Scholastic - A Must Read

hey scope! the link doesn't work!

Didn't work for me either.

Sorry, couldn't find anything on the front page that said, "read all stories"

But I'll keep looking. Thanks, for the link.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6569106.html

This is the article, right, Scope?

(I'm going to edit your first post to point to that link... if I'm wrong, just send me a note and I'll delete it.)

I just checked that link out. It's very interesting. Thank you scope, for sharing. Thank you, Jenna, for finding the link.

Thanks!

Very interesting info.

Thanks for sharing the article!

31% don't feel that the HP series is over

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Interesting! Somebody better tell JK.

Thanks for the link!

Worked for me

The link worked fine for me, but I found the stats a little sad. One in four kids read actual books

writin52 said:

The link worked fine for me, but I found the stats a little sad. One in four kids read actual books

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I'm not sure that's what it means. Because teachers read to kids and assign books for kids to read. The question is, how much more do kids read on their own?

The stats make sense to me as a teacher. At first grade, kids have just learned how, they're still excited about it, and the amount of "other stuff" they have to do is still small. By middle school and high school, if they have teachers who pile on the non-reading homework and they're involved in any sort of sport or other activity, then how much time do they even have left to call their own? Then they have friends to text, email to check, video games to play, TV to watch... They have to really love reading to find the time to do it. Their lives are so full that there isn't time to do everything they'd like, and something gets left out.

If we don't want reading to be the thing that gets left out, there are things we can do.

#1 of course is write books that are so compelling and fun that they can't resist.

#2 is complain long and loud about programs like No Child Left Behind that turn school into a testing grind, and work with our children's schools to make sure that reading is encouraged and celebrated.

Let me give you an example. At my school, there's a 6th grade teacher who should have retired a long, long time ago. His idea of encouraging reading? Kids can only read books that have won the Newberry, and they have to write a 3-5 page book report about each one, due every 3 weeks. The teacher next door uses Accelerated Reader, the computer program that awards points to kids for passing quizzes on the books they choose to read. Kids set their own goals, choose their own books, and take their quizzes when they are ready.

Which teacher is fostering a lifelong love of reading, and which one is trying to stab a wooden stake through its heart?

I also wonder what this means in terms of trends for what is being published. YA is big right now, and being published heavily. Then who's reading them?

myscribe said:

I also wonder what this means in terms of trends for what is being published. YA is big right now, and being published heavily. Then who's reading them?

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Maybe it means that the kid who is that one-out-of-four is buying an awful lot of books!

In my first grade class, part of the kids' homework is to write down the titles of the books they read at home and turn it in once a week. The goal is for each first-grader to read at least 100 books (easy readers and phonics stories) by the end of the year.

Out of 20 kids: 5 did not meet the goal. 9 met the goal and maybe passed it slightly. 6 exceeded the goal by at least 100 books. One boy read over 400 books.

The math matches the Scholastic survey. The kids who do read are the minority, but their families account for a huge amount of book sales.

I also send home the Scholastic book club catalogs every month. Usually only two to four kids buy any of the books--but they never buy just one. Average purchase is five books at a time.

writin52 said:

The link worked fine for me, but I found the stats a little sad. One in four kids read actual books

Click to expand...

That's not what it says.

I read the report, which says that 24% of the kids surveyed were "High Frequency Readers" who read for pleasure every day.

An additional 54% of the kids surveyed were "Moderate Frequency Readers," who read for pleasure 1-6 times a week.

The "Low Frequency Readers"--the kids who read for pleasure less than 2 or 3 times a month--accounted for 22% of the kids surveyed. Of those, 13% still read for pleasure at least 1-3 times a month; only 5% of the kids surveyed never read for pleasure at all.

So a large majority of kids actually do read for pleasure.

(ETA: Yeah, I know--late to the party again.)