"Why Can't I Skip My Twenty Minutes of Reading Tonight?"

(Source: U.S. Dept. of Education, America Reads Challenge. (1999) "Start Early, Finish Strong: How to Help Every Child Become a Reader." Washington, D.C.)

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 minutes/week                                                                                                 Student B reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week = 20 minutes/week

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

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

This article was shared by Emmy Ellis on the Teachers.net mailring. Thank you to Mrs. Jackson at http://www.geocities.com/mrsjacksonsclass/ for sharing this!

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