This is one in a series of posts examining the Common Core State Standards and the conversation surrounding their impact on teaching and learning.

Several researchers I admire have focused quite a bit of time making the case for the importance of students increasing their “reading volume.” Richard Allington makes this point over and over again. And Anne Cunningham’s 2001 paper on “What Reading Does for the Mind” looks at how the amount that kids read (or whether they are “avid readers”) has a great effect on a student’s vocabulary acquisition.

It makes a lot of sense, right? If you read A LOT, you’ll get really good at it. And kids who read very little will fall behind…

Kim Yaris has a great post over on her blog about whether the new Common Core reading standards encourage teachers to help students build “reading volume.” Turns out that, despite what she hears some of her colleagues saying, there are many references in the standards to “reading volume.”

Here’s one citation she makes:

The bottom of page 3 of Appendix A discusses the “general lack of reading” and goes on to attribute the “deterioration of overall reading ability” to “the problem of lack of reading.”

Is there enough time in your school day to help students focus on building “reading volume” and help them become avid readers?

(Flickr photo by vblibrary)