Teaching Stamina & Silent Reading in the Digital-Global Age Edited by Elfrieda H. Hiebert Teaching Stamina and Silent Reading in the Digital-Global Age EDITED BY Elfrieda H. Hiebert TextProject University of California, Santa Cruz Reading Essentials Original Series June 2015 TextProject, Inc. SANTA CRUZ, CALIFORNIA textproject.org ISBN: 978-1-937889-04-3 © 2015 Elfrieda H. Hiebert. Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution- Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/us/ or send a letter to Creative Commons, 171 Second Street, Suite 300, San Francisco, California, 94105, USA. “TextProject” and the TextProject logo are trademarks of TextProject, Inc. Cover photo (top) © istockphoto.com/CEFutcher. All rights reserved. Used under license. Cover photo (bottom) © istockphoto.com/CEFutcher. All rights reserved. Used under license. Contents FORWARD iii Striking the Right Balance: Why Silent and Extended Reading of Challenging Materials Matters Timothy Rasinski Preface vii Teaching Stamina and Silent Reading in the Digital-Global Age Elfrieda H. Hiebert I. UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM & THE CONSTRUCT CHAPTER 1 16 The Forgotten Reading Proficiency: Stamina In Silent Reading Elfrieda H. Hiebert CHAPTER 2 32 Eye Movements Make Reading Possible S. Jay Samuels, Elfrieda H. Hiebert, & Timothy Rasinski CHAPTER 3 58 Are Students Really Reading in Independent Reading Contexts? An Examination of Comprehension-Based Silent Reading Rate Elfrieda H. Hiebert, Kathleen M. Wilson & Guy Trainin II. INSTRUCTION AND PRACTICES THAT FOSTER STAMINA AND SILENT READING CHAPTER 4 79 Stretching Elementary Students in Complex Text: Why? How? When? Heidi Anne E. Mesmer i CHAPTER 5 100 The Relationship Between a Silent Reading Fluency Instructional Protocol on Students’ Reading Comprehension and Achievement in an Urban School Setting Timothy V. Rasinski, S. Jay Samuels, Elfrieda H. Hiebert, Yaacov Petscher, & Karen Feller CHAPTER 6 121 Exploring the Added Value of a Guided Silent Reading Intervention: Effects on Struggling Third-Grade Readers’ Achievement D. Ray Reutzel, Yaacov Petscher, & Alexandra N. Spichtig III: LOOKING AHEAD CHAPTER 7 147 Comprehension-Based Silent Reading Rates: What Do We Know? What Do We Need To Know? Elfrieda H. Hiebert, S. Jay Samuels, & Timothy V. Rasinski CHAPTER 8 169 Revisiting Silent Reading in 2020 and Beyond Elfrieda H. Hiebert, & D. Ray Reutzel ii FORWARD Striking the Right Balance: Why Silent and Extended Reading of Challenging Materials Matters Timothy Rasinski Kent State University ver the past dozen years or so, reading assessment and reading instruction itself increasingly have come to be defined primarily by oral reading, often for speed, and for very short periods Oof time. This evolution has been due to a number of factors. First, the curriculum-based measurement (CBM) approach to reading assessment reduced reading assessment to measures of reading rate over one-minute periods (Deno, 1985). Second, although the National Reading Panel (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, 2000) identified reading fluency as a critical variable for proficient reading, the panel restricted fluency to oral reading. These developments, as well as others, have affected how reading is being taught. In many primary and intermediate classrooms around the country, oral reading is the predominant form of reading. Time is allocated to daily fluency instruction where students read a short passage repeatedly for the primary purpose of reading it faster. This practice is accompanied by regular assessments of students’ reading (as often as weekly in some classrooms) on the number of words students can read correctly in a minute on an instructional-level passage. These developments in reading instruction are based on a solid foundation of research and indeed I feel there is a legitimate place for them in the classroom. Reading rate as determined by CBMs and other similar one-minute readings of short passages is a good measure of word- recognition automaticity, a critical factor in comprehension. Oral reading experiences, especially authentic oral experiences, such as the recitation of poetry or the performance of a script, have been shown to improve reading fluency and overall reading proficiency. However, these are not the only instructional factors that must be considered for effective reading and reading instruction. Most reading done by adults is silent reading. As such, it is not Rasinski iii unreasonable to expect students to receive instruction and support in silent reading in their classrooms. Further, a fair amount of adult reading consists of lengthy texts. Again, therefore, it is not unreasonable to provide students with support and opportunities to read such texts on their own, primarily silently. Additionally, as adults we are occasionally called on to closely read material that we might consider difficult or challenging—for example, technical texts related to our profession or courses we may be taking, or even texts we read for our own pleasure and entertainment purposes that may be more challenging in nature. Certainly, giving students similar opportunities to read challenging material—with appropriate support—needs to be part of our reading instruction. Therefore, we may safely conclude that issues of silent reading fluency, stamina, and close reading of complex texts are foundational for proficiency in reading and success in various academic and technical fields. These issues are challenging for literacy scholars and educators alike. Each element is critical in its own right. Additionally, these elements interact with one another and other critical variables in the reading process. Despite their importance, however, silent reading, stamina, and complex texts are issues that, until recently, have not received sufficient scholarly attention. That is what this book is about. Dr. Elfrieda Hiebert is one of the few literacy scholars who has extensively studied issues of silent reading, stamina, and text complexity, and in this volume, she has assembled a collection of original and previously published papers that explore these vital issues in depth. This volume offers readers the opportunity to explore the conceptual nature of these issues and discover how exactly we may begin to go about providing students with the relevant instruction that will help them achieve success in these areas. The first four chapters explore just what stamina and silent reading mean. The notion of text complexity is embedded within these chapters, as readers must engage in silent reading with stamina in order to negotiate such texts successfully and efficiently. Here we are confronted with the reality of what happens in school-based reading instruction. To develop proficiency in reading, students need to practice reading. As Hiebert stresses in her opening chapter, many students simply do not spend enough time reading in school. Increasing the amount that students read silently in schools is one of the solutions explored in the second half of the volume. Other ways that students can be supported in developing silent reading stamina are explored in the final four chapters. These applications range from a computer-based instructional protocol iv Forward that requires minimal teacher input to an approach that relies on the teacher to provide scaffolding and support for silent reading. These chapters may provide foundational principles that educators and scholars can use in order to develop their own approaches to instruction that develop students’ silent reading stamina. Success in real world reading is not measured by how fast a person can orally read a short text. Rather, reading success is more likely to be an outcome of how well a person can engage in meaningful, close, silent readings of lengthy, complex, and challenging material for extended periods of time. This volume is a significant step in moving the literacy field, scholars, curriculum developers, and practitioners toward a deeper consideration and understanding of these critical issues. Rasinski v References Deno, S.L. (1985). Curriculum-based children to read: An evidence-based measurement: The emerging alternative. assessment of the scientific research Exceptional Children, 52(3), 219–232. literature on reading and its implications for reading instruction (NIH Publication National Institute of Child Health and No. 00-4769). Washington, DC: U.S. Human Development. (2000). Report of Government Printing Office. the National Reading Panel. Teaching vi Forward Preface Teaching Stamina and Silent Reading in the Digital-Global Age Elfrieda H. Hiebert TextProject & University of California, Santa Cruz he 21st century demands that individuals have a high level of literacy to successfully participate in the tasks of colleges, communities, and jobs. Nonetheless, many students in the United TStates are not attaining the necessary levels of literacy, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (National Center for Education Statistics, 2013). The assessment shows that approximately two-thirds of a grade cohort fail to attain the proficient level. Such poor performances are often traced to a lack of word recognition skills, and solutions have been designated to ameliorate this perceived gap (see California Board of Education, 2014). But evidence is strong that all but a small percentage of American students—approximately 2% of a grade