For more information Check out www.ednews.org/articles published June 12,2008 by John A. Sellers
Interesting statistics from Scholastic on the 2006 findings on children's reading habits. Just some highlights
Pleasure reading declines at age 8 and into the teen years
82% ages 5-8 love or like to read
55% ages 15-17 love or like to read
24% of parents said they read frequently and feel that reading is one of the three most important skills for children to have
82% of parents wished their kids read for fun
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
Hi Cindy, Those are very interesting statistics. I wonder how they obtained them. I hear all the time from parents that they wished their children would read for pleasure. I think if parents modeled reading for their children this would help to plant a seed. Kids need to see their parents reading.
Rosalind
I think that part of the problem is that students at the secondary level are not introduced to a wide enough variety of reading material. It wasn't until I reached college, that I was introduced to some of the most influential writers to date. I wonder if there has been any progression into improving those statistics?
As much as possible, children should be exposed to reading at an early age. Parents play an important role to motivate their children to read and when they start going to school, the classroom should provide the same support by making sure there are several reading materials that are available for reading. When the kids see their parents read, they will most likely read because they love imitating what their parents do.
I completely agree with the comments on here.
Also, I have seen the "novelty" of reading die in the upper grades. When a student learns to read, he or she is interested and motivated to read and read and read... Once the novelty wears off, a reader can lose interest unless he or she has an interested teacher or parent who motivates him.
Thanks for sharing these stats.
When I taught the story "Superman and Me" to my senior class, many students admitted that they do not like to read because it is boring. I wonder when it becomes boring because small children love to be able to read and to be read to. When do kids "lose interest"? We can't just blame computers and technology because I remember how many high school students hated to read many years ago as well. Computers were not to blame then!
I guess it is an age-old question: how can we as educators keep kids and adults as well interested in reading books?
Post a Comment