Words Alive!

Dates: Tuesday, September 29th OR Thursday, October 1st 

Location: Your couch! See your e-mail for the Zoom link!

Link: https://www.wordsalive.org/

“What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that humans are capable of working magic.”

- Carl Sagan 

Reading can be magical at any age. There are benefits to reading at every point in our lives. This week will be discussing the impacts and importance of children’s literacy, but the key is reading throughout our lives. But why read? Especially when there is so much to watch on Netflix or scroll through on our phones? Even if you don’t agree with Carl Sagan that books are proof that we can work magic, there are a wealth of concrete benefits to reading.

ABC10 did a story on this wonderful organization and the power of literacy just recently. Check out the story here: 

As everyone faced challenges during the pandemic, so too did literacy programs. Check out this feature in the Union Tribune to learn more about what Words Alive! did to meet the challenges of 2020 and turn them into moments of excellence: 

Don’t want to read all the graphics? How about a video instead? Check out this wonderful talk from Rita Carter, a writer, broadcaster, and journalist who specializes in the workings of the human brain. 

So reading is great for people of all ages. Sadly, we have been seeing a steady decline in reading across America in recent years, even among children. While most would blame that on Covid-19 lockdowns, the decline in reading scores among the nation’s youth has actually been happening for the last 10 years! Of course, the pandemic didn’t help our reading scores, but it isn’t the singular cause.

A few facts (sourced from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), Pew Research Center, UNESCO, and other peer reviewed research):

• reading scores in both 4th and 8th grade students are roughly where they were in the early 1990s

• for more than a decade, the gap between higher and lower performing students has been widening

• almost 70% of low-income 4th graders struggle to meet basic reading proficiency

• 50% of unemployed individuals between 16 and 21 lack functional literacy

• Massachusetts has the highest percentage of proficient readers in country (56%)

  • New Mexico has the lowest (21%)

• Children who are read for just 20 minutes a day are exposed to roughly 1.8 million words a year

• Children who read for 20 minutes a day often outperform 90% of their peers academically   

• Students who read more than 15 minutes a day show significant improvement in reading fluency 

To read more, you can click here: https://www.apexaba.com/blog/reading-statistics/

So are you convinced that reading is important? Or are you sticking to the funny papers and Netflix? Recent research indicates that many American adults have not read a book in the last year. Even those who are reading for personal interest only do so for just over 16 minutes a day. But books, even just in the home, can increase literacy, especially for children. Research indicates that children growing up in homes with at least 80 books have higher literacy rates and are more likely to achieve higher rates of education.

Click below to answer a short reading quiz to see how many popular books you’ve read! 

https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/29/24-percent-of-american-adults-havent-read-a-book-in-the-past-year--heres-why-.html

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/559956/new-study-confirms-growing-home-filled-books-good-you

https://elearninginfographics.com/reading-improves-your-mind-body-infographic/

https://thegreatestbooks.org/?page=2

https://www.rd.com/list/the-best-childrens-books-ever-written/

https://www.apexaba.com/blog/reading-statistics/

https://www.rd.com/list/books-read-before-die/