Slow down and consider reading success

By Dawn Miller

Those reading scores from back in October are suggestive, or at least I hope they are.

On the National Assessment of Educational Progress, eighth-grade reading scores went up by three points, a significant amount.

There is no certain cause anyone can point to. Unless the trend continues, we’ll all shrug it off as a blip. But maybe it’s not a blip. Maybe somebody’s hard work is paying off. Maybe this is evidence of a cultural change in schools.

There may be no way to quantify this, but I’ve been going into at least one school every week for more than two decades, and things seem different over the last six or eight years.

In short, it seems like there is more value on — and respect for — children spending time reading, for both fun and profit.

Back in 2001, when support for the test-and-penalize mentality of the federal No Child Left Behind law was on the rise, schools shifted their priorities as instructed. They ramped up for testing, putting more time and emphasis on preparing students to hit the required mark, at all costs.

Educators know reading skill is important for every other kind of success. But for some reason, too many schools and counties decided to focus on narrow definitions and measurements, particularly reading speed — not comprehension, mind you.

The starkest example of this folly comes from a Read Aloud colleague who was running a little book club half a dozen years ago. It was a special thing, a treat for the middle schoolers involved. They looked forward to it and were motivated to read “The Watsons Go to Birmingham” by Christopher Paul Curtis. All the students in this group stated their reading speed proudly.

And yet after they “read” the climax of the book, the kids came in for their next club meeting, and not one of them could share an event from the story to start the discussion. They were absolutely lost. They had read all the words, but saw nothing. I won’t ruin the book for you, but when prompted, the kids asked, “What explosion?”

For some time in the years leading up to this event, a number of my Read Aloud colleagues found themselves increasingly unwelcome in their schools. There were so many demands on the schedule and ugly consequences if scores didn’t rise enough, that principals and teachers could not justify having a professionally behaved volunteer come in once a week and simply read an enjoyable story for 20 or 30 minutes.

They didn’t have time for children to enjoy the literature they were being exposed to.

They didn’t have time to enjoy putting to use the skills they were drilling every day.

I’m happy to say this is what seems to have changed.

Since then, Read Aloud has been in its own rebuilding phase, re-establishing a presence in 29 counties. The state Department of Education launched its own efforts to encourage children and families to read together for fun. I hear the message bounce back to me through other organizations or in check-out lines.

So, I cannot help but wonder, is this year’s eighth-grade NAEP score quantifying something real and valuable?

Just four days before those scores were released, author Jacqueline Woodson came to the West Virginia Book Festival in Charleston, and among other things, said, “Children must be encouraged to read slowly. Making kids read fast is the opposite of making kids into writers.”

While most kids will not grow up like Woodson to become award-winning poets and novelists, we do want them all to grow up able to express themselves competently in writing – and to be able to read the documents germane to their own livelihood and citizenship.

Back at my school, where teachers have always made time for students to enjoy books, the fifth grade reached the point in Woodson’s memoir “Brown Girl Dreaming,” where she describes her Brooklyn teacher back in the 1970s not giving young Jacqueline time to settle the letters into words. “Read faster,” the teacher fussed. But faster is not better, the author makes             clear in her book.

At this point, our teacher interjected a reminder to the class, something along the lines of, “See. What am I always telling you? You don’t have to read fast.”

We don’t even measure reading speed anymore, she added to me.

Dawn Miller, the Charleston Gazette’s editorial page editor, can be reached at dawn@wvgazettemail.com.

Reprinted with permission from the Charleston Gazette-Mail.

Dawn Miller is a Read Aloud West Virginia volunteer reader and advisory board member.

BUZZ: New Read Aloud video a call to action

By Sara Busse

Although one goal of Read Aloud is to limit screen time, a new video produced by West Virginia State University’s Extension Service is creating a buzz about reading aloud across West Virginia.

Lynn Kessler, director of communications and development for RAWV, said the group needed a tool to spread its message. A conversation with West Virginia State University extension agent and Summers County Read Aloud coordinator Stacy Ford at the Read Aloud summer conference led to a collaboration between RAWV and WVSU.

“Matt Browning and Megan Sheets in West Virginia State University’s communications and media departments took it and ran. They were such an incredible help to us in creating a tool that we could not have created without them,” Kessler explained.

Browning and Sheets, both graduates of WVSU and self-proclaimed “total book nerds,” described the video as a call to action to recruit volunteer readers.

Browning and Sheets filmed readers in Summers and Kanawha county, as well as “b-roll” footage featuring extension agents in the library and reading to children. The video was an in-kind donation to Read Aloud, and Sheets said it’s the first time they were able to branch out and do work for another entity besides the University.

The video also features an interview with Read Aloud Executive Director Mary Kay Bond.

“She came to our studio on campus, and she’s like a brochure for Read Aloud in person,” Sheets said, laughing. “She was great.”

Browning said the readers and children were very comfortable in front of the camera because they were engrossed in the reading.

“There was one gentleman, he was an absolute hoot!” he said. “The reader had so much fun with those kids, and they were having so much fun, it made it easy.”

Who is watching you?

By Melody Simpson

I am being watched. More significantly, somebody is listening to me. It has been going on for some time, and occurring on a fairly regular basis. At first I didn’t pay too much attention to it, but as time went on, it became more and more apparent. Someone is … observing me. What should I do?  Call the media? Complain to my representatives? Sue the NSA? Fortunately, based on some compelling guidance and advice, I know exactly what to do.

I signed up to become a volunteer reader for another year.

Anyone who regularly reads to an elementary school classroom knows exactly what I’m talking about: children leaning forward, lips parted, mimicking the actions of the characters as I describe them, joining in loudly and joyfully when phrases are repeated. Reminding everyone where we left off last week. Guessing what will happen next. Laughing, gasping, and (for the class I read to last year, who liked all things scary), shivering ….

This is one of the true joys of reading aloud to children, and why I have done this for about 18 years. This, and the chorus of greetings I get when I show up, the hugs that I’m offered. Heck, it’s just plain fun! But when I stop to think about what is happening each week, I realize that it is also serious stuff.

We are modeling the joys of reading. We are sharing, not only great stories, but the fact that we love great stories, and love to read great stories. And this modeling doesn’t just happen in classrooms.

Do you have children, or grandchildren? Do they know that you love to read? Do they see you reading? Do you still read aloud to them? I bet if you tried, you could even read aloud a favorite childhood book to your adolescent or teenage child – or try an audiobook in the car while traveling. I have read aloud to seventh graders, and while they don’t give you the hugs that elementary school kids give, and usually appear bored, they are listening – trust me, I know, because they have told me.

This is the magic, the simplicity, of Read Aloud. All it takes is good stories, and someone who loves to read being willing to share that love with others. The results are remarkable, and the benefits flow both ways. So … who is watching you?

A Long Walk to Water

Book, reader inspire Greenbrier students to take action

By Nikki Moses

When Kim Curry read A Long Walk to Water to students at Eastern Greenbrier Middle School, she set off a chain of events that culminated in a highly successful drive for backpacks and school supplies for kids in Haiti.

A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park is a true story about Salva, a Sudanese lost boy, and a fictional girl, Nya. Nya cannot attend school because she must spend her days carrying water from a far away pond for her family. Author Park brings their lives together when Salva helps build a well in Nya’s village, thus enabling her to attend school.

Curry had witnessed the same water problems in Haiti, where she has traveled six times through Mountains to Mountains, a program of Trinity A Long Walk to WaterUnited Methodist Church in Ronceverte.

“That has been my experience in Haiti,” she said. “Some children can’t go to school because they have to carry water.”

Curry said she “took photographs of community wells, water jugs, people carrying water, on my trip in March with the purpose of sharing them with the students because I had read A Long Walk to Water to them.” Seeing this lack of access to clean water in Haiti (like in Sudan), along with class discussions, inspired Greenbrier students to help Haitian kids by conducting the backpack drive. Soon students at Greenbrier East High School became involved.

Curry said, “Brindi Anderson did the legwork for the drive. She provided all of the structure the kids needed. I just read the book. The kids jumped in and Brindi provided guidance.” Anderson is a teacher at Eastern Greenbrier Middle School.

The students needed money for shipping costs, so they held three-point basketball competitions, bake sales and more. They raised more than $130 and sent the supplies to Ecole-Shalome School in Croix des Bouquets outside of Port-au-Prince.

Curry, who is a retired teacher and school principal, and a Read Aloud coordinator and reader, hopes to further the relationship between students at the two schools through Skype, letter writing and emailing.