It's Always Time to Read

Principal ponderings...

Since this week is one of my favorite weeks of the year...it only makes sense that my post this week is focused on reading and books!  More specifically, I want to talk about time and money.  No, I did not get confused and just switch to a math focused post.  I want to talk about the not-so-novel concept of giving kids time to read...in school...every day.  And if we are talking about having kids reading every day, well then we need to talk about having books...lots of books...available for them to choose from.

But why do we need to talk about this?

Let me start with some facts that certainly go way beyond our little school.  Around the world, 775 million adults are illiterate. (UNESCO)  Approximately 32 million adults in America are considered to be illiterate; about 14% of the entire adult population cannot read.  Reading material becomes more complex for students around the fifth grade, and some 30 million adults aren't able to comprehend texts that are appropriate for 10-year-olds. In terms of lost productivity, it's estimated that the portion of the population that can't read costs the nation a staggering $225 billion each year.
(https://www.creditdonkey.com/illiteracy-in-america.html)

Ok, let those facts sink in a little bit.  In fact, go ahead...go back and reread that paragraph.  When I read those facts, besides thinking about how it feels incredibly overwhelming and a little, ok a lot impossible, I pull my growth mindset pants back on and think about the role that I need to play as an educator in this country, in our state, in our district, and especially in our school.  Reaching 32 million adults in this country is a daunting task, but reaching and having an impact on the the 500 readers in our school...I say bring it on.

Now let me share some more important facts with you that come from a 2017 Teacher and Principal School Report: Focus on Literacy that came from Scholastic (4,700 teachers and principals surveyed)...

77% percent of teachers set time aside for independent reading/read-aloud, but only 36% do this every school day. Students who have this opportunity to engage in independent reading/read-aloud time spend 22 minutes on average on this activity.

Many teachers (63%) wish independent reading/read-aloud time occurred more often. 90% of teachers identify demands of the curriculum as the primary barrier to preventing independent reading from occurring more frequently.

94% of principals and teachers agree that students should have time during the school day to read a book of their choice independently.

It seems pretty simple to me.  Did you learn to ride your bike by practicing once or twice a week for 20 minutes?  Are you into knitting?  Did you get better at it by picking up a project once a week?  Did you play a sport?  I was a competitive swimmer, and at the peak of my high school swimming career, I was practicing every day for about an hour and a half and some days I was practicing twice a day.  Were you a dancer or into choreography?  I bet that you did not memorize routines or correct your form by dancing only when there was time, a few times a week.  When you learned to play a card game...did you play it once and then remember exactly what to do the next time you played?  Am I getting my point across?  If kids are going to learn to read and then get better at reading, then they need to be practicing every single day.  We need to give them a chance to make that daily practice happen.

Now that I have talked about time for independent reading...let's talk about having books available to read.  The school library is a very important place in the school; I like to think it's the heart of the school.  But we can't teach our kids that the only place to get books is the library.  They need books to be within arms reach of where they are spending most of their time learning...the classroom.  

Rather than waiting for students to discover the joys of the library, we must bring the books to the students. Students need to be surrounded by interesting books daily, not just on those occasional days when the teacher takes them to the library. ~ Kelly Gallagher, Readcide

So let's think about some facts related to classroom libraries...

• Internationally, most fourth grade students(89%) attended schools with libraries, and had classroom libraries(69%) (Overview of Progress in International Reading Literacy, 2007). 

• Access to an abundance of books within the classroom results in increased motivation and increased reading achievement (Kelley, M. & Clausen-Grace, N., 2010; Worthy & Roser, 2010; Guthrie, 2008; Routman, 2003).

• Students in classrooms with well-designed classroom libraries 1) interact more with books, 2)spend more time reading, 3) demonstrate more positive attitudes toward reading, and 4) exhibit higher levels of reading achievement (National Assessment of Educational Progress Report, 2005).

•  Large classroom and school libraries that provide ample collections of instructional level texts play a key role in literacy learning (Worthy & Roser; 2011; Gallagher, 2009; Miller, 2009; Atwell, 2007; Mosenthal, Lipson, Sortino, Russ, & Mekkelsen, 2001).

Here's a short post that offers suggestions of how to build up your classroom library: https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/how-build-your-classroom-library/  I also love that this post has a classroom library checklist embedded in it for you!

Yes, it's Scholastic Book Fair week.  Yes, the kids get a little crazy when they see all of the books set up.  Yes, I have a reading problem and buy more books than I have time to read.  Yes, I talk about books with anyone who will listen, especially all of our students.  But after reading this post, hopefully you understand why I am passionate about getting kids reading and talking about books everyday.  And hopefully you will see the Book Fair as one way to change the reading lives of every one of our students.  32 million illiterate adults in our country.  That's a tough sentence to type and hopefully an even tougher fact to read.  Literacy instruction is an urgent issue that we all need to be focused on.  Let's focus on our 500 kids here.  Let's make sure they are not part of that statistic.

How will you find time for independent reading every day in your classroom?

How will you build up your classroom library so that your students have immediate access to books?

Currently reading:
After chatting with the Scholastic reps who came to our book fair preview, I have more books to add to my to be read pile!  One of the recommendations is a book that I have had for a while but just never read: Raymie Nightingale.  This book is by Kate DiCamillo who you just can't go wrong with.  I just bought her newest book, Louisiana's Way Home, which is about one of the characters in Raymie Nightingale.  Clearly I need to read one before the other.  So I am starting this one now.

One of the picture books that we brought home from the library this weekend is called Gazpacho for Nacho.  It's a fun rhyming picture book about a boy who only likes to eat gazpacho.  His mom gets him to shop with her and make his own gazpacho, and then he decides he wants to cook and eat more things.  Throughout the book, you learn all sorts of Spanish words and at the end there is a recipe and a glossary of terms with a pronunciation guide.  

Events this week:
**Scholastic Book Fair in the library all week!
Monday - Child Study Team Initial Meeting @ 8:15 in the conference room,  Facebook Live Bedtime Story with Principal Garden @ 7:00pm
Tuesday - Mr. Wilde's Fit Club @ 8:00am
Wednesday - Wellness Wednesday! Patty at CO Meeting, 8:00-10:00, Family Night at the Book Fair 4:30-8:00
Thursday - Mr. Wilde's Fit Club @ 8:00am, Liz at Curriculum Meeting @ CO from 7:45-10:00
Friday - Liz out of the building for the day, Craft Fair Setting Up in the gym, lobby, cafeteria beginning @ 3:00
Saturday - Mayo PTA Craft Fair 9:30-3:30, Book Fair open from 1:00-3:00

Great things I noticed last week:

• I caught 3rd graders doing some active listening during a read aloud.  They were jotting down .questions on sticky notes that came up as Mrs. D was reading to them. 
  
• 5th graders in Mrs. G's class were working together to read Scholastic News and find out new information. Learned about the calorie count in some of the items at favorite restaurants...yikes!
  
• Caught a 4th grader working on creating a math cartoon during snack.  Mrs. Greene's students have a chance to select snack activities they enjoy, such as arts and crafts or cartooning. 
  
• Kindergarteners practicing reading letters and pictures and making sight words through music and movement. 
  
  
  
  
• Thank you to all of the teachers who came to preview books.  Hope you learned about some new titles and have some good recommendations for your students! 
  
• I enjoyed running a 5K on Sunday with several Mayo families to benefit an organization created by one of our Mayo parents, MBB Foundation. 
  
  
  
  

Check it out:
If you are looking for more research about the importance of independent reading...here is a comprehensive post by Donalyn Miller with links to many articles: https://bookwhisperer.com/2015/02/08/ive-got-research-yes-i-do-ive-got-research-how-about-you/
P.S. Donalyn Miller is one of my edu-crushes.  She is on a mission to spread the reading love to all schools.  If you have not read Book Whisperer or Reading in the Wild...you need to ASAP!  Seriously, stop reading this post and start reading anything that Donalyn has written.