The National Association for the Education of Young Children and the International Reading Association, along with countless literacy researchers, have identified the single most important factor in literacy readiness – listening to books read aloud. Children who are read to on a regular, consistent basis from age-appropriate books begin school with the foundation they need to learn to read and write. Children with rich literacy experiences tend to build on those experiences, while those without tend to continue to struggle through their years in school. Research has also found that children who are not successful in the early years of school often fall behind from the start and that those who do not read on grade level by the end of first grade will rarely catch up.
An Interesting Read
The Philadelphia Inquirer | Aug 31 2012• By Daniel Akst
Are American schools the best in the world? The answer is a resounding “maybe” — which is good news indeed for this back-to-school season.
Beating up on public education is practically our national sport. I often do it myself. But overlooked in the assault is strong evidence that U.S. schools actually are world-beaters - except for the problem of poverty.
When it comes to reading, in fact, our schools may be the best in the world. As Stanford education professor Linda Darling-Hammond points out, in U.S. schools where less than 10 percent of the students are eligible for free or discounted meals, our 15-yearolds “score first in the world in reading, outperforming even the famously excellent Finns.”
This 10 percent threshold is significant because, in high-achieving countries such as Finland, few schools have more poor kids than that. In other words, at schools that compare socioeconomically, we’re doing great.
But wait, it gets better. U.S. schools where less than 25 percent of students are impoverished (by the same measure of free and discounted meals) beat all but two of the relatively affluent countries studied (Finland and South Korea). And those where 25 to 50 percent of students are poor still beat most other countries.
These results are from the 2009 Program for International Student Assessment, a widely followed study.
Its scores inspire a good deal of hand-wringing in this country - overall, we’re 14th in reading - but I suspect we’ve been taking away the wrong message by not adjusting for poverty.
That’s odd, because most people know there’s a connection between poor families and poor school performance. It’s reflected in various sources, including the SAT and the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
So the connection, which exists in most countries, is clear. But somehow the implications haven’t been, and now that school is again upon us, it’s worth thinking this through. If American kids who aren’t poor are doing so well, maybe our problem isn’t bad teachers or inadequate school spending or indifferent parents or screen-besotted children. Maybe the problem is simply poverty — and the shameful fact that we have so much more of it than any comparable country.
How much child poverty are we living with? A study this year by UNICEF found a U.S. child poverty rate of 23.1 percent — well beyond that of any other economically advanced nation except Romania. In Spain, which is in a depression, the figure was 17.1 percent. In Canada, it was 13.3; in Finland, 5.3.
If poverty is the problem, families in middle-class school districts needn’t worry much. But they should be worried about the society they live in, for even if we have hearts of stone, we do not have heads made of the same material. Economic growth — to say nothing of a healthy democracy — depends on an educated citizenry, and we cannot afford to let a large segment of the populace embark on adulthood seriously under-schooled.
Juel, C. (1988). Learning to read and write: A longitudinal study of 54 children from first through fourth grades. Journal of Educational Psychology, 80, 437-447.
The Benefits of Reading Aloud
• Builds vocabulary
• Develops speaking skills and confidence
• Builds background knowledge
• Develops higher order thinking skills
• Expands a child’s attention span
• Creates a bond between a reader and a child
• Makes reading more interactive and fun!
Reading aloud provides the foundation for early reading and success in school, making it the greatest gift you can give children.
Unfortunately, there is a crisis in the development of literacy readiness skills among young children in the U.S. Many of our children are entering pre-school and Kindergarten with few literacy experiences. They have not read books at home, they have not been read to, they have not seen their community engaged in reading or writing, and they have not had or heard conversations about reading or writing. These children enter formal schooling with a major shortage of pre-literacy skills – skills that do not depend on intellectual capability, socio-economic status, or ethnic background. These skills are built through time spent listening, talking, and thinking about reading and writing.