Why Silent Reading Rates and Stamina are More Important than Ever!

Freddy Hiebert currently of TextProject, Emily Hayden of Iowa State and I recently published an empirical paper about patterns of silent reading. This is the work we have been pursuing for quite a while. Studies of silent reading in the context of reading development is a crucial element in expanding our understanding of reading in the context of new literacies. Reading in the 21st century is quickly becoming a substantially different task than before- a task that, as educators and researchers, we need to explore. The reading task in the age of new literacies combines much of the old skills (e.g. decoding, word knowledge, fluency)  with newer challenges emerging from distractions, nonlinear texts, and the richness of multimodal texts.

I believe that one of the least understood elements of reading in the 21st century is persistence. This is inherently a different challenge than it was as little as twenty years ago. Modern readers seem to be almost assaulted by distractions and behaviors that challenge their attention to a continuous text. At the same time, comprehension of complex texts can emerge only from sustained close reading. In this, I go back to the notion of motivation as the ability to sustain attention to a specific task- reading.

The results of the study show that many students do not persist in reading even when they comprehend well. At the same time, it is clear that students that do persist in reading with comprehension adjust their reading rate after one text section and then slowly increase their reading rate. These patterns show the benefits of persistence and highlight the challenges of distraction. If students are distracted they will attempt each piece of the text as if new, unable to use the feedback from the previous section to adjust their reading rate to ensure comprehension. It is very likely that such behaviors make reading considerably less efficient and thus increase the odds that readers will not persist reading longer texts with comprehension.

I believe we have two challenges, the first is to research reading in modern contexts and the second to develop a framework for instructing silent reading with persistence and comprehension. From our conclusion:

"...we believe that the most pressing issue within reading instruction at present pertains to instructional tasks and interventions that support silent reading proficiency. One of the few projects on supporting silent reading within classroom settings in the archival literature is that of Reutzel, Fawson, and Smith (2008). This study, conducted with third graders, showed that a treatment of silent reading produced similar results on assessments of ORF as oral reading practice... To date, we have been unable to find a framework for designing tier-one, classroom instruction that begins in the early grades and ensures that students develop strong patterns of silent reading. If we are to prepare students for the tasks of the twenty-first century, such frameworks for instruction are urgently needed." (Hayden, Hiebert, & Trainin, 2019)