Turn up the Volume

Turn up the volume

Our house is full of books.  Lots and lots of books.  I admit, I have a problem.  I develop relationships with my books and getting rid of them is like losing old friends.  Instead I pack them away and stow them in closets.  Yet, there are still enough of them that it seems as though they are in every corner of my children’s rooms.  

In fact, voluminous would easily describe the pile of books that just fell over in my daughter’s room.  That would be a nice way to describe it.  No, volume of text is not a problem at my house. 

But, text volume is an issue for a lot of students in our country.  Or the lack of volume.  

We need to turn up the volume, the amount, of reading in schools.  We need to support programs that provide books for children who do not have access to them.  

Richard Allington, one of my favorite literacy experts, speaks passionately about this issue.  He states that students are struggling to read due to lack of access to text in many schools and communities.  Children do not have voluminous piles of books in their homes or schools.  They are not reading enough text, because, in many cases, it is simply not available.  

But even in schools where there is an abundance of text, students are often not engaged in actually reading very often.  I’ve observed many guided reading sessions where students are actually reading for just a few minutes.  And, in order to become readers, students need to read. They need to read a lot.  A whole lot.  

Research shows that amount of reading is the very best indicator of whether or not a child will become a lifelong reader.  

So, turn up the volume, my friends.  Turn it way up.  

It is possible to increase the volume of student reading in our classrooms.  It is possible to provide books for children who do not have access.

We can create time and space for more independent reading and engage students in becoming people who love to read and have the stamina to read big, big books.  So the reading never ends.   

We can do it, together.  


Check out these charities that work to increase the amount of books available in communities right around the corner from you: 


Reach Out and Read
http://www.reachoutandread.org/interstitial/?ref=%2f


First Book
http://www.firstbook.org/