Why reading is fundamental

Photo: Hamilton Lund

So please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and its place you can install, a lovely bookshelf on the wall – Roald Dahl, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory

Each new year sees a host of resolutions to get back into healthy habits and routines. This year, a national initiative will aim to encourage the benefits of reading and forming good literacy skills from a young age.

2012 marks the National Year of Reading, a campaign in partnership with governments, libraries, community groups, media and business intended to boost literacy levels across Australia and encourage children and adults to read more.

In 2010, the Australian Industry Group conducted a National Workforce Literacy survey to report on employers’ views on workplace literacy and numeracy skills. The report found that more than 75% of employers reported that their businesses were affected by low levels of literacy and numeracy highlighting the importance of literacy and education to enhance lifelong opportunities for every individual.

Reading starts at home

An American Federation of Teachers paper suggests that “reading is the fundamental skill upon which all formal education depends” (Moats, 1999) and that establishing good reading habits starts at home.

Reading is an acquired skill that requires practice and commitment with extensive studies supporting the idea that the best way to become a better reader is to read more.

Research into early childhood reading shows that parents or caregivers reading books with infant children is the best way to help develop listening, speaking and eventual reading skills. The research found that family involvement combined with formal education had the best overall benefit for children’s learning.

While differing factors can affect a child’s ability to read, without competent literacy skills, students may struggle to keep up in all aspects of education resulting in disengagement from school and limiting future employment prospects.

 “Literacy acquisition is a process that begins from birth and requires input from families, caregivers, and teachers… Children entering school without emergent literacy skills may struggle to keep up with their peers’ rate of literacy acquisition. This can affect children’s engagement with school and in turn, affect overall successes in education and life, perpetuating a cycle of low literacy. However, the development of emergent literacy skills is attainable for most children, even those from disadvantaged backgrounds” (Stremple, 2009).

Reading aloud

Dr Marilyn Jager Adams is a Professor of Cognitive and Linguistic Sciences at Brown University and believes that “reading aloud with children is the single most important activity for parents and caregivers to prepare children to learn how to read” (1990).

Providing children with examples of fluent reading develops key understanding and literacy skills and builds many important skills including sounding out words, enhancing comprehension, expression and fluency. It also provides an example to children of confident and expert reading that will help them in all facets of education (Bredekamp, Copple and Neuman, 2000). 

“Children who understand the mechanics of reading - who know that words are made up of sounds and can break the sound code - have a great advantage,” says Jim Trelease in his book The Read-Aloud Handbook (Trelease, 2006).  “It is the combination of know-how and motivation that will make a child read more.”

Getting your children motivated

With a range of activities, such as watching television or playing video games, on hand, not all children are naturally drawn to sitting down and reading a book so it is important that reading is presented as something fun.

There are many ways that children can develop a passion for reading and strategies that parents can use (see below) to encourage further reading. Studies into reading motivation and children have found that social experiences play a powerful role in the development of motivation with a number of factors including choice, time spent talking about books, and the use of incentives to be proven motivators.

Each year, reading challenges including the Premier’s Reading Challenge; MS Read-a-thon and in the Diocese of Parramatta, the Executive Director’s Summer Reading Challenge, are opportunities designed to encourage, motivate and promote a love of reading in students.

Executive Director of Schools, Greg Whitby, believes developing a child’s love of reading exposes them to a wide range of learning experiences.

“The world of reading opens the door to exciting adventures, wonderful new friends and a host of learning opportunities,” Greg said. “As an avid reader myself, the summer reading challenge is about encouraging students to continue their literacy development and learning during the school holidays.”

Finding the right book for children can often be one of the first challenges and for the less inclined reader it is important that the chosen book be relevant to a child’s own experience. 

“Making connections between personal experience and the text is an important reading strategy and a basic literacy skill. It is important that students be able to relate to the topics and issues in the books they read” (Rog, Kropp, 2001)

Reading material that captures a child’s interests is one of the best ways to motivate further reading and this can come from a range of sources including fiction or non-fiction books, newspapers or magazines. A balance of many kinds of reading is essential for all readers and suggested reading lists in line with school curriculum and age can be found through the Board of Studies website, at local libraries and on reading challenge websites.

Reading at school

In the Diocese of Parramatta, literacy is an ongoing priority for Catholic Education with many programs and partnerships in place to enhance students’ literacy development. Reading Recovery is one program that has been implemented within 28 schools to date, to train teachers to assist students requiring additional support in literacy in the early years of schooling.

Targeted for Year 1 students, Reading Recovery is an early intervention program where specially trained teachers provide daily instruction to students and results have proven the program to be highly effective in improving literacy levels for participating students.

“Reading Recovery provides students with individualised strategies to support literacy,” says Catholic Education Teaching Educator and Reading Recovery tutor, Patricia Reilly. “This program has so far given more than 200 students a second chance at learning to read and write with the majority of students showing significant improvement in their literacy skills to successfully take part in their learning.”

In this, the National Year of Reading, it seems clear the key to develop strong literacy foundations is to start early, maintain motivation, lead by example and most importantly, read more.

Tips for parents to encourage their children to read more

• Reward accomplishment – set reading goals (e.g. two books a week) and create a reading chart to record books read and reward reaching goals (e.g. buy a new book or magazine when certains goals are met);
• Make reading part of a daily routine;
• Allow children to choose their own books - kids will be more interested in something they have chosen for themselves;
• Encourage involvement in the Summer Reading Challenge or Premier’s Reading Challenge;
• Read to/with your children - talk about the books, discuss their interests and make suggestions for further reading based on what they tell you;
• Research favorite authors and encourage children to write them a letter or email;
• Utilise technology – the Kindle and reading tablets have changed the face of reading, utilise technology available to enhance the learning experience. Audiobooks are another great source for reading aloud.

Sources

Moats, L. C. (1999) Teaching reading is rocket science, Washington, DC: American Federation of Teachers www.aft.org

Neuman, S., Copple, C., Bredekamp, S. (2000) Learning to Read and Write: Developmentally Appropriate Practices for Young Children, Edition 1, National Association for the Education of Young People www.cell-exll.com

Rog, L., Kropp, P. (2001) ‘Hooking struggling readers: Using Books they can and want to read’ www.readingrockets.org

Strempel, G. (2009) ‘Children, Early Reading and a Literate Australia, Public Libraries Australia ALJ Vol 58 No 4 Nov 2009 www.alia.org.au

Trelease, J. (2006) Creating a Lifetime of Readers: Are we there yet? in ‘The Read-Aloud Handbook’  Penguin Books

National Workforce Literacy Project ‘Report on Employers views on workplace literacy and numeracy skills’, May 2010, Australian Industry Group www.aigroup.com.au

http://teachthemhowtoread.blogspot.com/2011/01/thought-for-day-from-marilyn-jager.html

www.readingrockets.org

www.literacyconnections.com

www.love2read.org.au 

Author: Olivia O'Connor

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