For the Love of Reading

Three recent articles place value on fostering the love of story and reading:

Ontario's children drastically losing love of reading, study finds

More schools need teacher/librarians

Ottawa Citizen, December 13, 2011:  Matthew Pearson

Despite rising standardized test scores, a new study suggests the joy of reading among grade schoolers has dropped drastically over the past decade.  The People for Education report found the percentage of students in Grade 3 who report they like to read has declined by almost a third, from 76 per cent in 1998/99 to only 50 per cent in 2010/2011.  Read more ...

Dear Governor: Lobby to Save a Love of Reading

New York Times, January 20, 2012:  Anne Stone and Jeff Nichols

In his recent State of the State address, Governor Cuomo said he wants to be an advocate for children. Let him lobby to protect their natural curiosity and love of learning from the onslaught of anti-intellectual, ends-oriented teaching practices forced on our educators by over-emphasis on standardized tests.

@tlspecial, 1/9/12 9:45 PM help kids read

LiterateOwl, January 10, 2012

RT @skrashen: To help children in rdg: (a) make school day longer, or (b) invest in libraries & TLs? bit.ly/yBnEn9 #bctla #bctf #bced 

Studies show that children who do not do well on reading tests often have little access to books. Studies also show that increasing access to books through libraries increases how much reading children do, and more reading results in better reading, spelling, grammar, writing, and a larger vocabulary.  

Thanks, Al, for the RT and blogpost.  

If you believe in the power of story and reading, you too may want to "follow" Stephen Krashen: @skrashen