• Read!  Read!  Read! - Students who read know more, have better vocabulary, and perform better in school.  It's not too late to develop a love for reading.   

Let's figure it out--mathematically!

Student A reads 20 minutes five nights of every week;
Student B reads only 4 minutes a night...or not at all!

1st: Multiply minutes a night x 5 times each week.

Student A reads 20 minutes x 5 times a week = 100 mins./week
Student B reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week = 20 minutes

2nd: Multiply minutes a week x 4 weeks each month.

Student A reads 400 minutes a month.
Student B reads 80 minutes a month.

3rd: Multiply minutes a month x 9 months/school year.

Student A reads 3600 minutes in a school year.
Student B reads 720 minutes in a school year.

Student A practices reading the equivalent of ten school days a year.
Student B gets the equivalent of only two school days of reading practice.

If Student A and Student B maintain these same reading habits, one would expect the gap of information retained will have widened considerably and so, undoubtedly, will school performance. How do you think Student B will feel about him/herself as a student?

Which student would you expect to...

read better?
know more?
write better?
have better vocabulary?
be more successful in school....and in life?

Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, America Reads Challenge. (1999) "Start Early, Finish Strong: How to Help Every Child Become a Reader." Washington, D.C.