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by Carol Rasco, CEO, Reading is Fundamental

At first glance, it seems almost too simple, offering children the opportunity to choose the books they want to read and own. But since 1966, choosing books has been the key feature of RIF programs where children often select multiple books per year. Does it make a difference?

In late September of 2010 results were released from a RIF-commissioned, rigorous meta-analysis conducted by Learning Points, an affiliate of the American Institutes for Research. Those results showed that giving children access to print materials is associated with positive behavioral, educational, and psychological outcomes. I invite you to study the results more fully as these results then move us to the importance of picture books in the early years of the children targeted by RIF. Detailed information about the study and its results can be found on the RIF website: www.rif.org.

How exciting it has been to learn more this year about PiBoIdMo by following carefully the informative guest posts each day as well as looking back over past year’s PiBoIdMo materials. Reading Is Fundamental deals more with picture books than any other genre, and this is all the more reason I appreciate this opportunity to visit with those of you participating in PiBoIdMo this year. I sincerely hope this opens a dialogue between you and RIF as I know you have ideas and information that could be of benefit to RIF.

Our coordinators in the field who might be teachers, reading specialists, PTA parents, Kiwanis Club members—volunteers of all stripes and professions—tell us repeatedly they seek more of three types of picture books: nonfiction that is “eye and mind catching”, bilingual books, and multicultural books. And at RIF, we do not necessarily see these three as mutually exclusive.

One example I have found of a book that certainly combines the nonfiction and multicultural features is HOW MANY SEEDS IN A PUMPKIN? by Margaret McNamara. I have shared this book numerous times in classrooms across the country and almost without fail, each time I read it some student or even multiple students will talk about the magic in the book. They have no idea they are learning math and science. At the same time the illustrations are clearly multicultural in portraying the world around the students – but would most people label it at first glance a ‘multicultural book’? No. It is a natural portrayal of the real world of mirrors and windows we stress in our Multicultural Literacy Campaign.

As part of our commitment to motivate young readers, RIF has increased efforts through our Multicultural Literacy Campaign to reach more African American, Hispanic, and American Indian children at risk of academic failure. We are deeply concerned about the growing number of quality reports and research studies showing the large gaps in literacy accomplishments too often found between these children and their peers. We know one aspect of promoting improvement is to provide more culturally diverse books so that children nationwide can discover the value of their own heritage while learning about the importance of others. You can learn more about our Multicultural Literacy Campaign at http://www.rif.org/us/about/literac

Guest blogger Carol Rasco is President and CEO of Reading Is Fundamental (RIF), an organization that motivates children to read by working with them, their parents, and community members to make reading a fun and beneficial part of everyday life.

“No more pencils,
no more books!
No more teachers’
crazy looks!”

Are your kids enjoying summer vacation? Great! But don’t toss out those books and pencils — they can be part of “summer fun!” Exercising kids’ brain muscles all summer brings big benefits in the fall. And not exercising them can mean a loss of hard-earned skills. Picking up a book and reading with kids is the best way to sneak a lot of learning into these lazy, hazy days.

As part of President Obama and the First Lady’s United We Serve summer service initiative, RIF has launched Read for Change to provide parents, caregivers and volunteers a visible measure to record time spent reading with young children at home and in their communities over the remainder of this summer.

The site features a minute meter, which will track the time spent reading to children with a goal to reach 3 million minutes by September 11, 2009—the National Day of Service and Remembrance. RIF will then randomly select five participants to receive a children’s book collection and the opportunity to select a school in their community to also receive a book collection.