This seems like a list that should be written by Captain Obvious, right? Of course students should read whole books from beginning to end! But does that really happen at your school? Or does the workroom copier groan under the load of stapled packets with  “passages” and related multiple-choice questions? Are students unable to find their library books because they haven’t seen them in so long?

Students deserve time during the school day to read books, one page after another, journeying with the author through every scene to the end of the book. Why?

1. Empathy. Students need time to walk in another person’s shoes, a fictional character who is different from them. We develop empathy by looking at life through someone else’s eyes, thinking their thoughts and feeling their emotions. This rarely happens in a few short paragraphs. We need to fully experience the triumph of a lonely child making…