Finding Time to Read

Research tells us that reading aloud to children every day is the single best way to help them become strong readers. Often in our desire to read to kids, we neglect our own reading. In lives crammed full, it's often the most dispensable activity.

But when we don't read for pleasure ourselves, we deny ourselves intellectual sustenance and relaxation. How do we find time in a crowded life to read to our children and for ourselves?

Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness of Books on the Bookstand blog share 10 Ways to Find More Time for Reading. Here is the one that sparked this post:

Read aloud to your children, an elderly neighbor or family member, or someone else who would enjoy it. Sometimes we don't really count that as "reading time," but really, it's time spent in an even more fulfilling way. At a recent event, Barack Obama was quoted as saying, "Over the course of four years I made time to read all of the Harry Potter books out loud to my daughters. If I can do that and run for president, then you can find time to read to your kids. That's some of the most special time you have with your children."

Click here to read the other 9 Ways to Find More Time for Reading.

From the Classroom: Reading Test Strategies

"Spending weeks, or horrifyingly in some classrooms, months, on test-taking lore denies students a lot of time that would be better spent reading and discussing real books—a practice that is shown again and again to positively impact students’ reading achievement."

Donalyn Miller, 6th grade teacher blogger at The Book Whisperer commenting on the sad irony of focusing on teaching reading-test strategies versus teaching reading. She concludes:

"I have never seen a student who could read and comprehend a wide range of texts fail these tests, but I have seen a few students, carrying only a handful of test-taking beans, who did."

Read more of her thought-provoking observations from inside the classroom.