The Values Of Reading On Academic Performance.

Reading for pleasure involves personal choice and reading widely from a variety of sources. Shockingly, people who have the ability to read but choose not to, miss just as much as those who cannot read at all. Individuals read to live life to its fullest, to earn a living, to understand what is going on in the world, and to benefit from the accumulated knowledge of civilization. Even the benefits of democracy and the capacity to govern ourselves successfully depend on reading. It is everyone's responsibility to support the teaching of reading, and that children should be taught to read during the earliest years at school. But it is never too late to start to read and to begin to progress in every subject with the help of reading. Research indicates, however, that many students do not choose to read often or in great quantities. In recent years scholars have studied the amount of time students choose to read and the effect of literacy on success in school. In a series of studies involving hundreds of students, Morrow and Weinstein (1986) found that very few preschool and primary grade children chose to look at books during free-choice time at school. Furthermore, as students get older, the amount of reading they do decreases; which is a great shame and limits their progression in all subjects at school. The premise that literacy is associated with school achievement, participation in a democracy, and self-fulfilment is widely held. Why then don't students read more? Some suggest that the way reading is taught is not conducive producing students who love to read. In a study for UNESCO, Irving (1980) found that most respondents made no association whatsoever between reading and pleasure. Many teachers of language arts, recognising the value of independent reading, immerse students in real literature from their earliest encounters with print and establish sustained silent reading time in their classrooms. According to Anderson, Fielding, and Wilson (1988), students who begin reading a book in school are more likely to continue to read outside of school than students who do not begin a book in school. Therefore all young people should be reading both at school and in their own free-time. The common sense notion that students who do a substantial amount of voluntary reading demonstrate a positive attitude toward reading is upheld in both qualitative and quantitative research (Long and Henderson 1973; Greaney 1980; Hepler and Hickman 1982; Greaney and Hegarty 1987; Reutzel and Hollingsworth 1991; Shapiro and White 1991; Mathewson 1994; Barbieri 1995; Short 1995). Students' reading achievement has been shown to correlate with success in school and the amount of independent reading they do (Greaney 1980; Anderson, Fielding and Wilson 1988). This affirms the predictability of a success cycle: we become more proficient at what we practice (Cullinan 1992). I personally love to read, whether it's a novel, magazine or newspaper and therefore feel that we can immerse young people into the world of literature gently but will end with a passion for life. I have personal experience of helping the love of literature improve academic success through many students I have tutored; even the most reluctant reader can come to love some form of literature especially when it comes with a promise of achieving target grades and securing their future.