Spreading the word about Reading All Year

Due to a wide array of factors, my school's standardized test scores in reading were down last year. Anyone who reads my blog knows that I am as much against high stakes testing as anyone, so I don't put too much stock in the test results.



When the teachers in my department met with our superintendent, though, to discuss how we could improve scores this year, I found this to be an excellent platform for me to spread the word on what I believe is an easy fix to this problem -- more reading.

When it was my turn to speak, I offered one simple declaration: "We need to read more. Put books in every kid's hands and read all year in and out of class."

This is part of my Reading All Year Program (RAY), a hybrid of similar reading programs created by experts in reading literacy, Donalyn Miller and Nancie Atwell. You can learn all about RAY in the slide show above.

I'm hoping that RAY becomes part of all language arts classes at my school. Not only will students become better readers, in general, but I know they will automatically perform better on the achievement test.