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Re: Picture book twenty minutes a day
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From: Lynn Rutan <lynnrutan_at_charter.net>
Date: Sat, 06 Nov 2010 08:40:38 -0400
Like many things in eduction, a good idea - reading with your child - has ended up being mandated and sometimes abused. The problem isn't the idea of course, it is how we help parents and, sadly sometimes teachers, understand how that glorious and impactive practice can best be implemented.
Of course children who read become better readers and I know that 20 minute a day rule comes from the best of intentions. It is how and what that is often the issue. A teacher wanting all of his/her students to read every night may have to send home something to be read. But how? School libraries are nonexistent in many places, school librarians in elementary schools a very rare thing indeed. If there IS a school library, students only get to go once a week or so and the collections are often woeful with pitiful budgets.
I think the question Marc and others is asking is really a valid question. While $16 for a glorious picture book is far from over-priced for what you get, the question of school library budgets and affordable books for families needs to be thought about. How can we make a quality reading experience possible for more children?
Public libraries are of course a wonderful resource and the one in my town is so busy that they can hardly keep up. Families leave with piles of picture books and the collection is used heavily. But many families can't get to the library on a weekly basis. The reality of life for many young parents means that between the time they get off work, retrieve their children, make dinner and then try to deal with homework, there is very little time for anything else. Add poverty, access and a myriad of other issues into the mix and you've got children whose only access to books comes from school.
Like many grandparents I'm helping to raise my grandchildren. My grandsons bring home a different "baggy book" every night and part of their homework is to read the book. These baggy books are paperbacks and usually controlled vocabulary beginning readers of increasing levels of difficulty. They are usually pretty dreadful. Volunteers collect these baggy books every day from school bags and redistribute them to a different child to take home to read. We are a family of readers and our house is full of books of course and although we love reading together, that baggy book is not something any of us regard as an entertaining reading experience. We hurry through so we can get to the good stuff but how can we get the good stuff into more hands?
I read to my grandsons' classes as a volunteer and at least in that one school I can attest to the fact that children still love a wide variety of books. Someone earlier posted that this generation needed action and noise on every page and I would heartily disagree with that. Quality and developmental appropriateness are what matters, story is what matters. It is the story told through illustration and text that matters to children still.
This is a community of smart people. I'd love to see us find ways to make larger numbers of quality books available more readily. Surely if we can develop technologies that fight wars thousands of miles away we can find was to get more good books to more children.
Lynn Rutan Bookends - Booklist Online Youth Blog Holland, MI lynnrutan_at_charter.net
Received on Sat 06 Nov 2010 08:40:38 AM CDT
Date: Sat, 06 Nov 2010 08:40:38 -0400
Like many things in eduction, a good idea - reading with your child - has ended up being mandated and sometimes abused. The problem isn't the idea of course, it is how we help parents and, sadly sometimes teachers, understand how that glorious and impactive practice can best be implemented.
Of course children who read become better readers and I know that 20 minute a day rule comes from the best of intentions. It is how and what that is often the issue. A teacher wanting all of his/her students to read every night may have to send home something to be read. But how? School libraries are nonexistent in many places, school librarians in elementary schools a very rare thing indeed. If there IS a school library, students only get to go once a week or so and the collections are often woeful with pitiful budgets.
I think the question Marc and others is asking is really a valid question. While $16 for a glorious picture book is far from over-priced for what you get, the question of school library budgets and affordable books for families needs to be thought about. How can we make a quality reading experience possible for more children?
Public libraries are of course a wonderful resource and the one in my town is so busy that they can hardly keep up. Families leave with piles of picture books and the collection is used heavily. But many families can't get to the library on a weekly basis. The reality of life for many young parents means that between the time they get off work, retrieve their children, make dinner and then try to deal with homework, there is very little time for anything else. Add poverty, access and a myriad of other issues into the mix and you've got children whose only access to books comes from school.
Like many grandparents I'm helping to raise my grandchildren. My grandsons bring home a different "baggy book" every night and part of their homework is to read the book. These baggy books are paperbacks and usually controlled vocabulary beginning readers of increasing levels of difficulty. They are usually pretty dreadful. Volunteers collect these baggy books every day from school bags and redistribute them to a different child to take home to read. We are a family of readers and our house is full of books of course and although we love reading together, that baggy book is not something any of us regard as an entertaining reading experience. We hurry through so we can get to the good stuff but how can we get the good stuff into more hands?
I read to my grandsons' classes as a volunteer and at least in that one school I can attest to the fact that children still love a wide variety of books. Someone earlier posted that this generation needed action and noise on every page and I would heartily disagree with that. Quality and developmental appropriateness are what matters, story is what matters. It is the story told through illustration and text that matters to children still.
This is a community of smart people. I'd love to see us find ways to make larger numbers of quality books available more readily. Surely if we can develop technologies that fight wars thousands of miles away we can find was to get more good books to more children.
Lynn Rutan Bookends - Booklist Online Youth Blog Holland, MI lynnrutan_at_charter.net
Received on Sat 06 Nov 2010 08:40:38 AM CDT
