Reading is to the mind, what exercise is to the body.
-Richard Steele, The Tatler
Reading is a privilege that Black people in the past died for. In a week or so, we will celebrate the accomplishments of Black men & women who overcame great odds in the 1800 & 1900's despite the résistance they met. Black History month will cause us to marvel at the bravery they showed while learning to read despite being prohibited by slave owners and later entering schools that they were not welcomed in. Black Americans in the past knew illiteracy locked them out of any chances of a better life.
As the Black middle class is faced with predictions of doom in 2015, we need to remind ourselves and our children that illiteracy is one of the main barriers to attaining higher goals.
In order to ensure our kids are where they need to be, parents need to be knowledgeable about literacy. It is developmental. Most kids in middle class areas " learn to read"- meaning the benchmarks that must be met by 3rd grade are normally met. It is when they need to kick it up a notch and "read to learn", the benchmarks for 4th grade and up, that the problems begin. Reading is the foundational building block for learning. With that in mind, parents must know where their kids fall on the reading development ladder.
The ability to read and comprehend increasingly difficult material is essential to our children's success in academia. College degrees are one of the hallmarks of the occupations of the "Middle Class" and many occupations are no longer attainable with just a Baccalaureate degree. Reading needs to start early & continue to build. Just like the quote says above, it's like exercise for the mind.
It's not unreasonable to expect your kids to read 30-60 minutes a day.
This is a hard time for raising middle class kids of any race but for Black kids especially. Our kids have a lot of luxury in their lives and a lot of the time, we don't make them do anything hard. Establishing habits that will enhance their education and get them ready to succeed will probably be hard. When it comes to reading, set standards that will help your kids become better students in the end. Start small if needed, but be intentional. Buy books or check them out from the library. My kids have been dragged to the library all their lives! I love libraries and we live in a great nation with wonderful ones everywhere.
I am no expert educator, but you don't have to be for your kids to read well. Most anyone can teach a child to read and you can certainly know if they are struggling. I have put reading lists, reading assessment tests and links to literacy sites on the PAGES on this site- next to the Home tab. Listen to your child read aloud- even in high school-reading aloud works to improve struggling readers and make reluctant readers read. It also builds confidence and poise for public speaking which in turn provides benefits in interviews and other social interactions. I read with my 10th grader still- especially if it's a hard text - we will take turns. Last year, he read the unabridged Illiad by Homer and he read parts of it to me and I read parts to him. * don't ridicule, teach gently any mispronunciations.
A few Guidelines when it comes to Reading:
#1- Start reading aloud to your babies from day 1!
According to, http://1000booksbeforekindergarten.org/, " Reading aloud is widely recognized as the single most important activity leading to language development. Among other things, reading aloud builds word-sound awareness in children, a potent predictor of reading success"
"Research shows that the more words parents use when speaking to an 8-month-old infant, the greater the size of their child's vocabulary at age 3. The landmark Hart-Risley study on language development documented that children from low-income families hear as many as 30 million fewer words than their more affluent peers before the age of 4".
The brain has to think when words are used to develop a story, the brain forms pictures of the little bears, goldilocks, etc. Watching T.V.- the work of imagination is already done. They only hear dialogue.
#2 Make sure your child is reading by 1st grade, BUT beware of gimmicks!
Things like "Teach your baby to read"- are normally a waste & could be damaging in the end.
Reading is like potty training in the sense, the optimum time is child dependent. I have 4 kids & they all started reading at different times. Generally, learning to read is not a problem for middle class students, Black or White. It's what happens after they learn to read that is the problem.
*I will say though, I ended up teaching my youngest how to read over his 1st grade Christmas break. I homeschooled him in K-5 and he wasn't ready to read. I really didn't worry about it, but when his 1st grade teacher sent readers home, he had no real tools for figuring out the words. After a conference with the teacher & finding out she had no real plan for teaching reading, I knew I had to intervene. With a set of index cards & Bob Books- he was reading in 2 weeks. By the beginning of the 2nd grade he was the only boy in the highest reading group. If your child is not where they need to be - intervene.
http://www.readingrockets.org/atoz/1122/all (Excellent website about reading!)
#3 Make sure your child is proficient at reading by the end of 3rd grade !
From the website www.gradelevelreading.net -
"Research shows that proficiency in reading by the end of third grade enables students to shift from learning to read to reading to learn, and to master the more complex subject matter they encounter in the fourth grade curriculum. Most students who fail to reach this critical milestone falter in the later grades and often drop out before earning a high school diploma. Yet two-thirds of U.S. fourth graders are not proficient readers, according to national reading assessment data. This disturbing statistic is made even worse by the fact that more than four out of every five low-income students miss this critical milestone."
#4 Don't stop Reading Aloud to your kids when they learn to read!
You want to continue to expose your child to books that have a rich story line & vocabulary. What they can read at grade level in the 3rd & 4th grade may not really enrich them. When my youngest son Nick was in the 4th grade one of his assigned books was Rifles for Waite about a boy in a border state during the Civil War. He could have read it, but for times sake- we got it on CD's from the library. On the way to soccer & back we listened to this great book. It became one of our fondest memories & started a tradition. We would listen to books as we drove to practices, games, etc. I would quiz him for retention & some had study guides. He made A's on the reading tests, so it became a supplement. A word of caution- this doesn't take the place of individual reading. Your kids need to actually read. It was in addition. We homeschooled using a book heavy curriculum so it help to do some reading aloud.
#5 In the 4th grade start to introduce harder reading selections.
By the 5th grade a strong reader needs to shift to stronger books. This will make the middle grades count. By 9th & 10th they will be able to handle advanced texts & AP courses.
Some of the books on my 5th & 6th graders book list were-
The Bronze Bow, Elizabeth George Speare.
The Eagle of the Ninth, Rosemary Sutcliff.
Tales of the Greek Heroes
Tales of Ancient Egypt
Padraic Colum, The Children’s Homer (Iliad and Odyssey)
Beowulf: A New Telling, by Robert Nye (Laurel Leaf, 1982); a good (and very exciting)
adaptation on about a sixth-grade level.
Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, verse translation by J.R. R. Tolkein
The Sword in the Stone, T. H. White’s marvelous reworking of Malory’s Morte
d’Arthur (Philomel Books, 1993)
Shakespeare Stories, by Leon Garfield (Houghton Mifflin, 1998),
Reading lists are on the Pages portion of this blog.
Look for my next post -Reading Resources Part 2
Gloria J. Adams
Fortify!
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