Reluctant Readers - Does What They Read Matter?

Yesterday, I attended the Scholastic book fair at our school with my almost 9-year old son.  Although he is drawn to those huge, pricey Star Wars books that come with mini-figures, we had already agreed that these were off limits!  I find it interesting that he is drawn to totally different books than my 11-year old daughter.  Whereas she loves fiction, he wants to learn about history, wars, how things work, and so on.  This brings up a controversy in my house -- does reading fiction build better reading skills than reading non-fiction?  


This morning, I decided to turn to the literature to find out.  Here is what I learned:

• Independent reading of any kind is awesome!  Kids who read a lot have a better vocabulary, become more proficient readers, and enjoy reading more than kids who don't read much.  And this proficiency and enjoyment builds on itself - if kids like reading, they continue to read more and become better and better readers (see Stanovich, 1986).  
• The Common Core Curriculum places equal weight on fiction and non-fiction texts, but this is not without controversy.  Without getting into that controversy....here is the thinking....
  • "One reason reading nonfiction may be so important is that it helps students develop their background knowledge, which itself accounts for as much as 33 percent of the variance in student achievement (Marzano, 2000). Background knowledge becomes more crucial in the later elementary grades, as students begin to read more content-specific textbooks (Young, Moss, & Cornwell, 2007) that often include headings, graphs, charts, and other text elements not often found in the narrative fiction they encountered in the lower grades (Sanacore & Palumbo, 2009)."
  • Greatschools.org suggests: "In order to create a foundation for later learning, educators now agree that students should begin reading informational texts in all subjects from the earliest grades."
•  As I noted, each of my kids has a preference for either fiction or non-fiction.  It seems I should be encouraging each of them to read broadly from the genre that is less appealing to them.  The case for non-fiction is stated above.  As for fiction, check out this great article by fiction writer Jane Smiley.
• The bottom line is that kids need to read books that interest them!  My daughter who loves the Percy Jackson series could read some non-fiction on Greek Gods.  My son who loves reading non-fiction about history and wars can read some historical fiction.  Find a great Children's Bookstore in your area (like Children's Book World in my neighborhood!) -- the staff will be able to help you make these connections and find great reads for your kids!  

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