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Mrs. Brinkworth Home
The Importance of Nightly Reading
"Why
Can't I Skip My Twenty Minutes of Reading Tonight?
Let's figure it out -- mathematically!
Student A
reads 20 minutes five nights of every week;
Student B
reads only 4 minutes a night...or not at all!
Step 1:
Multiply minutes a night x 5 times each week.
Student A
reads 20 min. x 5 times a week = 100 minutes/week
Student B
reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week = 20 minutes/week
Step 2:
Multiply minutes a week x 4 weeks each month.
Student A
reads 400 minutes a month.
Student B
reads 80 minutes a month.
Step 3:
Multiply minutes a month x 9 months/school year
Student A
reads 3600 min. in a school year.
Student B
reads 720 min. in a school year.
Student A
practices reading the equivalent of ten whole school days a year.
Student B
gets the equivalent of only two school days of reading practice.
By the end
of 6th grade if Student A and Student B maintain these same reading
habits,
Student A
will have read the equivalent of 60 whole school days
Student B
will have read the equivalent of only 12 school days. One would
expect the gap of information retained will have widened
considerably and so, undoubtedly, will school performance. How do
you think Student B will feel about him/herself as a student?
Some
questions to ponder:
Which
student would you expect to read better?
Which
student would you expect to know more?
Which
student would you expect to write better?
Which
student would you expect to have a better vocabulary?
Which
student would you expect to be more successful in school.... and in
life?
*If daily reading begins in infancy, by the time the
child is five years old he or she has been fed roughly 900 hours of
brain food!
Reduce that experience to just 30 minutes a week and
the child’s hungry mind loses 770 hours of nursery rhymes, fairy
tales, and stories.
A kindergarten student who has not been read aloud
to could enter school with less than 60 hours of literacy nutrition.
No teacher, no matter how talented, can make up for those lost hours
of mental nourishment.
Therefore…
30 minutes daily: 900 hours
30 minutes weekly: 130 hours
Less than 30 minutes weekly: 60 hours
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