Make reading fun again, national coalition urges

Math may be the worry right now, but love of books can boost kids’ achievement in all subjects.

TheStar.com
Sept. 12, 2016
By Kristin Rushowy

Declining math scores may be on educators’ minds right now, but reading is still considered key to student achievement in all subjects.

Now, a cross-Canada coalition is trying to promote a love of books, worried about the growing number of students who say they don’t like to read for pleasure.

“There’s been a recent trend toward STEM programs (science/technology/engineering/math), and from our perspective … if you can’t read well, you are not doing well in math or science,” said Mohamed Huque, associate director of the National Reading Campaign, a not-for-profit that is urging governments and school boards to make the issue a priority.

“The positive effect of reading transcends marks for English or language arts; it really does translate beyond academic achievement. There are tons of studies showing the positive effects of reading on mental health (and) building empathy,” among other benefits, he added.

At a symposium earlier this year, the campaign crafted a statement saying it’s time for “ministries of education, school boards and principals (to) ... adopt policies that make reading for pleasure possible, and that they should be accountable for reporting on the provision of such programs.”

In Ontario alone, the percentage of Grade 3 students who say they like to read “most of the time” sat at less than half - 47 per cent in 2013-14, down from 49 per cent the year prior.

Among Grade 6 students, that figure dropped to 47 per cent in 2013-14 from 48 per cent in 2012-13, according to the most up-to-date statistics from the province’s Education Quality and Accountability Office, which has also found that kids who read for pleasure perform better on standardized tests over time.

The campaign is also urging faculties of education to “equip future teachers with the ability to be effective reading promoters, which includes familiarity with children’s - and especially Canadian children’s - literature,” and calls on boards to ensure schools have fully functioning libraries staffed by teachers who have additional training as librarians.

The move in recent years - the Toronto Catholic board in particular, which controversially phased out all of its teacher-librarians - has been to cut library hours, or staff them with lesser-trained, and lower paid, technicians.

Patricia Minnan-Wong, president of the Toronto Elementary Catholic Teachers’ union, said the advantage of teacher-librarians is “they are certified teachers and curriculum experts - there’s the ability to team-teach, and they are experts in the area of literature and information literacy” and can collaborate with other teachers on the best resources, all of which can help foster a love of reading.

Wayne Parker, a long-time teacher-librarian at Brampton’s North Park Secondary School, said circulation is down at the library, and “few people would disagree the likely cause for that is they have all these smartphones - they have this thing they are paying all their attention to and spending time with, and when it comes time ... they go online” to read.

He said he wonders whether this is conditioning kids, from a young age, “to read a screen page but not so often two or three hundred pages” and said he does his best to bring in materials that will appeal to teens.

“My position is that if we don’t show them, they won’t know,” he said. “There’s definitely big importance for library advocacy.”

He’s discovered students don’t like e-readers - “They think: My grandma has one of those” - and that he must stay on top of the genres students are interested in.

“Twilight was huge and now it has passed,” he said, referring to the hit series about vampires. “There are those who are very keen on their manga (comic books), but that’s a select group,” as are those interested in teen romance or non-fiction reads.

“A lot of people don’t read in my generation,” said Julienne Ahipatela, a Grade 12 student at North Park who spends a lot of her free time immersed in a book. “People are more on their electronics; they just spend time on Twitter and Facebook. I’m not really social and only go on Instagram if I have to or if I have nothing to do.”

Alexia Brown, who is in Grade 11, thinks some teens may be deterred by the cost - something the campaign has also warned of.

“I think sometimes they want to get a book of their own, but can’t afford it,” said the 16-year-old. “There are some books that are really expensive, or their parents can’t take them to the public library.”

Parker said that when students read novels for English assignments, “sometimes that will trigger them to read more novels. But some will just read what they are assigned, and they are done … occasionally I’ll have the wonderful experience of a student who has not read much at all, and I introduce him or her to something, and they love it.

“It doesn’t happen a lot, though.”