May 20, 2012

Welcome to the Middle / High School Library Website

On the Importance Of Reading

Readers are made and not born. Like any other skill, the more you practice it, the better you’ll get at it. The special importance of reading is that it is the basis for success in all other subject areas. If you can read well, it can’t help but improve your vocabulary skills and writing ability – the three things go hand in hand.

If reading every sentence of a history assignment is a desperate struggle, it makes sense that a student will be less likely to do the required work, and their grades will suffer.

As a parent or guardian you have to do all you can to encourage your child to read. Even if you are not a good reader yourself, this is no reason to give up the struggle of trying to improve your child’s skills. Likewise, a student’s excuse that he or she doesn’t “like to read” should not be accepted, as life is often filled with “unlikable experiences” that have to be dealt with.

You also don’t have to have your child read some difficult classics. It is the act and the practice that is more important. Besides you can always move on to a “better class” of literature as the student’s skills develop.

What can you specifically do to help your child to read? Try some of these ideas:

l) If you can, set a good example by letting your child see you read.

2) Subscribe to a newspaper.

3) Make regular visits to the public library and encourage your child to bring home suitable books from the school library.

4) Read to your child aloud.

5) Set aside 20 minutes a day as a family reading time, in which something has to be read just for the fun of it.

6) Give your child a magazine subscription as a gift.

7) Reward reading, say for every so many books a student can go to the movies, McDonalds, etc.

Remember to keep at it, no matter how many times you fail. It is one of the most important things you can do for your child.