News
When it comes to YA and children’s literature, we are living in an age of plenty. There are more books written and published for kids and young adults today than at any other time in history. These include books on nearly every subject and in every genre imaginable! And yet any teacher or librarian will tell you that it is difficult to get many students to read independently. A disturbing number of children and teens struggle with comprehension or read below grade level.
So what’s going on? Why is it that one third of fourth graders do not reach a proficient reading level? Why do one in four American children grow up without learning how to read? And why, with all the options available, are fewer kids reading for fun now than in the past? While there’s no single answer to any of these questions, there are five main factors that are likely contributing to the decline of reading in America.
1. Poverty
The link between poverty and lower literacy levels is irrefutable. Children born into a lower socioeconomic status are less likely to reach grade-level proficiency or to graduate from high school. Research shows that in the first three years of life, poor children are exposed to 30 million fewer words than affluent children. This word gap leaves millions of children unprepared for school. Reading to young children is essential to their development and their ability to read later on, yet low-income families are far less likely to have books in the home than middle-class families, and 80% of preschools serving low-income children have an inadequate number of age-appropriate books available. Sadly, studies show that children who fall behind their peers in the early grades are not likely to catch up later on.
For teachers, these statistics might seem grim. However, there are several ways for communities and individuals to support literacy for young children. Start a Little Free Library or Free Bookshelf at a foodbank or homeless shelter. Or better yet, encourage one of the clubs at your local high school to take this on as a community service project. Be sure parents in your community have information about Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library. And perhaps most importantly, encourage your school, local churches, and other community organizations to help educate all families on the importance of reading to young children.
2. A poor foundation in reading
While children from low-income households are more likely to struggle with literacy, the problem certainly isn’t limited to the poor. In her Podcast, Sold a Story, Emily Hanford tells the stories of middle-class and affluent families who, during the nationwide school shutdowns in 2020, realized their children could not read. The problem, they discovered, was due largely to ineffective teaching methods. What is shocking is that cognitive researchers have known for decades the science behind how kids learn to read. Unfortunately, despite the efforts of some educators and politicians, these methods have not been widely used. Thanks to powerful institutions like Columbia Teacher’s College and influential authors like Lucy Calkins and Fountas and Pinell, less effective, even damaging, methods have been in place in thousands of schools across the country and have no doubt contributed greatly to the reading crisis in this country.
It’s important to note that these authors and Heinemann, the company that publishes their curriculum, made millions and millions of dollars while teachers were continually blamed for low test scores and low literacy rates. One would think that this level of incompetence and what it has cost our nation would be a scandal of Hollywood portions. Yet few people outside of education are aware of the ways in which so many American children have been cheated out of their right to read proficiently.
3. Best practices that are the worst
Almost as disheartening as the number of kids who can’t read is the number of children who can but who choose not to. These children say they don’t like to read. It’s probably fair to blame the likes of Calkins and Fountas and Pinell for this too–at least in part. Because just because a child can read short comprehension passages well enough to score proficient on a test, does not mean he has the stamina or the ability to read entire novels easily and comprehend what he has read. In other words, good test takers aren’t always good readers. The methods promoted by Calkins and Fountas and Pinell don’t always make reading impossible, but they do make it more difficult. And when reading is a struggle, it isn’t fun.
Still, we can’t put all the blame on these guys. Novelist Katherine Marsh believes that current trends in reading instruction, first implemented through the Common Core, have killed the love of reading for many children. Marsh is referring to the move away from reading entire stories and novels to reading only excerpts and passages to be picked apart and analyzed. She reasons that this method of instruction reduces reading to mere analysis rather than allowing children to fall in love with a story.
Many teachers have fond memories of coming in after recess and listening to their teacher read such treasures as Ramona Quimby, Age 8, Tales of the Fourth Grade Nothing, or Where the Red Fern Grows. Their own teachers had no other agenda than to share a beloved story together. Unfortunately, many of these same teachers have been told that this type of reading for fun takes time away from the type of close reading students should be doing. What a shame!
4. Screen addiction
The negative effects of too much screen time on children cannot be overstated. Overuse of screens causes learning, emotional, and behavioral issues. It’s also likely that kids aren’t reading outside of school because they are on their devices. The Centers for Disease Control reports that children ages 8-10 spend an average of 6 hours a day in front of a screen while only 42% of 9-year-olds report reading for fun every day–and most assuredly nowhere close to six hours. Until schools are willing to limit screen time and parents are willing to take away devices at home, it’s unlikely there will be an improvement in children’s love of reading.
5. Families are too busy to read
Often when asking a student if she read at home last night teachers are told, “I didn’t have time to read.” I had baseball (or dance or soccer or swimming or karate). Of course, extracurriculars are important, and no one is suggesting that children not participate in after-school activities. But as youth sports and activities have become more and more competitive and specialized, families have been spending the majority of their evenings at games and practices. This often costs kids time for both reading and necessary sleep (which is important for reading comprehension). When it comes to high-stakes sports for kids, it would seem that there is no putting that horse back in the barn. But unless families find a way to carve out more time for rest and reading, children’s literacy levels will likely continue to suffer.
It’s fair to say that America is suffering from a crisis of illiteracy and reluctant reading. But we don’t have to go into crisis mode to see improvements. We do, however, have to make some changes (some big and some small) that will give kids the skills and the time to fall in love with reading.
