11th
Where Have All the Readers Gone?
Culturally we applaud those who read, at least superficially. It is a high complement to be “well-read,” yet institutionally schools do very little to encourage students to read just for the fun of it. In the 1990s Independent Reading received a brief glance from the educational establishment and manifest itself as a school administered program called Sustained Silent Reading (SSR)—pretty poor branding if you ask me! Some schools called their program DEAR (Drop Everything and Read); either way, I don’t think it worked!
The goal of Independent Reading is to create a life-long love of reading while improving vocabulary, comprehension, and critical thinking skills. Many teachers and administrators subscribe to the “reading is the best way to learn” theory, but SSR and DEAR often allowed for just twenty minutes per week of free reading time. The best way to learn only gets twenty minutes? That’s a bummer.
If the best opportunity for learning is not occurring in schools, it has to somewhere else. Creating a conducive reading environment at home is a preferable option; this means reading is practically possible, and also praised. Kids must have access to material that they are passionate about—this is the single most important factor in encouraging students to read. Unfortunately, people often view material that students enjoy as simple and unimportant, and encourage them to read more challenging material which they may not relate to.
Stephen Krashen, a language acquisition scholar, claims that reading material should be easy and that material should be 98% comprehensible in order for the reader to acquire new vocabulary. Reading “easy” material allows students to create a reading confidence that will lead naturally to more challenging material.
So, in the midst of the information age, when written content is mass produced and constantly accessible, help your child connect with the information they care about. Encourage them to subscribe to interesting blogs; e-mail them interesting Internet articles; utilize the local library to find hidden literary gems; buy them books as thoughtful gifts.
More than likely they will latch on to something, and what a gift that would be.
