This is a bit of a departure from my previous posts which tend to be written very conversationally and casually.
I have been working to earn my Doctorate in Special Education and have done a lot (I mean A LOT) of reading about literacy and special education. While I still plan to write more casual teaching posts, I think it would be beneficial for me to share some of my doctoral level work as well.
Below is a literature review I conducted titled The Impact of Self-Selected Reading on Struggling Adolescent Readers. I won't post the entire paper in this post (it's 23 pages long, double spaced), but it is linked below if you'd like to read it.
Summary
What I did in this review was I searched through various academic journals for any study on Self-Selected Reading, or S-SR (providing students with time during class to independently read a text of their choosing. Students typically read novels of interest to them, but may also read non-fiction books, magazines, and articles during this time). As a high school teacher with students who hate to read, I wanted to know how using S-SR could effect their reading comprehension and their motivation to read.
While many teachers talk about S-SR (often under terms such as independent reading, sustained silent reading, choice reading, voluntary reading, etc.) I found that there is a serious lack of actual research on the topic.
After an exhaustive search I found 190 articles that mentioned S-SR and adolescents in some capacity. Of those, only 4(!) were actual studies on the effect of S-SR in grades 6-12 on reading comprehension or motivation. I knew I wouldn't find a lot focused on students with disabilities or even struggling readers, but to only find four studies with adolescents at all was shocking.
I ended up adding in studies with students in 3-5 grade, and some unpublished Thesis and Dissertations on the topic just to have enough data to work with (14 studies total).
Findings
The studies had mixed results in terms of the impact of S-SR on reading comprehension. None of these studies found a negative effect from implementation of S-SR, suggesting that use of S-SR is as good as or better than typical methods of instruction used in control groups.
Interestingly, all of the studies that focused on reading comprehension of struggling readers specifically showed positive effects, so S-SR may be beneficial for struggling readers including those with disabilities.
All of the studies which measured motivation reported positive findings. In interviews, students stated that they enjoyed reading more and that they felt they were improving as readers as a result of Self-Selected Reading. Many teachers observed increased student engagement and noted that students were requested extra reading time. Students were also found to increase reading time outside of school.
Full Paper: The Impact of Self-Selected Reading on Struggling Adolescent Readers
During my Master's Program I also wrote on the topic here: SUSTAINED SILENT READING: WHAT THE RESEARCH ACTUALLY SAYS
