Category Archives: reading readiness.

I remember getting my first library card in kindergarten.
I needed to be able to write my own name with my mother promising to be responsible. As the librarian looked on, I carefully printed my name in block letters on a paper. Then the librarian put a blank library card into a typewriter, typed my name on it, and handed me the gift of books.

I felt so grown up, like when I earned my driver’s license years later. And did I ever use that card!

Luckily, my public library was three blocks away from my home, on a corner I passed to walk to kindergarten. Once a week my mother would meet me there after school and I would pick out two or three books. How I loved wandering through the tiny children’s section to pull my own selections. How I loved it when the librarian stamped my book!  My mother would take out books for my younger siblings using her card, but I took out my books on my own card.  And when I was in first grade, I could go all by myself, two or three times a week, and exchange books I’d read for new selections.

If your library allows young children to get their own library cards, this is a rite of passage worth celebrating. Keep the library card in your own wallet, if you think your child might lose it, or find a special place for it at home, but get your child a library card.  Take your child to the library, and let her relish the thrill of using a library card. Take her picture with her spanking new library card to show that you consider this an important milestone.

Just like enrolling your child in school, encouraging her to be a faithful library patron is one of the best investments in her education that you can make. And summertime is a great time to get a library card and to take part in the library’s summer reading program. –Mrs. K

Getting my own library card was a momentous occasion. Luckily, I had a short name so I could print it in the tiny space allotted. Back then, a library card was made from card stock. Each library book had a card and a pocket in the back for the book’s card. I never could quite figure out the system for keeping track of it all. But the stamp with the rolling date! I’m not even sure if those are sold anymore!

Living in a city, the library was available on a daily basis. Summer days it was a place to go! And it was free! Yes, the library was then and has always been a big part of my life. –Mrs. A

For years, educators have known that students loose reading skills during the summer if they don’t continue reading.  They call this loss the “summer slide.”  It is most severe among low-income students who lose up to two months of reading skills, yet it is sometimes nonexistent among middle class students who make slight gains in reading during summer months.
 

 
Here’s what some studies show:

• B. Heyns’ 1978 study of 3000 sixth and seventh graders in Atlanta Public School showed that students who read at least six books during the summer maintained or improved their reading skills.  But students who didn’t read lost up to a whole grade of reading skills.
• K Alexander’s, D. Entwisle’s and L. Olson’s 2007 longitudinal study of Baltimore students over 15 years found that by the end of fifth grade, students who didn’t read during the summer measured two years behind their classmates who did.  They concluded that 2/3 of the reading difference in ninth graders can be attributed to reading or not during summer school breaks.
• Dominican University’s study of students completing third grade who took part in their local libraries’ summer reading programs scored 52 Lexile points ahead of their classmates who did not.
• The Campaign for Grade-Level Reading, funded by many foundations, concluded that children’s absence from reading during the summer is a major hurdle for achieving good reading skills by the end of third grade.
• The summer slide is cumulative.  Some estimate that by the end of high school the summer slide can account for up to a four year lag in reading achievement, and it can have an effect on high school graduation rates.  According to the Annie E. Casey Foundation, “one in six children who are not reading proficiently in 3rd grade do not graduate from high school on time, a rate four times greater than that for proficient readers.”

So how can you combat the summer slide?

• Sign your child up for your local library’s summer reading program, and make sure your child completes the reading.
• Go to the library regularly and let your child select books she will enjoy.
• Help your child to read a chapter book a week, or a picture book each night.
• Encourage your child to read the newspaper, television guides, magazines and online articles.
• Reward your child with a trip to the book store to select her very own book.
• Read to your child every evening, and let him read to you.  Your reading will teach fluency and pronunciation, and establish the notion that reading for pleasure is fun.