Whole Books or Excerpts? Which Do the Most to Promote Reading Ability
Over the past few weeks, I’ve had several inquiries about the importance of whole book reading within reading instruction. And no wonder. Social media has been aflame with righteous claims about this purported and purportedly damaging shift to having students read excerpts within reading lessons rather than taking on whole books.
I say “purported” because the claim seems to be that in the past teachers were teaching their kids to read books, and now they aren’t. I’ve been around quite a while, and I don’t remember the past that way.
I say “purportedly damaging” because the idea that teaching reading with excerpts harms kids or limits their learning in any significant manner is a claim made without evidence – you know, an opinion. Not only do we lack research showing that books do a better job of increasing reading ability, we have no evidence that one approach does more to encourage kids to read on their own.
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