Libraries, books, time for reading, and more

The simplest way to make sure that we raise literate children is to teach them to read, and to show them that reading is a pleasurable activity. And that means, at its simplest, finding books that they enjoy, giving them access to those books, and letting them read them. Neil Gaiman (and I would add this means giving children TIME! for reading too)

Image from: Tara Book Co. Or use this link

I've had this article from 2013 published on The Guardian website by Neil Gaiman entitled "Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming" saved for ages so tonight I thought I would share a few quotes that resonate with me:

Fiction has two uses. Firstly, it’s a gateway ... to reading. The drive to know what happens next, to want to turn the page, the need to keep going, even if it’s hard, because someone’s in trouble and you have to know how it’s all going to end … that’s a very real drive. And it forces you to learn new words, to think new thoughts, to keep going.

And the second thing fiction does is to build empathy. ... You get to feel things, visit places and worlds you would never otherwise know. You learn that everyone else out there is a me, as well. You’re being someone else, and when you return to your own world, you’re going to be slightly changed.

Another way to destroy a child’s love of reading, of course, is to make sure there are no books of any kind around. And to give them nowhere to read those books.  (And to this I would add the importance of giving children TIME to read). 

I believe we have an obligation to read for pleasure, in private and in public places. If we read for pleasure, if others see us reading, then we learn, we exercise our imaginations. We show others that reading is a good thing.

We have an obligation to read aloud to our children. To read them things they enjoy. To read to them stories we are already tired of. To do the voices, to make it interesting, and not to stop reading to them just because they learn to read to themselves. Use reading-aloud time as bonding time, as time when no phones are being checked, when the distractions of the world are put aside.

And I also had this article - "Why School libraries Matter more than ever" on my saved pile from an interview with Susan La Marca, from the School Library Association of Victoria. 

I don’t think there’s any other place in a school quite like a school library, and I think that’s what makes them important. They’re not just about information and reading, they’re about experiences, they’re about learning of all kinds.

Thirdly I had saved this article - Teaching with Picture Books - Effective strategies from Priceless Teaching Strategies by Anne Porretta (2008) :

• How to choose a picture book: Not just any picture book will do. Picture books should be chosen for their quality and their appeal.
• The book should "speak" to you - literally jump off the display shelf and say, "Read me! Out loud!" If you like it, the students will most surely enjoy it too.
• A caution here to teachers - while picture books make excellent mentor texts from which to teach curriculum's writing elements, reading strategies, and global issues, do not dismantle the text on first read.
• Remember that the first read-aloud of a picture book should be savoured, an invitation to feast on words, pictures and ideas.
• Teaching with picture books provides a scaffold to understanding. For both younger and older students, teaching with picture books promotes opportunities to consider different points of view and lived experiences outside of themselves.
• Given the large number of standards and learning goals teachers are expected to cover in a school year, picture books are a gift to you, your program and your students!
• So many picture books await! Choose your read-aloud and practice "being the book". Live it. Read aloud with enthusiasm in a voice that is uninhibited and dramatic. Use gestures and varied intonation--convey a mood! Your voice and the book you have chosen will invite the children in-- to learn, to imagine, to navigate new understandings.

AND to all of this I will add TIME. 

Life is busy. Children now have days filled with activities after school and on weekends and of course those electronic devices are devious at swallowing up huge, enormous, and outrageous amounts of TIME. So we need to help children. Give them time during their school day for actual reading - quite reading, absorbed reading. Children also need down time for reading at home - before bed, early in the morning or whenever. Time when devices are not allowed to compete for the child's attention. Giving children reading TIME is at the heart of my blog. This chart is American but I think it makes the point about reading and success.