Concerning "hard" books: Children who appear to be reading books that are "too hard" may in fact be finding highly comprehensible sections of these books that are of real interest to them, skipping the parts they don’t understand but getting meaning and enjoyment from the parts they focus on.

CONCLUSION

I have attempted to deal with all of Shanahan’s and Stahl’s points related to my criticisms. I remain unrepentant in my conclusion that in-school free reading is a very good idea.

REFERENCES

Bond, G. and Dykstra, R. 1997. The cooperative research program in first-grade reading instruction. Reading Research Quarterly, 32 (4): 345-427

Cohen, K. 1999. Reluctant eighth grade readers enjoy sustained silent reading. California Reader 33(1): 22-25.

Duker, S. 1965. Individualized Reading: Readings. Metuchen, NJ: Scarecrow Press.

Herda, R., and F. Ramos. 2001. How consistently do students read during sustained silent reading? California School Library Journal 24(2): 29-31.

Hu, M. and Nation, I.S.P. (2000) Vocabulary density and reading comprehension. Reading in a Foreign Language 13(1): 403-430.

Krashen, S. 2001. More smoke and mirrors: A critique of the National Reading Panel Report on fluency. Phi Delta Kappan 83(2): 119-123.

Krashen, S. 2003. The (lack of) experimental evidence supporting the use of accelerated reader. Journal of Children’s Literature 29 (2): 9, 16-30.

LaBrant, L. 1958. An evaluation of free reading. In Research in the three R’s, ed. C. Hunnicutt and W. Iverson. New York: Harper and Brothers, pp. 154-161.

National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD), 2000. Report of the National Reading Panel: Teaching Children to Read: An Evidence-Based Assessment of the Scientific Research Literature on Reading and Its Implications for Reading Instruction: Reports of the Subgroups. Washington, DC: NIH Publication 00-4654.

Oliver, M. 1973. The effect of high intensity practice on reading comprehension. Reading Improvement 10: 16-18.

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