They Gotta Talk to Get Good

By Mark W.F. Condon, Unite for Literacy vice president?

Children rarely talk with their friends about what they're reading, mostly because they’re not given time during school days nor encouragement at home to do so. Such closed conversational windows represent lost learning opportunities, sacrificed on the altar of instructional efficiency or literacy-deficient family traditions. ?

The verifiably biggest value-multiplier for kids’ reading is in genuine conversation about books they choose. Reading and talking about good books are the most reliably beneficial activities to help children develop rich vocabularies. Follow-up conversation about reading gives kids a chance to use new words, explore innovative ideas and experiences, and adopt freshly?discovered insights. Reading also positively impacts background knowledge, composition ability, and spelling—a hugely beneficial collection of cognitive abilities.?

For children, genuine talk about books occurs when parents, who understand the essential role that daily book reading plays in their children’s language development, initiate and invite conversations about books enjoyed during those daily readings. This kind of talk lays a solid foundation upon which schools can build.?

Classroom “turn-and-talk" time after free reading time can keep this powerful ball rolling. Wise educators include space?for reading AND talking about what they read into daily classroom schedules.?

As Richard Allington, an American scholar?and retired University of Tennessee at Knoxville education professor,?asked so many years ago, “If They Don’t Read Much, How They Ever Gonna Get Good?”* I’ll add, if they don’t converse much, how they ever gonna get good??

As communities, let’s get good at giving children agency over what they read, time to read their self-selected books, and engage them in relaxed conversations about their reading experiences.?

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*Allington, R., If They Don’t Read Much, How They Ever Gonna Get Good? Journal of Reading, Vol. 21, No. 1 (Oct. 1977), pp. 57-61?

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