School libraries are not a luxury item -- they are essential to learning.
YSL6: James Henri and Sandra Lee are bringing us yet another timely, provocative, and important opportunity to learn in a dynamic, interactive, asynchronous, global online context how to work for advancement of school libraries.
Sign up now for Your School Library's sixth online professional development conference, March 4 - 18, to work with such BIG names in the field as Gary Hartzell, Stephen Krashen, Buffy Hamilton, and Keith Curry Lance and more, always including our own BC BIG names, to develop strategies to help administrators, colleagues, parents, and others understand the value of the school library for student learning.
Click here for more information about YSL and the conference and for registration; be sure to take advantage of the district or BCTLA promotional discount.
Showing posts with label krashen. Show all posts
Showing posts with label krashen. Show all posts
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Friday, December 10, 2010
Am I Harping? It’s a Seasonal Thing!
On the Importance of Reading:
Insights from some of my earlier blog posts (search Krashen) serve as a reminder that school libraries provide an important piece in a balanced approach to literacy development; we after all provide the quality books and online sources that enable reading widely for knowledge, freely for interest, and deeply for understanding.
The recent results of the PISA 2009 testing of 15-year olds around the world offer the chance to reconsider the research presented here before. I am reminded of the metaphorical question Dr. Stephen Krashen asked at a conference I attended in California one summer: What if there was a country experiencing a drought and famine, and the experts deemed that the children there needed painful and expensive surgery? Everyone would say: “No, feed them!” Similarly, children don’t need painful and expensive intensive phonics programs or more testing, they need books!
A noted and frequently cited expert on the importance of free voluntary reading for children’s literacy development and also on second language learning, Krashen told the audience that there are three things that keep the mind supple: bilingualism, reading, and coffee! This was a man I knew had important things to say. Krashen's most significant finding? "Children are more likely to read if they have something to read."
Krashen thought his talk should be entitled, "How Libraries Can End All Literacy Issues Forever." He continued: The most powerful tool in the literacy kit, supported by consistent research, is free voluntary reading. It is Krashen's view that school libraries are the hottest area in language and literacy education. The better the school library, the higher the reading scores. His talk was referenced to other signficant milestones in understanding the power of reading:
I began teaching in the days when Hooked on Books was what we knew to be true – now is a good time to ask, just how and why has the BC education system has been led so far astray, with a 26% reduction in the ranks of teacher-librarians since 2001, and at what costs to school libraries and our students as lifelong readers? Be sure to include a book in your child’s gifts this holiday season. See the VSB website for reading suggestions from Vancouver teacher-librarians. See your teacher-librarian about becoming a Friend of School Libraries in Vancouver.
Insights from some of my earlier blog posts (search Krashen) serve as a reminder that school libraries provide an important piece in a balanced approach to literacy development; we after all provide the quality books and online sources that enable reading widely for knowledge, freely for interest, and deeply for understanding.
The recent results of the PISA 2009 testing of 15-year olds around the world offer the chance to reconsider the research presented here before. I am reminded of the metaphorical question Dr. Stephen Krashen asked at a conference I attended in California one summer: What if there was a country experiencing a drought and famine, and the experts deemed that the children there needed painful and expensive surgery? Everyone would say: “No, feed them!” Similarly, children don’t need painful and expensive intensive phonics programs or more testing, they need books!
A noted and frequently cited expert on the importance of free voluntary reading for children’s literacy development and also on second language learning, Krashen told the audience that there are three things that keep the mind supple: bilingualism, reading, and coffee! This was a man I knew had important things to say. Krashen's most significant finding? "Children are more likely to read if they have something to read."
Krashen thought his talk should be entitled, "How Libraries Can End All Literacy Issues Forever." He continued: The most powerful tool in the literacy kit, supported by consistent research, is free voluntary reading. It is Krashen's view that school libraries are the hottest area in language and literacy education. The better the school library, the higher the reading scores. His talk was referenced to other signficant milestones in understanding the power of reading:
- Daniel Fader's Hooked on Books revolutionized how educators delivered reading programs in schools and school libraries. Dr. Fader had successfully demonstrated in his study of underprivileged boys that, given books and freed from writing reports or paying fines, they were better at everything -- simply by administering "books" and time for independent reading.
- The 1983 work of Elley and Manghubai, "The effect of reading on second language learning" (Reading Research Quarterly, 19:1, 53-67), now known as the Fiji "Book Flood" project, demonstrated that students in grades 4 and 5, immersed in regular reading of English materials as part of their second language learning experience, showed accelerated development of their second language proficiency in reading and listening but also had consistent and positive improvements in their proficiency in their own language as well.
- The "book flood" project was replicated in 1985 in Singapore with a larger number of younger children; the results were consistent with the earlier findings: children in the study group did better than those taught by traditional methods on tests of reading comprehension, vocabulary, oral language, grammar, listening comprehension and writing. Elley noted that children exposed to a broad choice of high-interest, illustrated story books who are encouraged to read and share them will learn a new language more quickly but there will also be improved competence in other language skills such as writing and control over syntax. That is, all language skills are improved by reading as opposed to learning the language from textbooks with reading programs. Additionally students do better on tests when they read, through acquisition, than when they are taught for testing. Or, literacy and language development should be pleasurable experiences, not painful ones.
- When programs such as Accelerated Reader which put books, time to read, tests and quizzes of literal understandings together with prizes, Krashen suggested, conservatively, there needs to be a definitive study; but, he continued, one might also conjecture that such programs are, in fact, harmful because they offer extrinsic rewards for something intrinsically pleasurable. Alfie Kohn offers this same point in his book Punish by Rewards: payment for something you like to do can "extinguish the behaviour."
- A longitudinal study by Greaney and Clarke (1973) showed that boys who engaged in sustained silent free reading in school continued to be readers as adults.
- The practice of reading aloud with children underpins Jim Trelease’s book The Read-Aloud Handbook (2006, Penguin). Trelease observes the importance of what he calls the "home-run" books, the books that make a difference in a child's life with reading, be that Captain Underpants or Garfield. These are the keys into literature, into fictional expressions that portray life experiences, ethics, and more.
- Frank Smith adds that children read more in quiet comfortable places with lots of books, that they get the "feel" for stories from read-alouds like Charlotte's Web and Judy Blume.
- The relationship of higher achievement to the presence of strong school library programs is supported by the research of Lance and Loertscher and by the work of Jeff McQuillan, in his book The Literacy Crisis: False Claims, Real Solutions (Heinemann, 1998). McQuillan used data from the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress). Unlike standardized testing, the NAEP is zero-stakes and uses only a sampling of students. Controlling for poverty, McQuillan found there were better results with better access to libraries. There is a strong correlation between access to print materials and reading scores, supporting the case for strong, well-stocked libraries.
- These results are replicated in a study of 2007 NAEP scores. Researchers undertook to assess the impact of access to books on two groups of children equally poor. The one with access to books will do better. They assessed predictors of improvement by grade 8 and found the single factor was access to books.
- The PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) provides plentiful data about the students who are tested in 40 different countries. Again data indicates reading instruction is negative and the effect of poverty is overwhelming. There is more likelihood that children in high income neighbourhoods will have a qualified teacher-librarian, access to materials, reading services, and bookstores.
- Barbara Heyns shows that high and low income children show the same gains throughout the school year. The difference is made in summer reading where students of higher socio-economic status are more likely to live closer to the library and use it. Summer reading programs provide opportunities for two hours of reading a day, 30 minutes a day for browsing, and time for talking about what is being read. The single most popular author for young readers? R L Stine!
I began teaching in the days when Hooked on Books was what we knew to be true – now is a good time to ask, just how and why has the BC education system has been led so far astray, with a 26% reduction in the ranks of teacher-librarians since 2001, and at what costs to school libraries and our students as lifelong readers? Be sure to include a book in your child’s gifts this holiday season. See the VSB website for reading suggestions from Vancouver teacher-librarians. See your teacher-librarian about becoming a Friend of School Libraries in Vancouver.
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Still a strong performance by BC in 2009 PISA reading results?
Still strong performance by Canada and BC in latest international assessment? Check out what Janet Steffenhagen has to say, or read the report from StatsCan, Measuring Up: Canadian Results of the OECD PISA. Here's how I see it:
Interesting and predictable! For an underfunded and under-resourced system, despite the rhetoric that incited the system to strive to become -- remember this? -- the "most literate jurisdiction in North America," it should come as little surprise that the results for reading have declined.
26% of BC's teacher-librarians have disappeared since the Liberal government’s stripping of contract language that ensured every school had a teacher-librarian and since the inception of funding and programs to address this lofty Literacy goal. Some might consider it to have been cheaply “spun” grandstanding and political opportunism of the worst kind, given that we were at the time already a highly literate province for 15 year-olds, closely vying for that title of most literate with Alberta.
It comes as little surprise to us in school libraries that the results for PISA 2009 tests of 15-year olds for reading have fallen here in BC; so have the services of teacher-librarians and thus the capacity of strong school library programs to support reading and inquiry. Dr Ken Haycock said this would happen in his work Crisis in Canada's School Libraries (2003); it is what happened in the US, most notably in California. This same refrain is echoed by Stephen Krashen, an acknowledged expert on the value of the kind of free voluntary reading (FVR) that is enabled by school libraries and by children having access to qualified school librarians, adequate resources, and opportunities to read. School libraries in some BC school districts are now being staffed by clerks, technicians, parent volunteers, or administrators, or they are closed for some or all of the time.
Provincial funding has been directed to making the case for what some have identified as an “imported” educational crisis in Literacy and Numeracy. John Ralston Saul, Dave Bouchard, and Andy Hargreaves have reminded us of this folly, and yet, educational direction in Canada is still, amazingly, tied to American initiatives. The public's confidence in its education system, fed by the government’s unrelenting and narrowly focused attacks, has simultaneously been eroded.
Yes, interesting and quite predictable. It is, by the way, Krashen who is best known for his finding that “reading improves with reading”! And supporting school libraries as hubs of reading and learning in our schools is so much easier a case to make than continuing on with FSAs and provincial exams, and making school districts accountable for Literacy and Numeracy. Yes, we can see the results of this government's ignoring the importance of school library programs and its failing to invest in the resources, technology, and qualified staffing that engage students with reading.
Interesting and predictable! For an underfunded and under-resourced system, despite the rhetoric that incited the system to strive to become -- remember this? -- the "most literate jurisdiction in North America," it should come as little surprise that the results for reading have declined.
26% of BC's teacher-librarians have disappeared since the Liberal government’s stripping of contract language that ensured every school had a teacher-librarian and since the inception of funding and programs to address this lofty Literacy goal. Some might consider it to have been cheaply “spun” grandstanding and political opportunism of the worst kind, given that we were at the time already a highly literate province for 15 year-olds, closely vying for that title of most literate with Alberta.
It comes as little surprise to us in school libraries that the results for PISA 2009 tests of 15-year olds for reading have fallen here in BC; so have the services of teacher-librarians and thus the capacity of strong school library programs to support reading and inquiry. Dr Ken Haycock said this would happen in his work Crisis in Canada's School Libraries (2003); it is what happened in the US, most notably in California. This same refrain is echoed by Stephen Krashen, an acknowledged expert on the value of the kind of free voluntary reading (FVR) that is enabled by school libraries and by children having access to qualified school librarians, adequate resources, and opportunities to read. School libraries in some BC school districts are now being staffed by clerks, technicians, parent volunteers, or administrators, or they are closed for some or all of the time.
Provincial funding has been directed to making the case for what some have identified as an “imported” educational crisis in Literacy and Numeracy. John Ralston Saul, Dave Bouchard, and Andy Hargreaves have reminded us of this folly, and yet, educational direction in Canada is still, amazingly, tied to American initiatives. The public's confidence in its education system, fed by the government’s unrelenting and narrowly focused attacks, has simultaneously been eroded.
Yes, interesting and quite predictable. It is, by the way, Krashen who is best known for his finding that “reading improves with reading”! And supporting school libraries as hubs of reading and learning in our schools is so much easier a case to make than continuing on with FSAs and provincial exams, and making school districts accountable for Literacy and Numeracy. Yes, we can see the results of this government's ignoring the importance of school library programs and its failing to invest in the resources, technology, and qualified staffing that engage students with reading.
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
YSL4: Reading 2010
Some of us are now in attendance at the Reading 2010 YSL4 online conference where Dr Stephen Krashen, best known for his work on the importance of free voluntary reading, is a breath of fresh air in challenging the notions of reading that have underpinned the grand-scale initiatives to improve literacy in North American. I have introduced his interactive dialogue session, which I have the privilege to be moderating, as follows:
Wish you were there to read the world responding and to contribute. The irony is being felt here in Vancouver school libraries -- and elsewhere in BC -- in gut-wrenching ways. We thank you, Madame Minister of Education, for insights into ways to cut costs in education but the real social costs mean we are putting at risk the futures of our less privileged children in ways that are huge and life-changing. There is a strong correlation between juvenile delinquency and low literacy development, or so Jamie Graham, former Chief of Police here in Vancouver, and others would have us believe. There is a strong correlation between literacy development and poverty that is offset by there being strong, well-suppported school library programs that offer children choice in what they read. Or so Stephen Krashen would have us believe. I believe! Do you?
Krashen references his work [on reading] to signficant milestones in understanding the power of reading. His talks essentially provide support for ways that libraries can end all literacy issues forever. The most powerful tool in the literacy kit, supported by consistent research, is free voluntary reading .... Yet, ironically, even as, in Stephen's words, "We now have the best evidence we have ever had on the value of libraries and ... of recreational reading, libraries and free reading have never been in more trouble."
Wish you were there to read the world responding and to contribute. The irony is being felt here in Vancouver school libraries -- and elsewhere in BC -- in gut-wrenching ways. We thank you, Madame Minister of Education, for insights into ways to cut costs in education but the real social costs mean we are putting at risk the futures of our less privileged children in ways that are huge and life-changing. There is a strong correlation between juvenile delinquency and low literacy development, or so Jamie Graham, former Chief of Police here in Vancouver, and others would have us believe. There is a strong correlation between literacy development and poverty that is offset by there being strong, well-suppported school library programs that offer children choice in what they read. Or so Stephen Krashen would have us believe. I believe! Do you?
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Back in for a while ...
... After a Month on the Road
There's a lovely fresh and lighter look at Van Horne. This was our last stop on the city tour of school libraries. I think the photos are the best thing I've blogged so far and am well aware they are inspiring a much-needed energy to "lighten up" and weed the "dead stuff" in these stressful times in the VSB's annus horribilis. When times get tough, TLs weed (and get weeded, but that's another not-so-light story)!
Way to go, Dorothy, and assistant/mentors Maryann (who has a vested interest as a VH Kindergarten mother), Linda, Wendy, and Sylvia. Lots was done and learned in a very short period of time as Dorothy has only been there since January.
I won't be showing any photos of the cubicle that's waiting for me after our month of May Update sessions for Vancouver TLs. Know that my piles were only slightly less than these that were waiting for Maryann:
Here (below) am I with Renee, Primary Lit Consultant, down in Library Services as we are getting ready for our presentation at the online international conference on Reading, called YSL4 (YourSchoolLibrary, 4th event):
Our Session is to be an informal one. We are posting an emerging discussion called Reading the Word and the World: Shared Perspectives on Guiding Readers to Quality Literature. Do TLs have key points they want to see included? Why, yes they do. I'll be using our School Libraries and Literacies document you have seen in its finished form at the Updates. And nothing says I can't draw from comments received on my blog! (We learned it's okay to start sentences with And, But, or Because ... but that's never been a problem with the conventions of blog-writing, in my view.)
My next appearance, while flying between outpourings of brilliance in the conference seesions I am attending and the discussions and upcoming interviews, will be at the same conference as a moderator for Stephen Krashen. Ain't I the important person!
Secondary TLs Make Appearance at SFU
I am dreadfully sorry I didn't take a single picture at SFU Bennett Library this week with most of the secondary TLs in attendance to hear the Writing expert (also named Renee) from the SFU Learning Commons identify the Top Ten Things Students Need to Know How to Do To Succeed with Academic Reading and Writing, a nice follow-up to last year's session about Academic Research. This team will be with us and some of our academic secondary department head colleagues at UBC later in June. We were delighted and send profuse thanks to Hope (my invitation said, There's Hope at SFU) and the team of librarians and we are quite convinced our colleagues will be greatly pleased with this session.
I am also sorry to say I don't have pictures of the annual year-end secondary dinner and gabfest, this time at Vita Bella restaurant in Burnaby. It was perhaps the loudest EVER! Who knew that they who apparently specialize in "shushing" could be so readily and enthusiastically influenced by Italian style and gusto. I think I needed that special night out with my specialist friends.
Bye for now ... won't likely be here at my usual blogspot next week as I am off to Edmonton to talk about Inquiry with Ross Todd, David Loertscher, Carol Koechlin, Sandi Zwaan, and more. Mmmm-hmmm. That's ME, important! We are going to be discussing our papers in relation to School Libraries as Learning Commons. Heather from Coquitlam and our Pat are going to be there too ... but I still can't say why Pat is coming!
Thanks, everyone. We saw TLs from all but about six of our school libraries at these sessions. That's amazing professionalism and dedication to currency and planning, eh? But that's what is so great about our TL community.
PSSSSTTTT: Be sure to check out the next blog and take 20 minutes or so to poke around in the TED site, if you have never been there before. Sir Ken Robinson's talks (this one is new and there is one from 2008) are amongst the most thought-provoking for us TLs as promoters of inquiry-based learning.
Friday, May 21, 2010
YSL4: Online Conference on Reading
YSL4 (that is, the 4th online conference sponsored by YourSchoolLibrary.org) is starting in three days ... see attached flyer.
Dr Stephen Krashen is the keynote speaker (and I am the host of this session, much to my delight). You will know his name in relation to ESL learning and also FVR or free voluntary reading research. I saw him in Berkeley two summers ago when he spoke at the IASL Conference. He said, there are three things that keep the mind supple: a second language, reading, and coffee! Who wouldn't love a guy who starts off an early morning session this way.
Dr Renee Norman from the Literacy Team and I are also going to host an informal chat about how we offer a "balanced" approach to literacy and also what lies in the balance. Details to be forthcoming on this one! We didn't think it seemed like a great time to be taking on a full-scale presentation option here what with one thing and another.
To check out these events and other subtopics of the Reading conference, go here:
YourSchoolLibrary.org
If you have Pro D funds to use up by June, this might be just the right event for you. No travel ... pyjamas are okay! I have attended all of the previous three of these conferences. Giovanna and I both loved the last one on Facilities. Hope some of you can make it ... we'll meet-up with you there.
Dr Stephen Krashen is the keynote speaker (and I am the host of this session, much to my delight). You will know his name in relation to ESL learning and also FVR or free voluntary reading research. I saw him in Berkeley two summers ago when he spoke at the IASL Conference. He said, there are three things that keep the mind supple: a second language, reading, and coffee! Who wouldn't love a guy who starts off an early morning session this way.
Dr Renee Norman from the Literacy Team and I are also going to host an informal chat about how we offer a "balanced" approach to literacy and also what lies in the balance. Details to be forthcoming on this one! We didn't think it seemed like a great time to be taking on a full-scale presentation option here what with one thing and another.
To check out these events and other subtopics of the Reading conference, go here:
YourSchoolLibrary.org
If you have Pro D funds to use up by June, this might be just the right event for you. No travel ... pyjamas are okay! I have attended all of the previous three of these conferences. Giovanna and I both loved the last one on Facilities. Hope some of you can make it ... we'll meet-up with you there.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Testing, used properly, can lay the groundwork for success for all (The Vancouver Sun, 18 Mar 2009, Page A11)
.
... better still, so can lots of reading! This blog post allows me to expound on my thoughts exactly on assessment for learning in school libraries, whether you like it or not!
Please read Meredyth`s lateliteracy blog this week (Teacher-librarians, April 4) as she describes the delight with which she viewed our Pam of Waverly in a frenzy of matching books and kids. To my Literacy colleagues I do need to ask, can you see it? Are there those places where you see classrooms committed to reading by using the school library program and you know that success in that building hinges on the relationships that have been developed to promote the love and culture of reading. Thanks, Meredyth, for this description. Oh, and for posting the very cool poster of Obama in the library.
Testing, used properly, can lay the groundwork for success for all
BY GEOFF JOHNSON
The Vancouver Sun
18 Mar 2009
It was 1968 and like every “ newbie” teacher in New South Wales, Australia, I was subject to inspection by a state-appointed inspector. And I wasn’t doing well. Grade 12 English in those days still included the teaching of spelling — thought to be an...read more...
Related:
Assessment for learning not รข€�dumbing down’
Tech Tags: The Vancouver Sun newspaper Opinion
... better still, so can lots of reading! This blog post allows me to expound on my thoughts exactly on assessment for learning in school libraries, whether you like it or not!
Geoff Johnson, a frequent educational editorial contributor to The Vancouver Sun Op Ed page, is a former colleague from my very first years in New Westminster as a teacher of English. In light of the comments of some of our colleagues that emerged from the recent BCTF AGM, I do very much appreciate the perspective from which Geoff's article (below) comes.
In schools, we teach children and everything we do is about building their chances of success. And aren't you glad that we teacher-librarians work in the best place in the school to stimulate the love of words, that we don't have to administer spelling tests, for example, or deal with zeroes and speculate on curricular dumbing-down -- rather, we know that assessment for learning (AFL) in our space means knowing each child well enough that you have no difficulty finding "just the right book for just the right child at just the right time."Please read Meredyth`s lateliteracy blog this week (Teacher-librarians, April 4) as she describes the delight with which she viewed our Pam of Waverly in a frenzy of matching books and kids. To my Literacy colleagues I do need to ask, can you see it? Are there those places where you see classrooms committed to reading by using the school library program and you know that success in that building hinges on the relationships that have been developed to promote the love and culture of reading. Thanks, Meredyth, for this description. Oh, and for posting the very cool poster of Obama in the library.
Thanks, Meredyth, for this description of our super-colleague. Oh, and for posting the very cool poster of Obama in the library which I am blatantly borrowing because he belongs here too.
We know, and would love someone like Geoff Johnson to write about this phenomenon called school library, where reading improves with reading, and reading also improves spelling, vocabulary, grammar, writing ... well, Krashen argues this best, and I am preaching to the converted here! But for all the Ministry-driven rhetoric about improving literacy and student achievement, it still amazes me that decades of research correlating strong school library programs and student success, as well as free voluntary reading and student success, are ignored as we continue to face erosion of our capacity to administer the treatment that works best. Did I see a report that literacy scores are down, Mr Gorman? Stephen Krashen has something to say about that. Hello, is there anyone over there?
I am reminded of Krashen`s question: What, he asked metaphorically, if there was a country experiencing a drought and famine, and the experts deemed that the children there needed painful and expensive surgery? Everyone would say, no, feed them! Similarly, children don’t need painful and expensive intensive phonics programs (and perhaps I can add, more testing), they need books!
If you need to re-read about Krashen and his work, check my summary of his talk at the IASL conference in Berkeley this summer (Fall 2008 Bookmark, pp 10-11). And, Geoff, you were there in New West when Hooked on Books was what drove our instruction in English. I'll be in touch! Read Geoff Johnson (Sun, 18 March 2009) below ... .
BY GEOFF JOHNSON
The Vancouver Sun
18 Mar 2009
It was 1968 and like every “ newbie” teacher in New South Wales, Australia, I was subject to inspection by a state-appointed inspector. And I wasn’t doing well. Grade 12 English in those days still included the teaching of spelling — thought to be an...read more...
Related:
Assessment for learning not รข€�dumbing down’
Tech Tags: The Vancouver Sun newspaper Opinion
Monday, August 11, 2008
Stephen Krashen ... Do Libraries Matter?
Day 4: Keynote speaker Stephen Krashen and more ...
In her introduction, Blanche Woolls noted Stephen Krashen's significant finding that "children are more likely to read if they have something to read." Dr Krashen spoke to an appreciative audience and it was delightful to find he is something of a comedian -- as well as a man I could admire for his clarity on the subject of reading. He began, there are three things that keep the mind supple: bilingualism, reading, and coffee! We were fortunate that coffee was being served, I thought.
Krashen thought his talk should be entitled, "How Libraries Can End All Literacy Issues Forever." The most powerful tool in the literacy kit, supported by consistent research, is free voluntary reading. He referenced his study against other signficant milestones in understanding the power of reading. Daniel Fader's Hooked on Books revolutionized how educators delivered reading programs in schools and school libraries as Dr. Fader successfully demonstrated that his study of underprivileged boys given books and freed from writing reports or paying fines were better at everything -- simply be administering "books" and time for independent reading.
He referred to the 1983 work of Elley and Manghubai, "The effect of reading on second language learning" published in Reading Research Quarterly (19/1, 53-67) now known as the Fiji "Book Flood" project. Students in grades 4 and 5 were immersed in regular reading of English materials as part of their second language learning experience. This not only accelerated the development of their second language proficiency in reading and listening, but had consistent and positive effects on their proficiency in their own language as well.
The "book flood" project was replicated in 1985 in Singapore with a larger number of younger children; the results were consistent with the earlier findings: children in the study group did better than those taught by traditional methods on tests of reading comprehension, vocabulary, oral language, grammar, listening comprehension and writing. Elley noted that children exposed to a broad choice of high-interest illustrated story books, encouraged to read and share them, will learn a new language more quickly but there will also be improved competence in other language skills such as writing and control over syntax. That is, all language skills are improved by reading as opposed to learning the language from textbooks with reading programs. Additionally students do better on tests when they read, through acquisition, than when they are taught for testing. Or, literacy and language development should be pleasurable experiences, not painful ones.
Krashen then considered programs such as Accelerated Reader which put books, time to read, tests and quizzes of literal understandings together with prizes. Conservatively, he suggested, there needs to be a definitive study; but one might also conjecture that such programs are, in fact, harmful because they offer extrinsic rewards for something intrinsically pleasurable. Alfie Kohn offers this same point in his book Punish by Rewards: payment for something you like to do can "extinguish the behaviour."
Another significant study was a longitudinal one by Greaney and Clarke (1973) which showed that boys who engaged in sustained silent free reading in school continued to be readers as adults.
Krashen talked about the practice of reading aloud with children. Jim Trelease, in his book The Read-Aloud Handbook (2006, Penguin), observes the importance of what he calls the "home-run" books, the books that make a difference in a child's life with reading, be that Captain Underpants or Garfield. These are the keys into literature, into fictional expressions that portray life experiences, ethics, and more. Frank Smith adds that children read more in quiet comfortable places with lots of books, that they get the "feel" for stories from read-alouds like Charlotte's Web and Judy Blume.
It is Krashen's view that school libraries are the hottest area in language and literacy education. The better the school library, the higher the reading scores. This view is supported by the research of Lance and Loertscher and by the work of Jeff McQuillan, in his book The Literacy Crisis: False Claims, Real Solutions (Heinemann, 1998) which used data from the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress). Unlike standardized testing, the NAEP is zero-stakes and uses only a sampling of students. Controlling for poverty, McQuillan found there were better results with better access to libraries. There is a strong correlation between access to print materials and reading scores, supporting the case for strong, well-stocked libraries.
These results are replicated in a study of 2007 NAEP scores. Researchers undertook to assess the impact of access to books on two groups of children equally poor. The one with . access to books will do better. They assessed predictors of improvement by grade 8 and found the single factor was access to books.
The PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) provides plentiful data about the students who take the test in 40 different countries. Again data indicates reading instruction is negative and the effect of poverty is overwhelming. There is more likelihood that children in high income neighbourhoods will have a qualified teacher-librarian, access to materials, reading services, and bookstores. Barbara Heyns shows that high and low income children show the same gains throughout the school year. The difference is made in summer reading where students of higher socio-economic status are closer to the library. Summer reading programs provide opportunities for two hours of reading a day, 30 minutes a day for browsing, and time for talking about what is being read. The single most popular author for young readers? R L Stine!
What, says Krashen metaphorically, if there was a country experiencing a drought and famine, and the experts deemed that the children there needed painful and expensive surgery? Everyone would say, no, feed them!
Or, as I have often said, reading improves with reading! Motivated and enthusiastic readers will 'stretch' to read at higher levels ... we have only to look at the impact of Harry Potter to know that to be true. Wow! I can't believe that I began teaching in the days when Hooked on Books was what we knew to be true -- just how and why have we been led so far astray, and at what costs to school libraries and our students as readers today and in their adult lives? The conference continued to astound and challenge: yes, you've got it -- oh my, oh my, oh my!
Stephen's book The Power of Reading in Japanese (7th edition) was presented in appreciation of his work.
In her introduction, Blanche Woolls noted Stephen Krashen's significant finding that "children are more likely to read if they have something to read." Dr Krashen spoke to an appreciative audience and it was delightful to find he is something of a comedian -- as well as a man I could admire for his clarity on the subject of reading. He began, there are three things that keep the mind supple: bilingualism, reading, and coffee! We were fortunate that coffee was being served, I thought.Krashen thought his talk should be entitled, "How Libraries Can End All Literacy Issues Forever." The most powerful tool in the literacy kit, supported by consistent research, is free voluntary reading. He referenced his study against other signficant milestones in understanding the power of reading. Daniel Fader's Hooked on Books revolutionized how educators delivered reading programs in schools and school libraries as Dr. Fader successfully demonstrated that his study of underprivileged boys given books and freed from writing reports or paying fines were better at everything -- simply be administering "books" and time for independent reading.
He referred to the 1983 work of Elley and Manghubai, "The effect of reading on second language learning" published in Reading Research Quarterly (19/1, 53-67) now known as the Fiji "Book Flood" project. Students in grades 4 and 5 were immersed in regular reading of English materials as part of their second language learning experience. This not only accelerated the development of their second language proficiency in reading and listening, but had consistent and positive effects on their proficiency in their own language as well.
The "book flood" project was replicated in 1985 in Singapore with a larger number of younger children; the results were consistent with the earlier findings: children in the study group did better than those taught by traditional methods on tests of reading comprehension, vocabulary, oral language, grammar, listening comprehension and writing. Elley noted that children exposed to a broad choice of high-interest illustrated story books, encouraged to read and share them, will learn a new language more quickly but there will also be improved competence in other language skills such as writing and control over syntax. That is, all language skills are improved by reading as opposed to learning the language from textbooks with reading programs. Additionally students do better on tests when they read, through acquisition, than when they are taught for testing. Or, literacy and language development should be pleasurable experiences, not painful ones.
Krashen then considered programs such as Accelerated Reader which put books, time to read, tests and quizzes of literal understandings together with prizes. Conservatively, he suggested, there needs to be a definitive study; but one might also conjecture that such programs are, in fact, harmful because they offer extrinsic rewards for something intrinsically pleasurable. Alfie Kohn offers this same point in his book Punish by Rewards: payment for something you like to do can "extinguish the behaviour."
Another significant study was a longitudinal one by Greaney and Clarke (1973) which showed that boys who engaged in sustained silent free reading in school continued to be readers as adults.
Krashen talked about the practice of reading aloud with children. Jim Trelease, in his book The Read-Aloud Handbook (2006, Penguin), observes the importance of what he calls the "home-run" books, the books that make a difference in a child's life with reading, be that Captain Underpants or Garfield. These are the keys into literature, into fictional expressions that portray life experiences, ethics, and more. Frank Smith adds that children read more in quiet comfortable places with lots of books, that they get the "feel" for stories from read-alouds like Charlotte's Web and Judy Blume.
It is Krashen's view that school libraries are the hottest area in language and literacy education. The better the school library, the higher the reading scores. This view is supported by the research of Lance and Loertscher and by the work of Jeff McQuillan, in his book The Literacy Crisis: False Claims, Real Solutions (Heinemann, 1998) which used data from the NAEP (National Assessment of Educational Progress). Unlike standardized testing, the NAEP is zero-stakes and uses only a sampling of students. Controlling for poverty, McQuillan found there were better results with better access to libraries. There is a strong correlation between access to print materials and reading scores, supporting the case for strong, well-stocked libraries.
These results are replicated in a study of 2007 NAEP scores. Researchers undertook to assess the impact of access to books on two groups of children equally poor. The one with . access to books will do better. They assessed predictors of improvement by grade 8 and found the single factor was access to books.
The PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) provides plentiful data about the students who take the test in 40 different countries. Again data indicates reading instruction is negative and the effect of poverty is overwhelming. There is more likelihood that children in high income neighbourhoods will have a qualified teacher-librarian, access to materials, reading services, and bookstores. Barbara Heyns shows that high and low income children show the same gains throughout the school year. The difference is made in summer reading where students of higher socio-economic status are closer to the library. Summer reading programs provide opportunities for two hours of reading a day, 30 minutes a day for browsing, and time for talking about what is being read. The single most popular author for young readers? R L Stine!
What, says Krashen metaphorically, if there was a country experiencing a drought and famine, and the experts deemed that the children there needed painful and expensive surgery? Everyone would say, no, feed them!
Or, as I have often said, reading improves with reading! Motivated and enthusiastic readers will 'stretch' to read at higher levels ... we have only to look at the impact of Harry Potter to know that to be true. Wow! I can't believe that I began teaching in the days when Hooked on Books was what we knew to be true -- just how and why have we been led so far astray, and at what costs to school libraries and our students as readers today and in their adult lives? The conference continued to astound and challenge: yes, you've got it -- oh my, oh my, oh my!
Stephen's book The Power of Reading in Japanese (7th edition) was presented in appreciation of his work.
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