Tuesday, May 4, 2010

New Reading Homework Format

We will be having a new reading homework format for the rest of the school year. Your child will be reading every night for 20 minutes, logging in the title, author, time they read, number of pages read and having their guardian sign this.

Reading nightly is so important! Please read the following to truly understand it's importance:

Did you know one of the most prominent indicators of a successful reader is the amount of time spent actually reading? Let's figure it out -- mathematically!

Student A reads 20 minutes five nights of every week
Student B reads only 4 minutes a night...or not at all!

Step 1: Multiply minutes a night x 5 times each week.
Student A reads 20 min. x 5 times a week = 100 mins./week
Student B reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week = 20 minutes

Step 2: Multiply minutes a week x 4 weeks each month.
Student A reads 400 minutes a month.
Student B reads 80 minutes a month.

Step 3: Multiply minutes a month x 9 months/school year
Student A reads 3600 min. in a school year.
Student B reads 720 min. in a school year.

Student A practices reading the equivalent of ten whole school days a year.
Student B gets the equivalent of only two school days of reading practice.

By the end of 6th grade if Student A and Student B maintain these same reading habits, Student A will have read the equivalent of 60 whole school days.Student B will have read the equivalent of only 12 school days.

One would expect the gap of information retained will have widened considerably and so, undoubtedly, will school performance. How do you think Student B will feel about him/herself as a student?

Some questions to ponder:
Which student would you expect to read better?
Which student would you expect to know more?
Which student would you expect to write better?
Which student would you expect to have a better vocabulary?
Which student would you expect to be more successful in school....and in life?

2 comments:

Suzanne said...

Wow! This post needs to be the basis for the homework letters that go home at the beginning of each school year. You sold me!

Anonymous said...

I really like this new homework!
Katie