Importance of Reading | Steph Lewis's Blog

I’ve been amazed at how important it is to instill a love of reading in children. It means so much in terms developing the imagination, vocabulary, thought process, memory…. It also helps us to live vicariously through characters so we can perhaps avoid making their mistakes in our own lives.
I’ve been around lots of kids who hate reading. Usually their parents hate reading too. Well, not really “hate” it per se, but they definitely don’t read beyond the occasional magazine picked up at the grocery store check out line. These are the kids that, I’ve seen, struggle in school because their reading comprehension is low for their age so they don’t “get” a lot of what is happening in any of their classes where reading is required.
Anyway…as a teacher I’ve just seen how stinking important it is for kids to be lovers of reading. It totally shapes them all around and it makes a huge difference in their life. So…read a book to or with someone today! It’s a great time!
(public service announcement provided to you by stephlewis.com)

3 thoughts on “Importance of Reading”

Amen, Steph, Amen.
Working with preschoolers has really shown me the importance of reading to kids at a young age. First off, they are more successful at everything else if they are read to. Second, it gives them a world outside their immediate one to explore. Third, it exposes them to vocab that most adults think kids can’t understand when really they can. If you are around a young person one of the most important things you can do for them is read a book to them.

Reading is one of the great loves of my life. Not only does it do everything that Steph said it does, and more, but it makes you a good speller. If you are a good speller, you can be a better writer. A good writer can be a good communicator. It seems like this world is full of problems that would disappear if there were only a little more communication (and a little more forgiveness too!). The folks in the spelling bee are most likely avid readers, because they get a memory of what the work looks like, and can remember that picture when they are trying to spell it out.

I think that writing is less a question of spelling (which is language-centric) and more a question of word choice and phrase choice (which is thought-centric). In my opinion, if you can speak well and speak clearly, you can write well and clearly. Spelling is important to be taken seriously and have your words be readable by others, but I consider it very secondary.
Not that this blog entry was trying to discuss this topic.

abby on May 11, 2004 at 2:39 pm said:

Amen, Steph, Amen.
Working with preschoolers has really shown me the importance of reading to kids at a young age. First off, they are more successful at everything else if they are read to. Second, it gives them a world outside their immediate one to explore. Third, it exposes them to vocab that most adults think kids can’t understand when really they can. If you are around a young person one of the most important things you can do for them is read a book to them.
Ted Rattei on May 12, 2004 at 5:52 am said:

Reading is one of the great loves of my life. Not only does it do everything that Steph said it does, and more, but it makes you a good speller. If you are a good speller, you can be a better writer. A good writer can be a good communicator. It seems like this world is full of problems that would disappear if there were only a little more communication (and a little more forgiveness too!). The folks in the spelling bee are most likely avid readers, because they get a memory of what the work looks like, and can remember that picture when they are trying to spell it out.
Josh on May 12, 2004 at 8:44 am said:

I think that writing is less a question of spelling (which is language-centric) and more a question of word choice and phrase choice (which is thought-centric). In my opinion, if you can speak well and speak clearly, you can write well and clearly. Spelling is important to be taken seriously and have your words be readable by others, but I consider it very secondary.
Not that this blog entry was trying to discuss this topic.