“The book is in a death struggle with electronic and social media. And right now, it’s losing.”

Host Doug Lemov makes a spirited case for reading whole books in the classroom—especially since today’s students read almost no books outside of school. He’s joined by guests Stephen Sawchuk of Education Week and cognitive psychologist Daniel Willingham and speaks with two Texas educators using whole books in their school.

“Learning to be able to struggle—to read a challenging text, and to persist with it—is one of the greatest gifts an education can give students,” Lemov says.

Sawchuk discusses the trade-offs of a common shift to reading shorter-form excerpts and articles instead of books, which builds attention and stamina because teachers can grow the length of reading assignments over time.

“In this drive to respond to the formats that we think kids are most engaged by, we end up further weakening the kinds of text and language structures that kids are exposed to,” Sawchuk says.

Willingham explains that books relay stories, which are “psychologically privileged”—our minds more readily understand and remember information contained in stories compared to other kinds of texts. Books also call on readers to actively engage and persist to make meaning. “In this novel, you can't flick your thumb and make something else happen. You kind of need to sit with it and see what you can make of it.”

Books also model long-form reflective thinking—which stands in stark contrast to modern social-media posts, where a few words or brief video provide a snapshot of right-now considerations, Lemov notes.

“Books are the medium in which people have been doing their best long form thinking for hundreds of years. They are the storehouses of almost every idea that is important to us. Whether it is the seeds of democracy or the foundations of science, chances are it has been communicated and passed down in the form of a book,” he says.

A visit to teacher Lori Hughes’ classroom in Amarillo, Texas, shows the benefits of reading books in class together. The way students read orally becomes the way they read silently, and the community activity builds engagement and enthusiasm. Principal Genie Baca notes, “The word I would use more than anything is investment. Whether you're a low reader or a very fluent reader, these kids get so invested in the book and the characters like we've never seen before.”

That’s no surprise–as Lemov says, “When what you read is meaningful, you are more likely to read again. But if what you read is an exercise in main-idea-ing, you are likely to choose your phone.”

This podcast is produced by the Knowledge Matters Campaign and StandardsWork. Follow the Knowledge Matters Campaign on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Search #knowledgematters to join the conversation.

Production by Tressa Versteeg. Original music and sound engineering by Aidan Shea.

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