Why Can't I Skip My Twenty Minutes of Reading Tonight?
Let's figure it out -- mathematically!
Student A reads 20 minutes five nights of every week;
Student B reads only 4 minutes a night...or not at all!
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Step 1: Multiply minutes a night x 5 times each week.
Student A reads 20 minutes x 5 times a week = 100 minutes a week.
Student B reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week = 20 minutes or less.
-----------------------------------------------------------------Step 2: Multiply minutes a week x 4 weeks each month.
Student A reads 400 minutes a month.
Student B reads 80 minutes a month or less.
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Step 3: Multiply minutes a month x 9 months in a school year
Student A reads 3600 minutes in a school year.
Student B reads 720 minutes or less in a school year.
Student A practices reading the equivalent of ten whole school days a year.
Student B gets the equivalent of only two school days or less of reading practice.
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By the end of 6th grade if Student A and Student B maintain these same reading habits,
Student A will have read the equivalent of 60 whole school days.
Student B will have read the equivalent of only 12 school days or less.
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One would expect the gap of information retained will have widened
considerably and so, undoubtedly, will school performance.
How do you think Student B will feel about him/herself as a student?
Some questions to ponder:
Which student would you expect to read better?
Which student would you expect to know more?
Which student would you expect to write better?
Which student would you expect to have a better vocabulary?
Which student would you expect to be more successful in school...and in life?
2 comments :
This is really helpful for me more than my son and thats mainly because I try and read to him and have him help me nightly, but there are those nights when I feel so tired and tell him we can skip tonight or we'll just read one book, but he is the one saying mommy what about my book, or when I read a story he ask can we read 2 more, and I may say yes or I may say no. So this message has encouraged me a great deal, I thought I was doing good but I see I can do better, after all I will expect the same from him. Thanks Mrs. Thomas!
I just finished reading "Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard." One of the central themes of the book is that what looks like resistance to change often isn't really resistance at all, rather it is lack of "crystal clear direction." This one simple thing--read 20 minutes a night--if done in every home, would do more to improve reading in this country than any program we have ever tried.
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