Reading Matters!

I remember how frustrating it was trying to put the sounds together – the beginning and ending of consonant blends and multiple syllable words, but I was eager to build a vocabulary. The pleasure of reading without assistance was unmatchable. It was one of my greatest achievements as a child… Reading helped me focus, comprehend, dream, and expand.

-Loretta, BestWordsForward.com

Introductions:

My name is Rhonda Stoffer. I am head of Indiana History and Genealogy Services at Marion Public Library. I am married and have 4 children ages 14-21.

Molly Sue Jones. I work as the center director of Sylvan Learning Center in Marion, IN. I design programs that help students reach their full academic potential. I also train staff to assist them in teaching every student according to that particular student's learning style. I also run the finances and conference with parents to ensure that the entire family is working toward a common goal of higher education. My life's passion is to help children become the learners that will change the world!

Hello! My name is Anna Baker, and I work at the best place in the world...the local public library! Yes, you may think this would make me partial to reading, but scouts honor, I've been hooked on reading as long as I can remember!

I'm Sheri Conover Sharlow, a reference assistant at the Marion Public Library. I am a recovering journalist, having worked at newspapers as a copy editor and reporter. My professional experience was 1987-1999, with free-lance stints before and after, as well as 3 at the college newspaper.

What is the definition of reading?

Rhonda: Looking at the printed language and understanding what is written.

Molly: Comprehending written language.

Anna: I believe reading is the taking in of letters joined together in a series, forming words and sentences. Or a less scientific definition would be books, magazines, comic books, newspapers, letters, subtitles, and the list goes on and on.

Sheri: Reading is gleaning information from the printed word -- though with new media, "printed" is outmoded, as digital images count.

When reading and you come to a word you don’t know what do you do?

Rhonda: Look at its context and most of the time, go on. Occasionally look it up.

Molly: Use context clues to figure out the meaning, if that does not work I get a dictionary

Anna: Sound it out, or look it up. Usually if I recognize a base word in an unfamiliar word I can draw a conclusion as to what the word is supposed to mean. Also analyzing the context of the word can give important clues.

Sheri: I tend to grab a dictionary for unfamiliar words I cannot figure out through context, though reading where there may not be a dictionary can mean this doesn't happen as it should -- i.e. I don't usually carry a dictionary in my beach bag. (However, I have been known to tote a financial report and meat grinder in my diaper bag -- at the same time....)

Top three reasons why reading matters:

Rhonda:
A. Learn more.
B. Enjoyment, escape to another place.
C. Increases intelligence.

Molly:
A. Sharpens the mind.
B. Keeps you informed.
C. Relieves stress.

Anna:
A. Our brains are capable of retaining an infinite amount of information.
B. Reading is valuable to helping us learn about others and the world around us. Understanding and respecting other person’s individual thoughts, beliefs and feelings can be greatly enhanced simply by reading about it.
C. Reading significantly improves our communication and interaction skills.

Sheri:
A. You cannot function fully without reading. A person reliant on images or sounds misses out on valuable context that reading provides.
B. If you cannot read critically, you're easy prey for charitans. Those who can read critically, gather information from varied sources, and, most importantly, weigh and understand that information, can avoid problems that plague those who lack that skill. Gullibility is a curable malady, and reading is the cure.
C. Reading opens windows to other worlds, both real and imaginary. Readers can learn to take apart their cars (and with skill, put them back together), wind yarn around needles to make a scarf or follow a boy's journey through wizarding school. All provide fabulous opportunities.

How many ways can we read?

Rhonda: For enjoyment, required reading, informational reading

Molly: We can read in countless ways I break them up into reasons like reading for information (nonfiction, newspaper), reading for pleasure (fiction), and reading to reach a goal or for a purpose (owner's manual, homework). I think every type of reading is important but at least two of the three are necessary to have an independent and well functioning life.

Anna: In a house, on a train, in the rain, in the park after dark, with a lark, high, low, here, there reading can be anywhere. Especially in America we are allowed to read anything our hearts desire. In some countries certain books are banned and citizens do not have the freedom to read whatever they want. Utilizing this right is something that should be exercised.

Sheri: Well, there's reading ingredient labels (reading for needed personal information), reading economics web sites (reading for needed civic information), reading for revolution in Iran (reading to find like-minded people to accomplish goals), reading how-to books or web sites (reading for directions), reading "unimportant books" that are quite important to firing our imaginations (reading for entertainment), reading social web sites (reading to create and restore community across place and time, much as letters used to do), reading to fill out onerous paperwork (reading to make someone else's life easier, even if it pains the person filing the report), reading for a bazillion other things.

“The new digital revolution threatens the values of classic reading.” (Carter, 2009) What do you think about this statement?

Rhonda: I'm sure it will come in the future as technology improves. A computer/eBook reader will never take the place and feel of the printed book and you can't take a computer into the bathtub!

Molly: I think it is true. I still don't get books on tape. I think that reading needs to be an escape not a chance to multi task if I listened to a book and got into it like I did when I read while I was driving a car many people would die. Also, why read the book when you could watch the movie, even when the movie is half of the story that the author was trying to portray.

Anna: Phewy!!! If anything I would say the new digital revolution enhances the values of classic reading. I have a very close friend who has become vision impaired in the last decade. Before losing her sight she was an avid reader. Without the digital revolution she would be completely unable to continue the enjoyment of reading.

Sheri: It depends how you use digital information. If you're just IMing, you miss out on the texture of language; the fullness of sentences and paragraphs; the nuance of words used precisely; the context that conveys subtleties of emotion, tone and intent; the intimacy of words crafted specifically for that individual communication -- as opposed to LOL and emoticons that inadequately convey these things.

However, the Internet allows everyday people access to information they may not access otherwise. Google Scholar leads us to reports previously limited to university libraries. Web sites for aspiring writers give samples of work in development, even with critical feedback. You can even post your own work at sites specific to your interests.

Surely many contemporaries thought that those new-fangled printing presses dumbed down reading because now the unwashed masses could participate! I see more opportunities than downsides. It's just too new in the revolution to see the great places it could lead.

What do you feel are the component skills necessary for children to learn to read?

Rhonda: Being read to from a young age, access to books, good eyesight, hearing, early learning (preschool, Sesame Street type programs) a teacher who makes it fun.

Molly: Visual discrimination (telling text from picture and differences between letters) auditory discrimination (differences between sounds) speech and an understanding that what you can say is what you can write.

Anna: Letter recognition, phonics. Encouragement from parents, teachers, peers and other adults is also a key factor.

Sheri: Children must be able to understand that letters, standing for sounds, pull together to produce unique words. When they finally learn that you must place the letters in a specific order to get a word, it's a huge revelation -- one that I watched evolve from randomly placed letter magnets on the refrigerator to real words. They must have ability to see context in those letters that a word stands for a thing or idea or movement or whatever. They must have heard or otherwise experienced the world to understand that writing conveys the real world in a way that others not in earshot can understand, and that those others will read that writing.

“Estimates indicate that at least 20 million of the nation's 53 million school-age children are poor readers - about two out of five children.” (National Institutes of Health, 2009)
What can we do to get more kids reading and reading well?

Rhonda: Find interesting books that appeal to kids, Harry Potter, Twilight, make reading cool and fun

Molly: I believe in supplemental education and early intervention. I think that parents should be reading to their children from day one.

Anna: I believe that the adults in a child’s life are extremely influential. If adults give a good example to follow children will most likely follow. Not always but enough to see a change.

Sheri: First, we must understand that not everyone will be able to read on the same level or at the same time or pace. Some children seemingly read without instruction. Some struggle until it clicks, then it all comes together, but at a pace that is their own and not anyone else's. And some have strong barriers to reading, some strong, frustrating and mysterious enough to make them extremely difficult to teach.

At what point does it become unfair to persist? A good question, an important question, one that must be answered on a case-by-case basis. The struggle matters when the child can comprehend the information, but cannot easily glean it from letters and words. However, some honestly cannot understand the information, even when presented in oral and image formats. Perhaps we need to admit that not everyone can read. And if their functioning is that low, it is cruel to push them where they cannot go, just as it would be cruel to beat us until we run as fast as a cheetah.

The problem is that those who are most worried about this tend to be those who read easily, who do not understand the honesty of that struggle. We should give opportunities, yes. We should try to diagnose the barriers and find ways around them, yes. But we also should understand that people ARE different and some come without this capacity to read and write.

That percentage may be higher than we would like to think. I'd like to think that nearly 40 percent of functional illiteracy is a bit high -- I'm inclined to think 5-10 percent is more reasonable -- but then again, I spend more time with people like myself, people who can read fully and write basically.

How did you learn to read?

Rhonda: At school, Dick and Jane type books.

Molly: My mom reading to me until I memorized a book then put two and two together the words I was saying were the words on the page.

Anna: I really don't remember learning to read. If I had to guess I would say I learned to read from teachers at school.

Sheri: I could read red words from flashcards as a toddler. Apparently, my diaper was falling off as I read them. By the time I was 2, my mother heard that it's bad to learn reading on a word-by-word basis that children learn better phonetically, so she stopped.

I still remember that first or second full day of first grade, when we came to our first lesson in our reading books. It was the letter "H". I looked at the pictures and the words beneath them, and read them all. I saw the picture of the house, yet I knew the word wasn't "house" but "home" -- this was without the teacher telling me so. I already knew how to read, but hadn't known it until that moment!

What are some of your favorite books?

Rhonda: Too many to name, I reread lots of books.

Molly: Right now I am stuck on the sookie Stackhouse mysteries. I am on my second way through them.

Anna: First of all let me add the disclaimer that I have not read quite as many books as I would like, and the list of books that I would like to conquer goes on and on. With that being said...
A Tale of Two Cities, The Grapes of Wrath, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, and of course the incomparable Mr. Harry Potter books!

Sheri: Depends on the mood and the purpose. I enjoy funny books, difficult books, some political-economics books that are difficult on their own level. Recent fiction favorites include Jennifer Crusie's Bet Me, Christopher Buckley's Boomsday, (and a nonfiction counterpart, The Coming Generational Storm by Laurence Kotlikoff and Scott Burns), Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series; as well as nonfiction Real Education: Four Simple Truths for Bringing American Schools Back to Reality by Charles Murray (one that particularly pertains to this question) and Richard Florida's Rise of the Creative Class. Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and Fountainhead fall under fiction, yet their appeal to me is closer to nonfiction works -- i.e., it's not escapist like my typical fiction choices.

Who are your favorite writers?

Rhonda: Again, too many to name: Nora Roberts, Dean Koontz, Michael Connelly, Robin Cook, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child, JD Robb, Iris Johansen, many more

Molly: HP Lovecraft, Charlaine Harris, Stephenie Meyer, Maeve Binchy

Anna: I have the problem of liking certain authors and being stuck in my own little author bubble, but I am getting better. Charles Dickens hands down is my favorite. He has a way of putting words on a paper that is so beautiful it makes me cry. John Steinbeck is another one that captures feelings and emotions on ink and paper. Rounding out the top three is C.S. Lewis the man was so absolutely brilliant! Other favorites that continue to amaze and dazzle- Love, love, love Rudyard Kipling (the man was a god in his own country), Robert Louis Stevenson, J.K. Rowling, Lois Lowry, H.G. Wells. I know I'm gonna be mad when I realize who I've forgotten.

Sheri: Again, it depends. Right now, I'm enjoying Jennifer Crusie, Christopher Buckley and Janet Evanovich.

What was your favorite book as a child?

Rhonda: Boxcar children series, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Trixie Belden

Molly: Marvin K Mooney Will you Please Go Now

Anna: My dad loves to tell the story about how I would have him read "Hand Hand Fingers Thumb" over and over. As a young adult Babysitters Club and Sweet Valley Twins kept me busy.

Sheri: I loved the Cat in the Hat Dictionary, which inspired my first poem in the first grade. Anything Pippi Longstocking pretty much followed.

How often and how long do you read for pleasure?

Rhonda: All the time, I always have a book in progress and go from one to the next. Average about 3 books a week.

Molly: I read at least one novel a week if I am on a reading binge as I call it can be as many as four novels in one week.

Anna: Oh how I long for the days when I had time to read for pleasure....Being a full-time student seriously cuts into my pleasure reading time. In the "old days" I would read up to several hours per day. Now I'm lucky to get more than half an hour in here and there.

Sheri: It varies wildly.

How would you say reading has helped you the most in your life?

Rhonda: Gave me a chance to visit other places I wouldn't have been able to travel to myself.

Molly: It is relaxing and it has helped me be well spoken and very knowledgeable. I have a better vocabulary and it has given me strategies to keep myself from looking dumb like when someone says a word I don't know I can use the reading strategies of context clues to figure out the meaning.

Molly: Well I can certainly say I have learned a lot about the world around me. It has also increased my vocabulary. I have also learned a lot about how other people think, feel and interact.

Sheri: With writing, editing and research as my careers, reading IS my job.

How many books do you normally read at a time?

Rhonda: One book at a time reading and one recorded book in the car.

Molly: I read one at a time.

Anna: Usually not more than two.

Sheri: Too many.

What do you like most about the library, from a patron point of view to a staff member point of view?

Rhonda: A library is always a comfortable place for me, you can find out almost anything in a library. I've always worked in a library setting, academic, school or public. I like being able to research a problem and find an answer.

Molly: I like the website from a patron point of view I can go in knowing exactly what I want. From a staff point of view I love that I have first choice to check out whatever does not have a hold on it.

Anna: From a patron point of view I love the selection, also the versatility of staff to find and or order whatever my heart desires. From a staff member point of view, the other staff members!!! Everyone who works here is so stinkin nice and kind and considerate, just plain awesome really!

Sheri: As a patron, I look at the library as a means to meet different ends, whether it's researching my dietary needs du jour, finding out how to do my latest creative obsession, or meeting my manic needs to take home SOMETHING that, thanks to the library, I'll have to return.

As a staffer, I know better what resources are available at the library. It's the mellowest workplace I've ever had by an unestimatable longshot.

**End of Interviews


My First Memory (of Librarians)
by Nikki Giovanni

This is my first memory:
A big room with heavy wooden tables that sat on a creaky
wood floor
A line of green shades—bankers’ lights—down the center
Heavy oak chairs that were too low or maybe I was simply
too short
For me to sit in and read
So my first book was always big

In the foyer up four steps a semi-circle desk presided
To the left side the card catalogue
On the right newspapers draped over what looked like
a quilt rack
Magazines face out from the wall

The welcoming smile of my librarian
The anticipation in my heart
All those books—another world—just waiting
At my fingertips.

From Acolytes by Nikki Giovanni. Copyright © 2007 by Nikki Giovanni. Published by arrangement with William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers.