I agree. My mother was a first grade teacher. She always laughed when a “new” approach to reading was touted, usually by a text book company that had profits in mind or an esteemed college professor who had never taught in an elementary classroom. Her experiences showed her that there was no one best way to teach reading. You had to try everything in your arsenal and be constantly educating yourself about new approaches until you find the one thing that works for a particular child. It makes teaching challenging but also always new and exciting. I love all this conversation about Common Core. It’s bringing us all to the table with our ideas. If we gain nothing else from it, at least we are talking and, hopefully, listening. Our students will be the ones who benefit.

Yes, AR still has an important role to play in reading overall. In the zeal around text complexity and text-dependent questions as major “shifts” of Common Core, the multiple references to the importance of independent reading that are also in the Standards are often overlooked:
– “Students need opportunities to stretch their reading abilities but also to experience the satisfaction and pleasure of easy, fluent reading within them, both of which the Standards allow for.” ELA Appendix A, Page 9
– The Publishers’ Criteria documents call for materials to “markedly increase the opportunity for regular independent reading of texts that appeal to students’ interests to develop both their knowledge and joy in reading.”
– David Coleman, Chairman of the ELA/Literacy Committee commented in an EngageNY.org video that Text complexity does not apply “to all of the work (students do). Students will want to and should read a lot of material at their own level to develop a joy of reading, a pleasure of reading, and knowledge about the world.”

We suggest that folks think of the different types of reading that should occur in everyclassroom as T -W – I – Reading TO students, reading WITH students (which encompasses much of what we do in the name of instruction) and having students read INDEPENDENTLY. These are 3 different types of reading practice, all governed my differnt rules, strategies, and measures of success.

If we are to use the metaphor of weight training, would we want to start the underdeveloped adolescent off with a 200 pound barbell? No, of course not. We start with something manageable, then add weight in small increments as muscle develops. Hi-low books were never meant to be the end goal of any reading instruction. Rather, they are the entry point for readers who do not yet have the cognitive muscle to tackle complex text successfully. With thoughtful application and progress monitoring by a well trained teacher or interventionist, struggling readers can be coached to improve their decoding and meaning making skills in much the same way our 90 pound weakling can develop strength through regular sessions with a personal trainer.