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Yes, a storm is brewing …
One out of every five U.S. residents (35 million adults) functions at a “below basic” level of literacy, struggling with tasks such as reading product labels, using an ATM or reading a children’s story. (National Assessment of Adult Literacy, 2003)
“By one set of measures, more than 88 million adults have at least one major educational barrier—no high school diploma, no college, or ESL language needs. With a current U.S. labor force of about 150 million (16 and older), a troubling number of prime working age adults likely will fall behind in their struggle to get higher wage jobs, or to qualify for the college courses or job training that will help them join or advance in jobs that pay a family-sustaining wage. More than two-thirds of the workforce is beyond the reach of the schools.” (National Commission on Adult Literacy, 2008)
Although the numbers are big and the impact is astronomical, there is some good news. The 2003 National Assessment of Adult Literacy found that there were fewer adults with “below basic” document and quantitative literacy than in 1992. From the Study: Document literacy is the knowledge and skills needed to perform document tasks (i.e., to search, comprehend, and use information from various texts in various formats, such as bills or prescription labels), Quantitative literacy is the knowledge and skills required to perform activities that are related to numbers (e.g., compute data, including numbers embedded in printed material).
Literacy is learned. Illiteracy is passed along by parents who cannot read or write. ~ Begin to Read website
Quite the vicious circle, no? We need to help kids learn to read … but we also need to assist the parents who need to read their prescription labels and help with homework, yet who feel disconnected themselves.
How do we turn this scary story into a happily-ever-after one? This is something we all need to talk about!
Image Source: Purzin Cartoon Jack o’Lantern on OpenClipArt.org
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On any given day from September to May or June, more than seven thousand students become dropouts. EVERY DAY! In one school year, that adds up to about 1.3 million students who will not graduate from high school on time, with their peers. That’s roughly a 70% graduation rate. Without their diploma, odds are pretty high that we will be subsidizing their existence. as they will be receiving government assistance, imprisoned, and will likely be job hoppers.
High school dropouts will be unemployed periodically. Even when they are working, they will earn much less than their graduating peers. In 2005, the difference was nearly $10,000. In 2010, it is probably more. The average annual income for a high school dropout in 2005 was $17,299, compared to $26,933 for a high school graduate, a difference of $9,634.
High school dropouts need our assistance. According to a 2005 analysis, each dropout, over his or her lifetime, costs the nation approximately $260,000. They must often rely on public services, including government healthcare, food stamps, and housing assistance. Estimated losses to businesses and taxpayers is $20 BILLION annually.
Unless high schools are able to graduate their students at higher rates, more than 12 million students will drop out during the course of the next decade. The result will be a loss to the nation of $3 trillion.
The Alliance’s purpose is to show how improving graduation rates will benefit society. The report is concise, but jam-packed with information, including state-by-state graduation rates. It is definitely worth a read.
There are a lot of factors that contribute to a student’s decision to drop out of high school. It wasn’t something that just “happened one day,” it is the last straw in a series of events that left a young person feeling disconnected from his/her peers. The erosion began long before ninth grade. This from the National Dropout Prevention Center at Clemson University:
A [2007] study of the best research on dropout prevention shows that a single event rarely causes a child to drop out of school. Dropping out almost always is the result of a long process of disengagement that sometimes begins before the child enrolls in kindergarten.
Kindergarten? I never realized that! In every community there are opportunities to reach out to young students. Reading a book can be a great “ice breaker,” because you can share or talk, or even not talk, and build a bridge for the future. Whether you are reading with your children or spending a little bit of time each week in a local school … you ARE making a difference.
Before every University of Virginia home football game, one of the players introduces their “hero in education,” a teacher or mentor who helped them in school and sparked a love of learning (sometimes where there had been none). It is my favorite pre-game event.
Do you have a favorite “this person changed my life” story? We’d love to hear yours.
source: Alliance for Excellent Education, August 2009 study; image credit yeKcim on www.OpenClipArt.org
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Book Talk: We Are In A Book by Mo Willems and Word After Word After Word by Patricia MacLachlan
Two different audiences.
Two different styles.
Two great books.
One special message.
In their own, unique ways, Word after word after word and We Are in a Book! (Elephant & Piggie) speak to the fun of reading and the magic qualities of words. As you read them (preferably aloud) you feel as though you are part of a special group that is being let in on a secret that has been around hundreds of years. In a sense you are, because both books share a message about the expressiveness of words.
In Word after word after word the first character we meet is our narrator, Lucy. She instantly wants us to understand that things happen in fours. Because on the fourth day of the fourth month after winter vacation, Ms. Mirabel takes over Miss Cash’s fourth grade class. Ms. Mirabel is a famous author and she’ll be teaching for the next four weeks. Her introduction to the class is typical of any author visit – with students asking the usual questions about when Ms. Mirabel decided to become writer and how much money she makes. She moves through that quickly and transforms into a writing mentor. Lucy and her group of friends – Henry, Russell, May, and Evie – hang onto her every word. Although Lucy is our narrator, we are just as close to the other characters’ feelings as we are to hers.
Each of these students come to discover the power of words in their own way: Russell through a memory of his dead dog; Lucy through her unexpressed feelings of sadness about her mother’s cancer; Evie through her desire to have a full-time mom instead of just a divorced dad; May in her anger over a new, adopted baby brother; and Henry by his desire to “save everything I have.” Even Miss Cash, who seems quite the fuddy-duddy teacher, opens herself to the idea of writing and submits a poem for the class.
What I love about the book is how it shows that writing can be both a shared experience and a very personal one. At the end of each chapter, one of the characters shares his/her writing contribution to the class. The kids’ lives are center stage, yet through Ms. Mirabel’s skillful hand they (and we) understand more about the writing process. MacLachlan covers everything from character and setting to figures of speech and idioms. This is a very graceful story that kids can relate to, as the students’ problems and classroom experiences are as everyday as theirs and/or their friends.
Then there is Elephant and Piggie … who are anything but graceful. In We Are in a Book! (Elephant & Piggie), Gerald discovers that someone is looking at them. Piggie comes up to the edge of the page to look at us, then returns to explain that they are in a book … and we are readers. Then Piggie has an idea: he will make the reader say something. For the next seven pages, Gerald is laughing silly at the word we keep saying. Then Piggie gives him a chance to ask the reader to say something. Now Gerald is nervous. There are only 10 pages left in the book and he doesn’t know what he wants us to say. Then they collaborate and Gerald has the perfect thing to say.
Hello. Will you please read us again?
So of course, we do. Because we love Elephant and Piggie, because they are funny, and because we like to say bananas. Doesn’t every kid love saying the word banana? Even without having a picture to decode it, they instantly recognize the word banana. [See, it makes me silly! - bet you thought I was going to say banana.]
Each year I feel like I keep repeating the same thing: “x is the best Elephant and Piggie book.” I’m going to have to permanently append that with a “yet.” In my personal rankings of Elephant and Piggie books, We Are in a Book! has now moved to the top. One of the reasons I like it is because it not only makes reading fun, it shows you reading is fun, largely because it is more interactive. Gerald and Piggie talk directly to the reader and also know exactly where we are in the book – because Piggie gives us the page number! It is a journey we share.
With Elephant and Piggie we celebrate individual words, and Willems shows us the fun side of learning to read. In Word After Word After Word, MacLachlan takes us to the next step: illustrating how words can express ideas and feelings. These two books are for two different types of readers. It goes beyond the fact that one is an easy reader and the other an early chapter book and the ages of the intended readers. We Are in a Book! is a laugh-out-loud read-out-loud book that even 9-year-olds can have fun with. It is an “every reader” kind of book.
Word After Word After Word, on the other hand, is subtle and quiet. Six- and seven-year-olds may listen, but they won’t “get it.” Is it a book boys would like? Some will, yes. Ditto for girls. Some will, some won’t. It is an incredible book, but it has to hit the reader at just that right time. Because of that it could easily be overlooked. I sure hope not.
Both of these books have been nominated in the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards. The opinions in this review are mine and do not have an impact on the Cybils or reflect panelist discussions.
Bookcovers link to Amaxon.com, with which the Reading Tub has an affiliate. We may earn income for our literacy work via purchases made through those links. We are not recommending nor implying that you purchase through those links – we love the library, too. They are offered only as a service to our readers.
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This week, as we prepare the bowls of candy and put the finishing touches on our costumes and yard decor, I thought I’d do something a little different. Each day this week, I’m going to pull out some frightening statistics about the costs of not helping our kids learn to read.
- 73 percent of Americans incorrectly believe that if children enter kindergarten unprepared, they will catch up in elementary school.
- Another 75 percent are completely unaware that nearly 61 percent of low-income families do not have any age-appropriate books in their homes.
- Two-thirds of students who cannot read proficiently by the end of the 4th grade will end up in jail or on welfare. The fourth grade is the watershed year.
Why do those statistics matter? Because kids who can’t catch up, drop out of school. They can’t get jobs, or they find low-paying ones, and more often than not, they become part of the social welfare system … your taxpayer dollars: $25,000 per year, per inmate for prisoners (nearly double that for juvenile offenders); $73 million (annual) in direct healthcare costs; and $2 billion for students to repeat a grade (because they had reading problems). In all, it is about $240 billion in lost earnings, lost tax revenue, and expenditures for social services.
With just 20 minutes a day you can help open a child’s world to literacy. How lucky so many of us are to have books or access to libraries. Do you have books your kids have outgrown? I’m sure there are organizations in your community that accept book donations. What are some of your favorite places to donate books?
Source: 2009 Survey by the Pearson Foundation (as first seen in American Libraries Direct, August 2010); The Literacy Company, Reading/Literacy Statistics page; Begin to Read website, Literacy Research page.
Image credit: yeKcim on www.OpenClipArt.org
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Thanks to Carol Rasco’s generosity (i.e., my guest post), I have had a number of inquiries from people interested in jumping in the Reading Tub. One of those is Brooke Todd, a freelance writer and reading teacher in Albany, NY.
Halloween lists can be found all around the Kidlitosphere, and I was looking for something fresh … and along comes Brooke, who sent us her list of 13 Spooky Books for Kids. These are books which, in her experience, are “are sure to delight young readers!” As you can see, her list offers summaries, but doesn’t give away the whole plot. That would take all the fun out!!
Brooke Todd is a freelance writer, and reading teacher from Albany, NY. Brooke enjoys reading and writing about children’s literature and sharing her knowledge with others. Brooke is passionate about literacy and takes great value in promoting literature to parents, children and the community at large.
13 Spooky Books for Kids
We recently opened an aStore on Amazon to feature children’s book recommendations built around themes and seasons, and you’ll find these titles and more at the Reading Tub Recommends store. We hope to add a similar store in IndieBound.
Note: IndieBound and Amazon links in the 13 Spooky Stories list include our affiliate codes. If you click those links and then make purchases, a portion of the earnings may come to us. This is NO added cost to you. We are not implying that you buy the book, only making that option available.
Is that not just the sweetest picture?
Yesterday, I had the honor of being the guest blogger at Rasco from RIF, Carol Rasco’s Reading is FUNdamental blog. A couple of weeks ago Carol had asked me to write about the how/what/why of the Reading Tub, and it turned out to be more a story about my journey as a reader. But that pic … oh those RIF folks are so creative! Needless to say a certain soon-to-be-nine bookworm now thinks she’s “famous.”
If you haven’t visited Reading is Fundamental in a while, head on over. That same creative crew (I’m guessing) has added some spiff and lots of fun to the Web site. Of course I LOVE LOVE LOVE the Let’s Read as a Family section. Click on Kitchen and you get ideas for ways to read there; ditto the living room, bedroom, and in the neighborhood, too. Like all parts of the RIF Web site, the material is available in Spanish and English.
Thank you again Carol and crew for the opportunity to visit and share our story!
Welcome to the fourth installment of Reading & Math, our periodic series that goes beyond books to look at literacy more broadly. Our goal is to offer ways that you can use books, reading, and other resources to helping kids of all ages be successful now and over the long term.
As I mentioned in our previous post about books and money, we have created a web version of the Financial Literacy Reading List with the books Cady recommends. The list will be continually updated, and we’d love to include your suggestions, so please leave a comment!
Fall means football, and if you’ve been around any schools lately, you’ll see students of all ages wearing the jerseys of their favorite players. What makes those players heroes to kids is how they perform on the field … for parents, what makes those players role models is what they do off the field.
The National Football League (and other pro leagues) have robust youth-oriented campaigns to help kids. NFL teams and players work within their communities to encourage kids to stay in school, get regular exercise, and more. What makes those programs work is the “personal” connection between player and fan.
Drew Brees, quarterback for New Orleans Saints is one of those players. He is using the platform created when he led the Saints to a first-ever Super Bowl victory, to encourage kids to be more aware of their finances.
Brees has partnered with Visa (an official NFL sponsor) to design a program called Financial Football. It is an online education video game that helps individuals learn financial concepts. By answering questions about personal financial management, you can move down the field and score touchdowns.
The program is not just for kids, and NFL rookies are encouraged to try their hand at Financial Football, too. In fact, the NFL recently announced that all new incoming NFL players will receive financial planning instruction as part of their 4-day mandatory rookie training. In a recent OpEd piece, Drew Brees explained that part of the reason he got involved is because of his own experience with credit scores.
I applied for a mortgage on my first home, and learned that financial decisions I had made back in college had hurt my credit score. Fortunately, I was able to get the loan — but at a far higher interest rate than if I had a good credit score.
It frustrates me to this day that I didn’t understand the importance of my credit score in college, when I made these poor financial decisions.
This is an great example of a role model stepping up to the plate, sharing his own examples of financial mishaps and encouraging a younger generation to be more cognizant of financial literacy concepts. The Financial Football video game can be downloaded to your computer and is also available for iPhone and iPad.
Reading about it made me realize that if football players need refresher courses, then more needs to be done in the early years to get kids knowledge where it needs to be. In an article last year, Sports Illustrated reported that 78 percent of former NFL players have gone bankrupt, or are facing financial stress because of joblessness and divorce just two years after leaving the game. These are guys that make a league-minimum $325,000! By high school and college – when kids increase their decision-making on purchases, budgets, rents and paying for school – it is far too late. We need to give kids the tools to prepare early, whether it is through school, at home, or from a trusted sports hero.
Cady’s Two Cents
by Judy Lawrence
x
x
by Neale Godfrey
x
by Kelley Keehn
x
by Janet Bodnar
Cady North, the project director and author for this series, is a business and finance professional sharing time between Washington, DC, and Charlottesville, VA. She has nine years in the public policy arena helping educate members of Congress and State Legislatures on various issues. Cady [cadynorth [at] gmail [dot] com] is passionate about improving financial literacy in both students and adults.
Note: Book titles link to amazon.com, with whom the Reading Tub, Inc. has an affiliate relationship. Purchases made through the links can earn income for the Reading Tub. The link is for your convenience and does not require a purchase.
Image Credit:
*Stylized numeral four created by Horse50 and is available on OpenClipArt.org
*Man with bag of money – image credit Johnny Automatic at OpenClipArt.org
*Fleur de Lis logo for the New Orleans Saints linked from NFL.COM
Updated: Corrected author/illustrator name. Guess I need to quit putting off that eye appointment!
There were so many ways to start this post …
in the pink ~ perfectly pink ~ think pink
but Pinkalicious pretty much speaks for herself. The spunky, cupcake-loving little girl is you-know-who’s go-to friend when she needs a quick giggle. So when I saw that Pinkalicious: Pink around the Rink by Victoria Kann was nominated in the Cybils Easy Reader category, well I was … tickled pink.
Both Pinkalicious: Pink around the Rink and Pinkalicious: School Rules! are “level 1″ easy readers. In the I Can Read! series, Level 1 is for beginning readers, with “simple sentences for eager new readers.” Girls who loved listening to other Pinkalicious stories will jump at the chance to read a new, original story on their own.
As is true with all of the books in the series, Victoria Kann offers young girls a little bit of idealism, a dash of fantasy, a dilemma, and a happy ending wrapped in simple, bright illustrations. Sappy? Maybe, but when your world is soft pink, it would be difficult to have anything but sweet! It probably won’t surprise you that my soon-to-be 9-year-old girly girl not only has worn through her copy of the original Pinkalicious book, but squeals with delight every time a new title arrives.
In Pink around the Rink, Pinkalicous has a brand new pair of ice skates. They fit well, but there is one problem … they aren’t pink. Our ever resourceful heroine fixes that by grabbing a magic marker and coloring them a perfect shade of pink (cotton candy to be exact). At the rink, Pinkalicious is having trouble getting used to the skates. She keeps falling down. Oh, no! Her beautiful pink ice skates are now splotchy – and look at the ice! Everybody knows how much she fell. She was sad until Mom pointed out that her skates created beautiful swirls around the ice. With some help from Daddy, she got back up and started skating again.
The challenge is a little bit different in School Rules! Pinkalicious liked school better when Goldilicious (her unicorn) was there. She made it through one day, but decided that she needed “Goldie” with her. Even though she knew unicorns weren’t allowed at school, they came together anyway. Everything was going well until Goldie ate the teacher’s apple. Then Pinkalicious had to confess. After talking with the school principal, Goldie was allowed to stay for the rest of the day … but Pinkalicious had to make sure Goldie followed the rules.
While both books are nice, I like Pink around the Rink better. When I think of easy readers - particularly the ones that have a sentence or two on each page – I think first grader, not brand new reader. The concept of taking an imaginary friend to school seems a little young for this audience. These are not books for readers just starting to build their sight vocabulary. While the illustrations allow readers to decode some of the words, readers will need to know some other basic strategies like letter sounds before feeling comfortable with these books. I also like that these are more monographs than series books. You don’t need to know a lot about Pinkalicious to enjoy the story.
In the process of writing the reviews for these two books, another package arrived at our house: Pinkalicious: The Perfectly Pink Collection. This is a boxed set with “three books, dozens of stickers, a color-it-yourself poster, and three double-sided crayons.” I have no doubt that this has been released in anticipation of holiday shopping. If you are looking for a gift that will grow with a young girly girl in your life, this may be one to consider. What I like about the set is that it combines books and activities, and includes two picture books (Pinkalicious Tickled Pink and Pinkalicious and the Pink Drink) and an easy reader (School Rules!) The picture books can start out as adult read-alouds, and School Rules! is available when she’s ready to start reading herself. Because the picture books come in at Flesh-Kincaid 1.6 and 2.4, respectively, you also have additional opportunities for independent read-alouds a little later on.
Independently or together, the Pinkalicious easy readers are solid choices. Unless you have a Pinkalicous fan in the house already, I’d recommend borrowing them from the library. NOT because they aren’t good, but because young readers will move through them fairly quickly. Pink’s friends will want to keep her around, acquaintances will be ready to meet new friends … like Clementine.
To learn about the other books in the series, visit www.Think Pinkalicious.com. You can also meet Victoria Kann, get a curriculum guide, and also play games.
NOTES:
This is my review of Pinkalicious: Pink around the Rink. It does not reflect the opinion of the Cybils committee and should not be construed as a recommendation for the book.
Book titles and covers are linked to Amazon.com, with which we have an affiliate relationship. 100% of any income we earn from purchases through those links go to our literacy programs.
We hope you enjoyed a beautiful autumn weekend … maybe even a long one!
The mid-October children’s literacy and reading news round-up, brought to you by Jen Robinson’s Book Page, Scrub-a-Dub-Tub, a Reading Tub blog, and Rasco from RIF is now available at Scrub-a-Dub-Tub. Over the past couple of weeks Jen Robinson and I have collected plenty of content for you about literacy & reading-related events; literacy and reading programs and research; 21st century literacies; and grants, sponsorships & donations. Carol Rasco from RIF will have some reflection for October and a look forward at the end of the month.
I’m sure that before I could finish saying “New Yo…” y’all would know what piece of *news* I’m about to mention. There is nothing new that I can add to the conversation, but I would encourage you to read Carol Rasco’s post from Sunday, where she offers her perspective from the front lines. Ever the optimist, she reminds us that the glass is not nearly empty, and also asks teachers for their wisdom:
When you have suspicions about a child being pushed perhaps too hard at home, home requirements being stricter as to amount of reading, types of books, etc. than in your classroom or the parent discusses it directly with you - how do you handle the situation, particularly for the early elementary aged students?
Events
In the October edition of Tools for Reading and Literacy, I shared a video about a European Union project to encourage reading and learning a new language. Over the weekend, I learned that the Young Readers Center at the Library of Congress is participating in the month-long 2010 Kids Euro Festival. The festival is also a month long kid-centric event to event that celebrate European arts and culture. From the Extra Helping Newslette ((School Library Journal) article where I found it: “This free festival is put on with the cooperation of the 27 Washington-based European Union embassies and is organized by the French-American Cultural Foundation in collaboration with more than 25 cultural institutions in the Washington, DC area. Events and activities are geared toward children ages 2-12 and include mimes, storytellers, dancers, puppeteers, movies, workshops, and over 200 performances and activities.” Read Chelsey Philpot’s full article here.
Literacy Programs and Research
In this Boston Globe article by Riddhi Shah, there is a GREAT picture of a group of people watching a television in a slum area of India. They are watching music videos featuring some of their favorite Bollywood celebrities … and following along with the onscreen subtitles sponsored by Indian national television. The project, started nine years ago, has had some incredible results: “newspaper reading in the village has gone up by more than 50 percent in the last decade. Research also shows that the village’s women, who can now read bus schedules themselves, are more mobile, and more children are opting to stay in school.”
In August I caught up on some professional reading, starting with American Libraries (I wanna be a librarian when I grow up). It’s just taken me a while to get caught up with the margin notes.Some things you’ve likely already spotted in the Roundup of New (to me) Resources. I have to say, though, this one is one of my favorites: QR Codes (aka quick response codes). I’m sure you’ve seen some promotion where you can use your camera-enabled phone to read the code and it will show you great information. Well, the Contra Costa County (California) library has a grant to put QR Codes on popular books. Hold up your phone, and voila! you get a list of read-alikes for that title. “QR Codes on books could also take patrons to online book review pages or a list of other books cataloged under the same subject headings.” I haven’t gotten all geeky since the iPad (*sigh*), but isn’t that just cool?
While we’re still all cool and digital and stuff, check out Books and Literacy in the Digitial Age by Ralph Raab (American Libraries, August 2010). The subtitle is “Can we grow technophiles who are bibliophiles?” Good question. I liked this thought: “By focusing chidren’s enthusiasm for online exploration and expression on powerful educational tools, parents and teachers can promote literacy alongside technology. ” I could fill up the entire roundup with vignettes from this article, so please do read it. Mr. Raab has some fascinating thoughts about the downside of digital writing, too.
Scholastic’s “2010 Kids & Family Reading Report” has some interesting findings about kids and reading in a digital age. The company surveyed 1,045 children between the ages of 6 and 17, along with their parents, on their opinions and behavior when reading books for fun in our digital world. The secret may be eReaders. By letting kids read fun ebooks, they get their ‘screen’ fix and may just read a little longer! (via School Library Journal’s Extra Helping, 5 October 2010)
Over at Readers are Made on the Lap of a Parent, Mo has a nice series going with tips for helping resistant/struggling/reluctant readers. So far, she has talked about connecting kids with books on subjects that interest them, how to make sure you’re not adding to their anxiety about reading, and simple, everyday things you can read with your child to make it fun.
Unwrapping Literacy
What is hybrid learning? Well, it is different things to different school districts. In Schools Blend Virtual and Face-to-Face Teaching (Education Week), Katie Ash explores several models for students from kindergarten through high school. Edutopia created this 10-minute video about online learning in 2005. The motivations and opportunities for learners are myriad … some I hadn’t even thought of.
Happy Tuesday, y’all. I was out yesterday enjoying a family day, so I missed Nonfiction Monday. Luckily, I can head over Anastasia Suen’s Picture Book of the Day to read it today.
A Prescription for Books: Just What the Doctor Ordered … Welcoming Matt Ferraguto of Reach Out and Read to the Reading Tub
As you probably already know, I first “met” Matt Ferraguto, Director of Communications for Reach Out and Read, during in March 2008, during the first Share a Story – Shape a Future blog tour for literacy. He introduced himself via comments on various posts, and then we started corresponding regularly via eMail. It is through Matt that I met Sue Rockwell, Executive Director of ROR Virginia.
Reach Out and Read is a program that works with pediatricians so they can give books to children, particularly those in poverty. Because children ages 6 months to 5 years regularly visit their doctor, each visit is an opportunity to encourage literacy and help parents instill a love of reading. ROR calls it a “Prescription for a healthy childhood.”
Recently, Matt had an opportunity to interview Richard Robinson, Chairman, President, and CEO of Scholastic, Inc. They talked about Scholastic’s global literacy campaign “Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life.” The goal of the campaign, based on Scholastic’s Reading Bill of Rights, is to raise awareness about the importance of strong reading skills in our digital lives. They also talked about the company’s 90th anniversary celebration. Matt was thoughtful enough to share it with me, and has graciously jumped in the Tub as our guest so I can share it with you. Take it away, Matt!
For more than a decade, Scholastic and the nationwide school readiness initiative Reach Out and Read have been partners in their shared mission to promote early literacy. In fact, Scholastic Book Clubs has donated millions of books to the children and families Reach Out and Read serves, through the ClassroomsCare initiative. Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Dick Robinson, Chairman, President, and CEO of Scholastic Inc., about the literacy campaign and Scholastic’s 90th Anniversary.
Matt: What do you hope that the “Read Every Day. Lead a Better Life.” global literacy campaign will accomplish?
Dick: Today we live in a world full of digital information. Yet reading has never been more important, for we know that for young people the ability to read is the door opener to the 21st Century: to hold a job, to understand their world, and to discover themselves. That is why we are asking everyone… parents, teachers, school and business leaders and the general public… to join our Global Literacy Call to Action and support every child’s right to read for a better life and success in the 21st century. In addition to raising awareness about the importance of reading in the digital age, we are providing simple action steps anyone can take to encourage a child in their life to read every day. These steps and more information are available at www.scholastic.com/readeveryday.
Matt: How did you become so interested in the issue of childhood literacy?
Dick: It has always been part of my life. My father, Maurice Robinson, founded Scholastic 90 years ago with the publication of a classroom magazine for students to help explain the contemporary world to them while encouraging reading and critical thinking. That inspiration still drives our company today, for we know that literacy, the ability to read, write and understand, is the key to a successful and complete life.
Matt: What can families do to embrace the spirit of Scholastic’s Reading Bill of Rights?
Dick: We know from studies and from our own experience working with teachers and families, that one of the most important factors determining whether a child becomes a good reader and a successful student, is having books in the home. Additionally, parents are a child’s first teacher and reading role model. If children see others in the family reading, they will think it is important. Every parent can speak or read a story to a child and every parent can encourage a child to read every day. You’ll find these actions steps and other resources on our literacy campaign web site at www.scholastic.com/readeveryday.
Matt: Over the years, nearly 30 million children have participated in the Scholastic Book Clubs ClassroomsCare program, resulting in more than 10 million books being donated to Reach Out and Read and other literacy organizations. What is it that makes the program so successful, in your mind?
Dick: The simple message of ClassroomsCare is a lesson in reading and giving. By reading 100 books, a classroom of students helps provide books to kids who aren’t lucky enough to own any themselves. It’s incredible to me that more than 10 million books have been donated to children through groups like Read Out and Read because of ClassroomsCare. Millions of children have books of their own now because of the dedication of teachers and the participation of kids across America. Teachers tell us how much every child loves to help others by donating books.
Matt: What’s been the most significant change to the publishing industry that you’ve seen as President and CEO of Scholastic? How has that changed the way you do business?
Dick: For young people who are bombarded by digital information through mobile devices and computer screens 24/7, it is even more important for them to know how to analyze, interpret and understand that information. This journey of learning begins with reading, whether in print or digitally, and our mission has been, and always will be, to help them learn how to read so they can understand their world.<
Matt: What impact do you think the Kindle and other e-readers will have on children’s books and the way families read together in the future?
Dick: The needs of children on electronic devices are quite different from the functionality that the current dedicated e-readers provide. Kids want color; they want a real voice, not a simulated voice; they want some animation and reading supports. Scholastic is preparing to launch our e-reader software application this school year to meet the unique needs of kids. Children who may be more inclined to technology than to printed books may find that the printed word takes on new interest on the right device loaded with the right e-reading software. At the same time, we think the experience of a parent reading aloud with a child should be part of every day – whether on printed pages or on a technology platform.
Matt: As part of your literacy campaign, Scholastic is launching a website, You Are What You Read, where everyone, young and old alike, can share the books that helped shape who they are. Tell us about that.
Dick: While the Reading Bill of Rights, our eight beliefs that affirm every child’s right to read, is at the core of our literacy campaign, the new web site launching October 22, 2010 will unite a global community of readers around the great books of our lives. You will be able to share the books that influenced who you are today – whether you are 6 or 66 – and you’ll be able to see who else shares your books throughout the world. We call this your “Bookprint” and it is built on an idea from Dr. Alfred Tatum about building a “textual lineage” – a reading and writing autobiography that shows that who you are is in part developed by the stories and information you’ve experienced. At launch we will have the Bookprints of more than 120 widely recognized people from the arts, entertainment, business, science, sports, and media on the site as well. For example, you’ll be able to see if your Bookprint includes any of the choices of a world famous astrophysicist, a top recording star or a former President of the United States.
Matt: What’s the best piece of advice about reading aloud that you can give to new parents?
Dick: Read every day. Start when your children are young, by reading to and with them. It builds a love of reading in the best possible way…great stories and a special time with mom or dad. Even if you do not think of yourself as a reader, you can help your child by reading or telling them a story based on a book.
Matt: Why did you become such a strong supporter of Reach Out and Read?
Dick: Reach Out and Read shares a mission with Scholastic of ensuring that books and reading are a part of every child’s life, and that children will be better prepared to succeed if they are surrounded by books starting at a very young age. Reach Out and Read reaches the children that need our books the most, and for more than a decade Reach Out and Read has proved to be an incredible way for parents to get books for their children. We look forward to continuing to support Reach Out and Read as together we uphold the right of every child to read and realize a complete life.
Matt: What is your favorite children’s book?
Dick: The first book I read with my mother was The Little Engine that Could.
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