The Summer Slide

(the Las Vegas Public Library knows how to generate summer reading excitement!)

A tutor just stopped by the library and noted that what she most dislikes about her job is parents who won't do theirs. In other words, parents are begging her to get their children to read this summer. All the suggestions in the world --

• set aside 30 minutes a day where parents and children read
• make any screen or connectivity time continent on reading first
• get children started on a book by reading the first chapters aloud
• take weekly trips to the library and read there
• move bedtime earlier but allow the child to read

-- won't work if parents just give up. Although some children read for pleasure without any prompting, many more would read for pleasure if the structure to expect it was firmly in place.

Much has been written about the summer slide. David Brooks in The New York Times recently cited some heartening research showing that disadvantaged children who were given just 12 books to read over the summer showed big improvements. One key point that I found compelling: "...there was one interesting observation made by a philanthropist who gives books to disadvantaged kids. It’s not the physical presence of the books that produces the biggest impact, she suggested. It’s the change in the way the students see themselves as they build a home library. They see themselves as readers, as members of a different group."

So how do we get our children to see themselves as members of that group?

How to Get Your Child to Love Reading by Esmé Raji Codell is one resource. Among her principles:

• Reading is more than a skill; it's a lifestyle.
• You can be your child's best teacher using children's literature.
• No child is a lost cause when it comes to books any more than someone is a lost cause when it comes to falling in love; it's all about making the right connections.

Another resource we have here in the library is Naked Reading: Uncovering What Tweens Need to Become Lifelong Readers by Teri Lesesne. The title comes from the author’s 10 year old granddaughter, Natalie. She was called in for dinner and was delayed getting there. When asked why, she said she had been sitting in her closet, naked, reading. Why? She said she had read in a book that it was better for your skin to air-dry after a bath, so she took her book in her closet and could become so engrossed in it that she was undistracted by the fact that she was naked. A possible goal --a school of naked readers?

I vividly remember a mother who politely declined my annual gift of birthday books for her children, then ages 9 and 6, requesting other items on their wish lists. "Sorry, Natalie, but reading just isn't their thing. They're more sports-oriented kids." Nine years later, the family is shocked -- shocked -- that the older child was not accepted at the colleges he hoped to attend. That admissions decision was made about a decade ago.

Finally, I am occasionally asked about rewards for reading. Although some families have found them successful, at least to get over a hump, I defer to Alfie Kohn's extensive research which concludes,
"The problem is not just that the effects of rewards don't last. No, the more significant problem is precisely that the effects of rewards do last, but these effects are the opposite of what we were hoping to produce. What rewards do, and what they do with devastating effectiveness, is to smother people's enthusiasm for activities they might otherwise enjoy."

Dan Pink, author of A Whole New Mind and Drive, gave a speech in London on what motivates us, as workers. It gives a whole new understanding of why bonus pay for teachers -- and paying kids to read -- will never succeed. Watch below or click here:





And just for fun, a real slide.