Read Aloud WV

News

Schools drop rule

that thwarted reading

By Dawn Miller
The Charleston Gazette, June 18, 2011

The state's 90-minute block of mandated reading instruction in elementary and middle schools is kaput. State Board of Education members repealed it June 9.

They did so at the urging of state Superintendent Jorea Marple -- who, incidentally, recommended the board adopt the policy in 2005.

Back then, Marple thought requiring 90 minutes of uninterrupted reading instruction would make better readers. It would ensure valuable practice time on this all-important skill every day. It would give teachers time to help struggling individuals.

It didn't work, at least not uniformly. Some principals and county superintendents interpreted the rule so narrowly that only direct, teacher-talking types of instruction were allowed. Too many classes got 90 minutes of drills, effective and important activities in the right amount, but mind-numbing in excess.

Marple never dreamed that a requirement intended to emphasize reading would be used to prohibit children from reading in school. Or that an elementary teacher would feel forced to hide from her principal the book she was enjoying with students. Or that Read Aloud volunteers would find themselves unwelcome in some schools.

Now, principals and teachers are freer to arrange their own schedules to suit their students' needs. Teachers will have an updated list of skills that students are required to master in each subject in each grade, called the "Next Generation Content Standards." That's what students will be tested on.

"Now, the instructions are, 'Here are the content standards. Teach that. If you want to do reading for 30 minutes today and all day tomorrow, go ahead,'" Marple said.

Marple and the state Board of Education are trying to bust reading out of reading class. The 90-minute rule made some educators feel too restricted. It also contributed to the fallacy that reading instruction, practice and improvement happens only in reading class.

"We, and I put me in that category, forgot to realize that when students are learning science and social studies and the arts, they are learning reading," she said. If the only people focused on reading are reading teachers, that's a problem.

"There is power in understanding that learning is continuous," Marple said. "You learn something new, then you adjust. This policy may not be perfect, either." If not, she said, they'll change it.

In school, she wants teachers of all subjects to share books they love with students and to ask students what they are reading. Out of school, she wants everyone else to do the same thing.

"You can't get children to love, to really love reading and learning unless you model it," she said.

She and school board members are trying to practice what they preach. After musicians from Horace Mann Middle School performed for the board during its May meeting, the board gave students a copy of "The Children of Willesden Lane" by Mona Golabek and Lee Cohen, a memoir of a 14-year-old aspiring pianist who flees the Nazis to England with thousands of other Jewish children.

On high school visits, Marple greets students at the door in the morning and asks them "What did you read last night?"

"They look at me like I'm crazy," she said.

To counter the crazy, the state Department of Education and partners have launched the "ReadWV" campaign. Among other things, it asks "What are you reading, West Virginia?" There are videos of actors John Corbett and Sam Trammell and Teacher of the Year Drema McNeal online.

"ReadWV is about getting the message out to everyone, so the doctor's office asks patients, 'What are you reading?'" She plans to invite anyone who will help -- parents, of course, but also DHHR workers, ministers, newspaper editors, anyone.

"There is a direct correlation between how much you read and how smart you are."

Dawn Miller is editorial page editor of The Charleston Gazette and chairwoman of Read Aloud West Virginia. This commentary was reproduced with permission.