Many families honoring stay-at-home or safer-at-home orders during the current pandemic (and in times when we’re not homebound) are doing their best to keep their kiddos engaged in literacy through reading, writing and art. That single goal is a natural as these are the very top capabilities that children need throughout their lives. Indeed, it’s a lifelong […]
When children who have had plenty of experience with books and reading go to the school library, they tend to know what titles they want to check out. Like most avid readers, they know what topics and which authors they like. They also enjoy the freedom the library offers, as selecting their own books to […]
March is National Reading Awareness Month designed to showcase the value of reading. That’s a good thing, but the focus is always about better children’s reading, which belies the vast powers of sharing reading with the whole family. Sharing reading of anything by anybody within a family can be a HUGE asset for creating a culture […]
Planet Word, a new national museum focused upon literacy is scheduled to open in late May 2020. On its website, Ralph R. Smith, managing director of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, is quoted with what to me is an astounding statement that begins with an undeniable truth: “Literacy is the essential gateway to early school success, high […]
Once again, we are past the big commercial holidays in the U.S. and heading toward more relaxed ones that offer us less glaring contrasts between the lives of children from homes with comfortable incomes and those who are living closer to or below the edge of poverty level. Yet all year long, it’s critical to remember that […]
Have you ever had a computer or phone read something for you on the screen? It’s a trick question. No, you haven’t. Nobody else has either. That’s actually a misuse of the word READ. It sure sounds like someone reading, but IT’S NOT READING. It’s robotic output of language-like noise. This reading-like noise might more accurately […]
Reading is akin to gathering our thoughts with the help of authors. Books and other forms of written communication can help us speak our minds as well as the minds of the people who authored them. I recall my young children’s response to books that I brought them from a National Council of Teachers of English conference I attended years […]
Every so often news headlines alert us that the U.S. ranks “below average” in reading test scores, lagging behind other countries, like China, which consistently rank at or near the top. It’s probable that we’ll receive the same news again this spring after many schools dutifully administer standardized tests. Why? Because, as a whole, our education system continues […]
Carrying home from the library a tote full of books for children is a singularly powerful demonstration for small ones how this reading thing is really important. It also can be just another pile of unrelated books about random topics for bedtime wind-down. Given the vast range of book topics for small children that invite […]
One recent morning my wife and I drove to an appointment in Eminence, Ky., just outside of Louisville. It was a gorgeous start to a new day with the east ablaze with “sky blue pink” (as my wife calls it) behind a single bank of fluffy clouds. As we wound through the countryside we passed a […]
