Reading is one of the most important skills students can learn. It helps them do better in school and in life. But in Michigan, many students are struggling with reading, and test scores are low.
We need to understand why this is happening and what we can do to help.
Attendance agent Lisa Blackwell said reading is the key to learning.
“Reading is essential because it forms the foundation for learning and critical thinking,” Blackwell said.
Mumford English teacher Nefertari Nkenge said that if you can’t read, you can’t succeed in any of the other subjects.
“You have to learn the foundations of reading early in life so that you can expand your brain power very early, and then you can download lots of information from different sources,” Nkenge said. “It’s kind of like the key to your life success because that first introduction to reading opens up the possibilities of so many other things.”
But the path to improving reading skills is to read more, and many students aren’t reading enough.
A study by Common Sense Media found that the time teenagers spend on YouTube, TikTok, and other video-sharing sites rose during the pandemic, but reading time remained flat.
In a recent survey, it found that in the time between 2019 and 2021, social media use for teens rose to an average of eight and half hours per day.
Senior Harmony Thompson said it takes the right kind of teaching to help students learn.
“Some students cannot work with how some teachers teach. It takes planning to help students learn more and improve at school,” Thompson said.
To fix the problem, schools need to make reading fun again. Teachers can read good books aloud, let kids choose what they want to read, and help families get involved. We also need to support students who are behind and give them the time and help they need to catch up.