Want Children to Read More? Trying Slowing Them Down
As the nation’s school children begin their summer vacations, parents hoping to keep their children engaged in the learning process may want to encourage them to slow down and savor a good book.
Thomas Newkirk, professor of English at the University of New Hampshire, suggests that students get more enjoyment out of and have greater success with reading when they slow down. Newkirk discusses slow reading in a recent issue of Education Leadership in the article, “The Case for Slow Reading.”
That’s good news considering American school children have made little to no progress in reading proficiency, according to the latest information about the National Assessment of Educational Progress, the largest nationwide reading test. Some experts believe the culprit is the decline in the amount of reading children do for pleasure as they devote more free time to surfing the Internet, texting on cell phones, or watching television.
