Customer Reviews

The Power of Reading: Insights from the Research

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This little book is a "must-read" for teachers and parents. Krashen reports on significant reasearch in reading and presents it in a very readable format. His conclusion is that if teachers or parents want to help their children's reading improve, we need to give them plenty of time to READ - not more workbook pages or exercises.

throw away all your phonics rules and worksheets and Hooked on's.

If you wish to read, then read.

If you want to teach others to read, give them something they will read.

Lower your standards. Read the cereal box, the soup can, Calvin and Hobbes, Incredible Hulk, Barefoot Gen, Maus, whatever absolutely they want to read. Just read. Just do it.

The great Dr. Krashen here shows you how.

Here in this second edition, updated to the latest research of 2004 which serves to confirm his earlier conclusions, Dr. Krashen gives us and our students permission to read whatever interests us, so long as we will read.

By reading we learn to read.

No brainer.

Few people know that the great American comedian of film and stage WC Fields began his vaudeville career as a fantastic juggler, manipulating cigar boxes and pool cues and balls, etc. with great skill and alacrity. After years of this someone gave him a manual of How to Juggle, which had so many rules and advice, including regarding breathing and concentration, that in his next performance he failed while he tried to remember and observe the rules of good juggling. He could no longer concentrate as he focused on concentrating. He later recovered his incredible skills when he could finally again forget the rules and just juggle.

Same with reading. Throw away those high priced "how to read" and phonics books. Just read. The industry gives you nothing to really read, just exercises with no benefit and little interest. Just read what you want and you will read.

Only the great publication houses with phonics programs and worksheets to sell at a high price tell us (and the big government that now runs our schools) otherwise. There is too much profit to be lost, and too much lobbying going on in the halls of our state houses and Congress, and the w White house.

By the way, why does the current Secretary of Education have absolutely no experience in any kind of education? Kind of like that FEMA guy, or Gonzo, etc., etc. Still she forces us to buy worksheets instead of letting us READ freely in order to learn how to read. Library funds are decimated while the industry reaps great profit and the government its lobbying bribes.

It is in reading that we read. It is in reading that our reading skills grow, no matter what you read. As you read lower level materials, your mind will automatically seek more challenging materials and reach for more. After Marvel you will want Tolkein. After Harry Potter you will hunger for James Joyce, forever. And then Dante and the Bible remain.

I have been a bilingual teacher and practitioner for many decades, as my grandmother before me. I recall from my first hearing of words and of speech my bilingual Church (Latin with occassional English, briefly), etc. Dr. Krashen's method here serves all students, especially our bilingual students developing reading skills in their most comfortable language which are applicable later to the target language (here ENglish) without even their being aware of it. They will wonder when you taught them to read in English.

This book is based on solid research and bursts most of the popular and powerful misconceptions and myths regarding teaching methods and politicians with profitable interests who would stop those strategies which are most effective.

Please study this book carefully for the scientifically proven truth, based on reliable research methodology.

In order to learn how to read, read. Whatever you choose, whatever interests you, but easy reading, within your frustration level, within your enjoyment level.

There's plenty of good stuff to read right here on the amazon. Check out my reviews for a few!

And then read to your family, too, in joy and in peace, and relearn the love of reading together. Turn off that television and just read already!

I am the Library/Media Specialist for a school district in Alaska on a grant to increase literacy through literature. I heard Stephen D. Krashen speak at a school librarian convention and was so impressed that I read this book. The district has Silent Sustained Reading as its number one directive to all the teachers, but the idea is difficult for some teacher's to accept. I am hoping that by lending this book to teachers we can get fuller compliance. Having taught children's literature class at the college level for six years, I have read a lot and firmly believe in the work done by Krashen as presented in this book.

Stephen Krashen does a wonderful job of presenting an easy to read book on research concerning children and reading. The info provided can be extremely useful when ordering books and planning programming for children. Some parts of the book get dry and a little slow but overall the results are fascinating. The copyright date of 1993 makes the book slightly out of date and I would love to see a second edition of the book to see if anything has changed since then.

Stephen Krashen does a wonderful job of presenting an easy to read book on research concerning children and reading. The info provided can be extremely useful when ordering books and planning programming for children. Some parts of the book get dry and a little slow but overall the results are fascinating. The copyright date of 1993 makes the book slightly out of date and I would love to see a second edition of the book to see if anything has changed since then.

This little book is a "must-read" for teachers and parents. Krashen reports on significant reasearch in reading and presents it in a very readable format. His conclusion is that if teachers or parents want to help their children's reading improve, we need to give them plenty of time to READ - not more workbook pages or exercises.

My friend casually slipped this book to me over the lunch table. She said I may find it helpful in my struggles teaching middle school and high school English to second language learners. Little did she know how helpful this book would be. After reading the book, I immediately consulted with my colleagues and we began a program of free reading. It's working! I actully have students thanking me for letting them figure out for themselves that they really didn't mind reading! I would recommend this book to anyone interested in a very readable compilation of the research that's been done and how to apply it! Worth every penny!

I teach ESL at the middle school level. This book was so powerful and convincing that I immediately changed my lesson plans to include SSR on a daily basis.

Packed with enlightening information and research that many teachers and scholars have cited, but it isn't very readable. It really is a compendium of the research, not a narrative to read. If you are looking for powerful research, statistics, and facts to back up your reading teaching practices, this is for you. If you simply want to read a narrative about reading practices in the classroom, this is not it. (Try Readicide by Kelly Gallagher or The Book Whisper by Donalyn Miller).

Stephen Krashen's argument in this book is no different from his hypotheses on second language learning. Students will develop full literacy if they are exposed to reading in a natural manner, free from the constraints of skill-learning that often controls classroom learning. Full literacy means that readers develop properly reading comprehension skills, acquire large amounts of vocabulary, improve spelling, and develop writing styles. The research overwhelmingly supports the fact that when students are encouraged to read on their own, and when they read what they like (what Krashen calls Free Voluntary Reading or FVR) readers will benefit exponentially as opposed to the poor effects of direct instruction in the classroom. Although this idea is already popular among educators, Krashen's efforts at documenting the research is definitely appreciated by teachers and professionals in this field.

Beside proving that FVR has a strong impact on reading, Krashen discusses in detail and supports with research, the kind of literature that students like to read; examines how helpful this literature helps students in the different types of reading skills; and discusses ways in which schools can address the problem of accessing good reading materials. Krashen does not simplify his case by putting the blame on anyone specifically. He explores the socio-economic factors that impede learners from having access to books and recommends that schools should better equip their libraries with books that kids like to read, for example: comic books, teen romances, children books, mystery and scary books. He also discusses these genre to show why these types of texts benefit learners in becoming literate. He also calls for more money to build better libraries. He also makes a case that reading improves writing skills and develops writing styles, but he admits that not much research has been done on this area. Each section is also accompanied by the effects of FVR on second language learners.

Although I agree with Krashen on the FVR, his case against direct teaching is not as compelling as his arguments for FVR. His survey on research on the effects of direct teaching is sparse, and perhaps unfair. Without questioning the enormous benefits of reading on one's own, my own teaching experience shows me how essential direct teaching is as long as it is not limited to drills and pure questioning. I do believe that direct instruction improves significantly on reading comprehension. Other texts that provide research making a case for the importance of direct instruction are William Grabe's Reading in A Second Language and I.S.P.
Nation's Teaching ESL/EFL Reading and Writing. Although these texts address second language reading, they point out to the importance that direct instruction with proper strategies improves reading comprehension skills significantly. Many other texts on reading addressing meaningful strategies to read better also suggest that direct instruction has a great effect.

However, Krashen does make one compelling argument: that stressing too much on direct instruction will never compensate for the lack of reading environment that often surrounds the young lives of many poor families. This is a caveat to ask schools to place a greater emphasis on effective reading libraries and to support programs where kids may have access to books that would be attractive to them.

In spite of the above disagreement, this book is a must for anyone who wants to enrich the reading world for learners and for novices on research, who may find this book rich in research topics.