Reading Adventures with Amy

Students’ reading abilities teeter on a slim balance beam. Teachers and parents are grasping for better ways to help struggling readers.

The National Assessment for Educational Progress (NAEP), also known as “the nation’s report card” has published the reading scores for fourth and eighth graders for 2024. Out of a perfect score of 500 points, the U.S. average score for readers at the fourth grade level is 215. Approximately 31% of our fourth graders can read at the level of reading proficiency. But what is “reading proficiency”?

The NAEP reading assessment divides students into three scoring levels: Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. Fourth graders who score at the Basic Level demonstrated the following skills:

Recalling points made in the reading material
Forming an opinion
Determining the relative meanings of words within the context of a sentence or paragraph
Putting events in sequential order
Providing evidence from texts when making comparisons

The Proficient Level includes:
Using inference and drawing conclusions from the text
Identifying the main idea
Describing the impact of characters upon other characters
Identifying text structure (i.e., compare/contrast, cause/effect, problem/solution)

The 2024 assessment shows us that approximately 69% of our readers either scored in the Basic Level or are illiterate. If you’re a parent and/or teacher, how can we help more readers score in the proficient level?

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Is technology changing the way we read?

Our society has morphed from the action of deep reading, where we take the time to contemplate and think critically about meanings beneath written words, to surfacing over the top — skimming. Skimming is the “new normal” way people that people read. However, reading this way causes people to miss the logical structure of a plot or an argument. It causes people to miss the depth of figures of speech and other literary nuances that compels the engagement of critical thinking. Dr. Maryanne Wolf, author of Proust and the Squid, summarized that the skimming of digital texts leads to what she calls a “bleeding effect” onto the way people read printed material, such as a book or newspaper. In other words, after skimming screens on our devices, we skim print the same way.

How can we help our students learn to read deeply? By taking the time to discuss with them the meanings behind the words, making inferences, drawing conclusions, reading between the lines.

If you’re a teacher or a parent reading to your children, make a habit of pausing in the reading to ask questions that encourage critical thinking. Encourage kids to offer their ideas and make predictions, or talk about the author’s or a character’s motives.

Let’ keep the neural pathways open and active that develop from deep reading!

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There are only a few weeks of summer vacation left. (I know, huh?)

What better way to get kids focused on reading again than by having a book club party?
As adults, you may have been part of a book club. Everyone reads the same book and meets, usually at someone’s house, to discuss it. For kids though, this will be a different kind of club.

Here, each child comes to the party with a book that he or she really likes (instead of everyone reading the same book.) The gathering is a party with snacks and beverage, and the kids sit in a circle and one by one they “show and tell” their book. The host’s parent makes a list of all the titles and authors to distribute to all the guests so they can take home ideas for other good books to read.

You can creative with the “show and tell” by having each child choose a piece of paper out of a “hat” that has a specific question on it about the book. You can have a game of charades in which the kids act out the title or main character of a book. The sky’s the limit.

The point of this is to expose children to the idea that reading has its rewards and pleasure. It also exposes kids to the group psychology of “everyone’s reading books” — it’s a new trend!

When adults (the ones hosting the party and taking their children there) emphasize reading as a “good thing” then kids will pick up that vibe too.

So sit with your child and think of some guests to invite, and have fun! 📚

With all the distraction present in technology today, learning to focus is ever more difficult for children. Adults are not as affected by distractions because they have developed more inhibitory systems that allow them to override distractions. But for children learning to read, these inhibitory systems need a long time to develop.

One way to deal with frequent distractions when working with children, is to give them a strategy for “putting a pin in their thought” so they can talk about it after they have completed a certain segment of class work.

For example, supply the young reader with a token, or chip that they must put in a noticeable spot when they want to say something. This gives them practice in delaying gratification, and at the same time they practice the self-discipline of focusing on their reading.

Children appreciate having a system that allows them the chance to talk about a different topic, knowing that there will be time for it.

I remember when I was about 10 years old, my dad brought down a big cardboard box from the attic. I was surprised when he indicated that it was for me. I opened the box and found it full of treasure.

Books! Lots and lots of books! There may have been 50 books in that box. Most of them were paperback stories that my much older sister had read when she was about my age. There I discovered Pippi Longstocking, A Wrinkle in Time, Island of the Blue Dolphins, the Little House books, and The Call of the Wild. I fell in love with reading and reread these books many times.
With about six weeks left before school begins again, (I know, huh!) treat your child to some great books to read. Better yet — read with your child! Share the adventure of a story together.

As a literacy coach, I can’t begin to tell people how important it is to for our kids to read real books. Not phone or iPad screens, but real books with paper pages that really turn. So go to the library or splurge at a book store and get some good reads in before the new school year begins!