motivation is generally considered to send children the wrong message about why we read, however, is this also true for young adults? Or adults? Could the kitsch factor of badges, buttons, and leaderboards actually serve to encourage older readers to join the “literacy club” (Krashen, 2004, p. 130)?
• Serving our English Language Learners is an issue often on my mind, and about which I’ve written before. Krashen and others point to the importance of engaging in one’s first language as well as the learned language. Should I be providing more pleasure reading material in my students’ home languages? I’m thinking yes.
• It may be that some of our students, for a variety of possible reasons, have not had the experience as younger children of being read to often by a caring adult. Is there a way with older students to recapture a connection between feeling safe and cared for with story and language acquisition, or do we just need to hold that as a piece of our students’ social-emotional learning?

Newly appearing on the to-read pile:

Baye, A., Inns, A., Lake, C., & Slavin, R. E. (2019). A synthesis of quantitative research on reading programs for secondary students.Reading Research Quarterly, 54(2), 133-166. https://doi.org/10.1002/rrq.229

Beers, G. K., & Probst, R. E. (2017). Disrupting thinking: Why how we read matters. New York, NY: Scholastic.

Merga, M. K. (2019). Reading engagement for tweens and teens: What would make them read more? Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited, an imprint of ABC-CLIO.

Miller, D., & Anderson, J. (2013). The book whisperer: Awakening the inner reader in every child.

Miller, D., & Kelley, S. (2013). Reading in the wild: The book whisperer’s keys to cultivating lifelong reading habits. John Wiley & Sons.

Ross, C. S., MacKechnie, L., & Rothbauer, P. M. (2018). Reading still matters: What the research reveals about reading, libraries, and community. Santa Barbara, CA: Libraries Unlimited, an imprint of ABC-CLIO.

Wolf, M., & Stoodley, C. J. (2018). Reader, come home: The reading brain in a digital world. New York, NY: Harper, an imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers.

What are your favorite sources on reading?