"What Really Matters for Struggling Readers" by Richard Allington

            History has shown the human race that the ability to read and write gives one power.  Literacy is power.  In chapter 2, What Really Matters: Kids Need to Read A Lot, Allington discusses how much reading kids should fit in to their daily schedules and the correlation between the amount of reading time a child partakes in and standardized scores.  Early in the chapter he discusses the differences between students reading aloud in groups and students silently reading.  When I was in elementary school, I remember I always enjoyed reading aloud with the entire class rather than silently reading.  In hindsight, it probably was not the most beneficial way to enhance my literacy skills.  I only enjoyed reading aloud because I did not have to read as much, say as many words, or listen to the entire text.  If I had to read the book and comprehend by myself on a more daily basis, I most likely would have had higher reading scores throughout my standardized testing and would have felt more confident in my literacy abilities.

            Just as practice makes perfect—Allington repeatedly suggests that reading more coincides with improved reading.  I think it is hard to say how much reading students need as a group.  Every student is on a different level with literacy.  Therefore, I think it would be most beneficial to have individual reading time and class reading time.  My third grade teacher would always end the day continuing the chapter book we were reading throughout the year—Sideways Stories from Wayside School by Louis Sachar.  I really enjoyed this time not only because it was a fun book to read at that age but because she would follow up with questions that we would have to comprehend from her reading the book.  She would then leave the book on her desk if we wanted to look back and read it ourselves.  We could read at our own pace and that was comforting to know.  In my future classroom, I would like to set aside time each day or every other day for reading—alone or in groups.  I think it is important to acknowledge that everyone learns differently and at different paces.  Having time for students to read on alone is beneficial to their cognitive development and will help them discover how reading and writing can be fun.

            As I continue reading Allington’s excerpts from chapters two and three, my mind keeps going back to the “Accelerated Reader’s Program” we had at our elementary school.  I was not in the higher levels whatsoever, however I did enjoy this system.  Every student was able to read books that they were comfortable reading—not too easy and not too difficult.  It was easy to find a genre or topic that you were interested in.  After each book, there would be a comprehension test of that specific book for you.  Personally, I thought this was a great way to see how well I understood the book.  And depending on the books I read, I would move up a level.  The “Accelerated Reader’s Program” was one tool to help students and teachers track the progress made regarding reading and literacy.