Books and Bagels
What’s better on a Saturday morning in April than reading books and eating bagels? Ok, to be honest, there were some donuts involved too.
Books and Bagels is a monthly gathering of Dreamers, Dreamer parents, tutors, Board members, and IHAD staff. The purpose- to help the Dreamers understand that reading is a good thing to do- and that it can be fun.
After the bagels (and donuts) were consumed, the Dreamers in attendance were paired with a Drake student tutor for some relaxing reading time. It was great to see how engaged the Dreamers were with their Drake student partners. Some Dreamers had their mentors there as well, which was great one on one time between Dreamer and mentor.
A highlight of the morning occurred not for the Dreamers, but the Dreamer parents. Molly House, IHAD Board member and Education Committee member, presented a seminar on why it is so important for Dreamers to achieve competency in reading- and how to help them get there. Here’s just a few facts Molly shared with the Dreamer parents:
- There is a strong correlation between time spent reading and standardized test scores. Children who read slightly over an hour per day tend to score at the 98 percentile rank, compared to the 80th percentile rank for those reading about 15 minutes per day.
- Academic achievement in a wide range of subjects depends in part on the ability to read and write “informational” text. There is a big difference in reading narrative text vs reading informational text. Another reason informational text is so important- 96% of web sites are written in informational text.
- It’s important to read aloud to your child, with them reading along with you- rather than just having the child read themselves. They benefit by reading and hearing at the same time, and it’s important that they hear how you verbalize the written word.
- A good goal for children is to have read, or be read to, for 1,000 hours by the time they get to kindergarten. This will give them a huge advantage in their early school years.
All in all, a great morning. The Dreamer parents learned a lot about how important reading is to Dreamer academic achievement. And best of all, everyone enjoyed themselves.