BASA AdminiScope, May 2020

Remote Learning and the Great Equalizer: Reading

Bottom line: Reading gives all children a more equal chance in life by helping them become confident and enthusiastic learners (Gaiman, 2016). Our Business Is Books Founded 100 years ago this year, Scholastic is the largest distributor and publisher of children’s books and magazines in the world. We have always promoted books as children’s best learning companions—and reading their best guarantee of success and joy in life. We also believe reading brings solace and strength, compan- ionship and reassurance, while building children’s skills in ways no other activity can. All of those benefits are more important than ever in our current global crisis. As families moved to shelter in place, Scholastic responded with Learn at Home, which provides multiple weeks of meaningful activities designed to reinforce and sustain learning for children hunkered down at home. What’s Ahead? With the transformative power of reading in mind, Scholastic created Grab and Go Book Packs , which include authentic, culturally relevant texts that reflect students’ interests, spark their imagination, and keep them on the path to becoming lifelong readers. During the pandemic, Scholastic is supplementing the cost of these book packs to ensure equitable access to them for all children. My Books Summer Take-Home Packs reflect the interests and reading levels of individual students and equip them with engaging books and accompanying activities. Available in English and Spanish, these book packs ensure students in grades PreK-12 keep reading and stay on track. Also available in English and Spanish, LitCamp is a breakthrough summer literacy program for grades PreK-8 that combines innovative, research-based reading and writing lessons with an engaging and interactive sum- mer camp approach. And coming soon: Virtual LitCamp, a blended learning solution that combines the best of digital face-to-face interaction with print materials. To get books into your students’ homes, see Literacy Pro, which enables you to curate a personalized bookshelf for students in grades K-6 to ensure that purposeful and effective independent reading happens every day. Scholastic salutes you, Ohio educators, and your diligent efforts to support your students—and, to that end, we offer books and resources to fulfill all needs—online for remote and blended learning, and in print, delivered directly to students’ homes. You are doing your part to equalize learning for all children. Stay strong, stay safe—and read on! References Gaiman, N. (2016). Why our future depends on libraries, reading and daydreaming: The reading agency lecture. In The view from the cheap seats. New York: William Morrow. Krashen, S. (2011). Protecting students against the effects of poverty. New England Reading Association Journal. Vol. 46, No. 2. January. Oatley, K. (2014). On Fiction. Retrieved from: https:// sites.google.com/site/onfiction/home. Sikora, J., Evans, M. & Kelley, J. (2019). Scholarly culture: How books in adolescence enhance adult literacy, numeracy and technology skills in 31 societies. Social Science Research. Vol. 77, January. 1-15. Sibberson, Franki (2019). This online learning journey (so far . . . ) Stanovich, K. E. (2003). Understanding the styles of science in the study of reading. Scientific Studies of Reading, 7 (2), 105–126. Lois Bridges, Ph.D. brings her passion for serving teachers and children to her work as the VP/Publisher of Scholastic Professional, where she’s honored to develop professional books and resources with some of country’s leading literacy experts.

Some children are fortunate to have 24/7 access to technology in the home and, as such, regular contact with their teachers through email, instant messaging, and videoconferencing. Some children have no access to technology, and, therefore, are virtually cut off from their teachers and are being taught by parents pressed into service. And then there are the children in between, who have some access to technology. There may be one device in the home, with many family members vying for its use. Ohio teachers and parents are likely sharing the responsibility of educating these children. Regardless of a family’s reality, the pandemic has turned literacy learning on its head. Rethinking Remote Learning Consider the word remote— synonymous with “distant” and “lack of connection.” Digital delivery minus human interaction is clearly unsatisfactory for many students and teachers. Veteran teacher and past president of the National Council of Teachers of English, Franki Sibberson, who’s now teaching online in Ohio, captures the angst: “How can I be teaching with the children doing everything in their homes while I sit in mine? There is no laughter, no inside jokes, no greetings and no book talks” (2020). All is not lost, though. While we wait for the right digital solution to arrive for all children, the perfect learning solution already exists—one that offers continuous, remote learning that is simultaneously deeply human and intimate. It’s called reading. Reading is, indeed, a deeply human and intimate act—a melding of the mind, heart, and spirit with the author’s. Reading enables us to travel back in history or project ourselves into the future— across time and space— spanning countries, continents, and outer space—to connect with the author’s message. Reading is also the ultimate form of remote learning. And if we want to turbo charge that learning, we need to surround our children with books—either digital versions, for those who have online access, or in print versions, for those who don’t. Everything changes when our children read. Reading as the Great Equalizer Growing up in home packed with real and virtual books gives kids a leg up not only in reading, but also in math and technology. Sikora, Evans, and Kelley (2019) interviewed 160,000 adults in 31 countries and found that a home library correlated more highly to eventual life success than a family’s economic standing or level of educa - tion. Books in the home, right from the very beginning of a child’s life, matter because a relationship with them—and the conversations and routines they inspire—enhance the vocabulary and numeracy skills, and the analytical problem solving, that lead to academic and personal success. Even 25 books can make a difference in our most under-resourced households—and “mitigate the effects of poverty on school achievement and literacy develop - ment” notes literacy researcher Stephen Krashen (2011). In other words, the impact of access to books on school success is as strong or stronger than economic factors. And once you understand what reading does for the mind and spirit, it’s easy to understand why. Reading builds a cognitive infrastructure that influences every aspect of our thinking, particularly our crystallized intelligence —our general knowledge, vocabulary, and ability to reason, using words and numbers (Stanovich, 2003). Reading also fuels the imagination, and reading fiction, in particular, expands the heart, making us more compassionate (Oatley, 2014).

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