Balancing Readability and Reading Fluency | On Common Core

On Common Core: Balancing Readability and Reading Fluency

I read the School Library Journal from cover to cover every month.  It gives me lots of excellent information I need to do my job, including reviews of books, audio-visual and reference materials.  But it is the columns that I turn to first because that's where I find relevant research summaries, data and facts that keep my professional skills sharp.  Although every teacher has access to copies of SLJ in our library, let me share the most recent article that caught my attention.

Paige Jaeger's On Common Core column recently stated, "Knowing the research behind text complexity is critical to understanding the call for more complexity."  She goes on to point out:

"As great as close reading of complex text may be for instruction, we should not measure independent reading. From Appendix A (p.4):

Students need opportunities to stretch their reading abilities but also to experience the satisfaction and pleasure of easy, fluent reading within them, both of which the Standards allow for…. Students deeply interested in a given topic, for example, may engage with texts on that subject across a range of complexity.

Many schools are disregarding reading for pleasure. This illustrates a gross misunderstanding of the goals of CCSS. It is in reading easy material that a student enjoys a book and builds fluency. Dare I suggest that everyone have this paragraph from Appendix A ready for the debates that ensue? For independent reading recommendations, students need to read and enjoy whatever they choose, at whatever level for independent reading. That is how we build lifelong readers."

I heartily recommend reading her column in its entirety.  Click on the title link above and post your comments below.