What Counts in Early Reading

Families may have heard the assertion, “What gets measured gets done.” Thankfully, some great folks* have provided measurable steps that families, preschool educators, and childcare professionals can take to help ensure children’s early reading success: Read 15 Minute A Day or Read 1,000 Books prior to Kindergarten.  

Work to hit these targets must start long BEFORE Kindergarten, like at birth. Two websites* offer guidelines about how to read to newborns and support children’s all-important language and literacy development using the richness of lovable books.  

While sharing 1,000 books before Kindergarten may sound like a lot, reading aloud 15 minutes every day sounds manageable--both work. Depending upon a child’s birthday, families have about five full years to read enough with their little ones to set them on a path to reading success in Kindergarten and beyond.  

When kids are tiny, so are their books, which makes it easy for loving caretakers to read many books a day with them. Even when kids are closing in on day one of kindergarten, enjoying two or three books each day and before bed is not out of the question, and reaching 1,000 books in about five years becomes a cinch. 

The 1,000 books and the 15 minutes a day goal-seekers simply come at that target from different directions. They are both merely asking parents to joyfully read (and calmly chat about) books EVERY day. If families miss a couple of days during a week due to the many things that keep parents busy, missed reading time could be made up by extending reading/discussion times on less-frantic days. 

These memorable targets help families ensure that kids acquire rich language and book knowledge (e.g., how to hold a book, turn pages, read left-to-right and top-to-bottom, understand how written and spoken words work together to make books personally meaningful) so the children are primed for the delights of learning text-reading on day one of school. 

The two organizations mentioned in this article offer clear and simple messages, yet many parents do not receive the messages and/or they and their children live in a Book Desert.** Both can have damaging effects and render children entering Kindergarten deficient to progress through school as enthusiastic and comfortable book consumers, the single most important goal of school. 

Bottom line: “What counts as reading” is sharing books with kids, enjoyably talking with them about what you read together, and encouraging them in selecting and reading their own book choices. 


*1000 Books Before Kindergarten (https://1000booksbeforekindergarten.org) and Read Aloud 15 Minutes a day (https://www.readaloud.org/). 

**Book Deserts: A physical or social location, far from easy access to child-appropriate books...a bookless home / neighborhood, or the family living far from a library. 

 

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#NCTE

#Literacy_Research_Association

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Derek Maney

Literacy Volunteer

1 年

Great message, Mark! Reading to our children, as early and consistently as possible. I'd like to suggest two further resources: (1) Reach Out and Read, pediatricians providing books at well-child visits, while describing to parents their importance; and (2) LENA, a research organization that is collecting data about "conversational turns" and their importance in childhood development.

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Every book counts! Thanks, Mark!

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