Readers Read

To: Tim Shannahan

RE: Readers read

Let’s all take a minute to thank Tim Shannahan.

Over the last few weeks, a new fire kindled beneath the Great Silent Reading Controversy and flames erupted.

On behalf of literacy bloggers everywhere, let me say, “Thanks for lighting the match, Tim.”

Shannahan has argued over the last couple of decades that research doesn’t the independent reading practice known as sustained silent reading (SSR) or drop everything and read (DEAR).

I won’t argue research with Shannahan. He’s far more qualified than I am.

I’m going to take up this argument on my own with a slightly different approach– the logic of everyday reasoning.

First, I need to disclose a couple facts about myself. I’ve read The Book Whisperer and Reading in the Wild. I love Book Love. I’ve met Penny Kittle. Penny has a great Youtube video that celebrates how much she gets students to read in her class. Penny breaks the fake reading epidemic. I like that most about her.

Therefore, as you have probably guessed, I’m biased on the silent reading issue.

Full disclosure complete.

Now, on to argument.

Sometimes answers are just this simple: kids should read silently and independently because reading is what readers do.

That simple.

Readers read.

You can circle your arms over your head for hours while kicking your feet furiously and never become a better swimmer.

In fact,you won’t become a better swimmer until you get in the pool and swim.

Swimmers swim.

Sometimes I feel like we do a lot of things that are called, perhaps euphemistically, reading instruction but don’t actually add up to reading. Those might include reading from a basal, working in a vocabulary workbook or a website, practicing skills like cause and effect and compare and contrast with worksheets.

Those things might… maybe, maybe, maybe… might help a child read better. But they aren’t reading.

Readers read.

They pick up books.

They get comfortable.

They get lost in a story.

If you are looking for the best justification for independent, sustained, silent reading, there it is.

Readers read.

Independent reading is authentic. I’m a huge believer in doing what Ron Ritchhart calls for in Making Thinking Visible. That is, closing the gap between what happens in the classroom and what happens in the real world.

Readers read.

In our classrooms, reading should not be just a tool for school (thank you for that phrase, Cris Tovani). Our goal should be to develop successful readers who will become lifelong readers. I don’t think many literacy-minded folks would disagree. To develop successful and lifelong readers,  teachers must model reading as a real world, lifetime habit of the mind.

I’ve always loved Nancie Atwell’s analogy from In the Middle. She compares reading workshop to sitting around a dining room table talking about books. That’s real world. Our classrooms should have a dining room atmosphere when it comes to reading discussions. Minus that one kid throwing mashed potatoes, of course.

Readers love to talk about what they read.

But mostly…readers read.

So thank you, Tim Shannahan.

You are wrong, I believe, but you ignited an important discussion about how we should handle reading in our classrooms.

It may not look the same in every room, but we all need to agree on one thing:

Readers Read.