Making time to “just” read within the classroom should be a priority! Students should have the opportunity to just read. Students should have access to a variety of genres and types of books—picture, comic, mystery, chapter, etc. to find their “happy” genre that provides intrinsic motivation to read. Students increase their ability to read, comprehend, and use the information read each time they read. These skills provide students with the necessary tools for higher academic success in all other educational subjects. Reading written words is a complex interwoven process that provides students the opportunity to increase their personal toolbox in the following ways:
- Lexicon—increases each time they interact with a book or read written words. Reading introduces readers to new written words that have the potential to increase their lexicon or mental dictionary. Students may have heard of the new word spoken orally—the meaning may already be stored in their lexicon. Meeting the word in a written format gives them the opportunity to learn how to recognize, pronounce, and spell the word. Many educators refer to this as vocabulary development.
- Background Knowledge—increases each time students read. Background knowledge is the backbone of reading comprehension. Background knowledge or what the student already knows helps them to analyze new information. Background knowledge helps students make an “educated” decision about present or future choices. Background information helps students to increase their understanding of the written words.
- Social Skills—usually increase when students read. Many non-fiction and fiction writings express some form of social interaction. Some of the written words need to be “deeply” read to understand the social process and its implications. Some of the social skills are inferred. Information about social skills can be learned through reading about how animals interact. Social skills can be learned through stories like folktales, fables or fairytales. Reading provides a platform to discuss the elements of the writing in relation to social skills, like what can we tell by the children’s facial expressions? Or why do you think that they decided to help plant flowers? Or what might have been a better choice for this character? Group discussions about a story usually increase social skills, background knowledge, and analyzing skills—within a “safe” environment.
- Writing ability—usually increases each time students read. Reading provides writing samples for students to use in forming their own sentences. Reading written words provides “models” of a complete sentence and different types of sentence structures. Reading written words provides models of different styles of writing, such as poetry, mystery, comparison, expository, fiction, non-fiction, etc. Learning to write is similar to learning how to speak, as the writer is mimicking the writing of others.
Individuals usually make time to complete things that are important to them—students will begin to understand the importance of reading, should they be afforded a regular time to “free” read.
