One sensible teaching idea that helps readers improve

The most sensible idea for helping readers improve is also the most powerful.

Heinemann Publishing
1 min readJun 23, 2016

Acclaimed researcher Richard Allington has shown that, like anything else that requires practice, kids become better readers by reading. He recommends, therefore, that whole-class texts be taught only 20–30 percent of the time, and that as much time as possible be given over to independent reading.

Here’s how award-winning New Hampshire teacher Penny Kittle balances the reading time in her classroom in alignment with Allington’s research:

50% for independent reading

Books chosen by students with increasing challenge and complexity across the year

25% for reading mentor texts

Annotating short texts that reveal genre characteristics and the writer’s craft in support of both reading and writing goals

25% for whole-class or book-club novel study

Based on curricular needs and with careful differentiation to support each reader’s needs.

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