Alex - What is a librarian?

Education for 500

The solution to declining reading scores in Tennessee. -- Alex - What is a librarian?

What is happening?

Despite gains in many other areas, students in Tennessee are showing decline in reading scores on standardized tests.

Declining Reading Scores

http://tn.chalkbeat.org/2015/06/25/declining-reading-scores-a-dark-spot-in-otherwise-sunny-test-score-trends/#.VblquGoo7MI

2015 TCAP scores

http://nashvillepublicradio.org/post/2015-tcap-results-have-middle-tennessee-districts-looking-reading-help

Why is this happening?

First, children are reading less, because according to studies, they are using their digital devices to watch videos, and play with apps and games.   http://www.theguardian.com/technology/appsblog/2013/sep/26/children-reading-less-apps-games

Second, studies show that  children are reading less and less for pleasure.

71% (of parents surveyed) agreed that “I wish my child would do more things that did not involve screen time”   http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/jan/09/decline-children-reading-pleasure-survey

What a good librarian can do for you! 

 Encourage reading for pleasure.
 Most librarians I know read for pleasure . When you find an activity that is pleasurable it's often contagious ! Take your classes and take your kids to the library and meet with the librarian . He or she can encourage your student to read for pleasure.

 Provide Readers' Advisory.
 A great librarian can provide readers advisory, which is essentially -- finding a match for your student with books that he or she wants to read for pleasure.

Readers' advisory (sometimes spelled readers advisory or reader's advisory) is a service which involves suggesting fiction and nonfiction titles to a reader through direct or indirect means. This service is a fundamental library service; however, readers' advisory also occurs in commercial contexts such as bookstores. Currently, almost all North American public libraries offer some form of readers' advisory.  https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Readers%27_advisory  

 Provide reading solutions.
Students today need to learn how to read an electronic book. Unfortunately, tablets can often be a real distraction for kids who are suffering from technology addiction. So, a great solution to this problem are black-and-white eInk e-readers.  Encourage your library to adopt a E reader borrowing program.

http://gizmodo.com/5970460/5-ways-ereaders-are-still-better-than-tablets

What parents can do!

Alright now, we have to band together parents!
Put your child's devices away!   And I mean everything --- tablets, phones, and computers.  Why?  So that you can organize a specific time when kids and teens can just read . If you can afford to, invest in an E-reader that is a simple e-reader.

What else ... Read with your child!   When my kids were younger, I read a picture book every single night.  As they got older I read chapter books, a chapter each night . Now my teens probably read faster than I do, and they get impatient with my pace, so we turn it into a competition.  We decide on the novel that we are going to read and we try to keep up with one another so we can discuss the book throughout.