 |
 |
|
From
the November/December 2005 issue of The Horn Book Magazine Letters to the Editor Generally I am in sync with Horn Book editorials, but the latest (“Parallel Play,” July/August 2005) left me feeling dumbfounded and disappointed. Four little words — let them eat cake — echoed in my brain as I re-read the essay. I, too, am against the misuse and manipulation of research data, whether it’s to push a trade book or the Administration’s education agenda and ties to textbook publishers. And, yes, one segment of the population may naturally employ pleasure-filled read-aloud practices, making good times the only reason necessary to keep reading together. However, it’s tough to pitch the pleasure principle as the sole motivator for families and communities where book use is traditionally peripheral, even avoided. Researchers like Risley and Clark have shown that varying attitudes and book availability (not simply “smarts”) in different classes and cultures influence who becomes a reader and who doesn’t. Most parents across the socioeconomic spectrum want the best for their children. Examining family attitudes related to reading, making available a range of books, frequently reading books aloud at home, even offering daily affirmations have been shown to increase their preschoolers’ chances of success as readers at school-age. There’s a consensus, too, that the size of one’s vocabulary by kindergarten predicts achievement levels in fourth grade. Sharing children’s books (which researchers found typically have twice the number of rare words as conversations between college graduates or dialogue on primetime TV) and engaging in extended talk before and after read-aloud time do play an important role in building that vocabulary. In the late 1990s, the results of longitudinal studies of a range of families as well as findings related to early brain development by leading lights in the field of early literacy (Risley and Clark, Snow, Dickinson, Tabors, Neuman, and others) isolated these predictors. There are, indeed, practices that parents, child care providers, and educators must put into place early on if we are ever to change the dismal national percentage of thirty-eight percent of fourth graders reading below grade level, most of these kids destined to struggle ever after. Making caregivers aware of such links to subsequent school achievement is crucial. The potential for universal literacy (as opposed to literacy only for the Harvard-bound) relies on easy and early access for all families to such research-based information. This is why, in my book Playful Reading: Positive, Fun Ways to Build the Bond between Preschoolers, Books, and You, I emphasize the pleasure that comes from reading aloud but take care, too, to communicate the foundation needed for kids to become proficient lifelong readers. To suggest that findings are evenly divided and that a handful of researchers “duke it out” themselves does a disservice to a nation of potential readers. Given the body of evidence that does exist about what kids need to succeed, support for the status quo makes it unlikely that young children at high risk for future failure ever benefit from a reading readiness revolution. Carolyn Munson-Benson |
 |
  
 
  |
||||||||
