Here at Scholastic, we firmly believe it's critically important to read every day. Of course, doing so is especially important for kids as their language skills develop, but no matter how old you are, there's scientific evidence that reading is good for your brain. As far as our "read every day" habits are concerned, many of us turn to books (both fiction and nonfiction); others are devout newspaper-readers; some look forward to reading magazine articles.
Last week, Scholastic employees had the privilege of hearing Jeff Wilhelm and Michael Smith, the authors of Reading Unbound, talk about the importance of choice and why kids need to read what they want. Jeff recalled a time that one of his students said he didn't like to read. "But you visit ESPN all the time to read about the athletes and their games," Jeff pointed out. The student agreed, not realizing that perhaps such activity constitutes reading. Obviously, we think books are cool, but what about non-traditional ways to read every day, like catching up on the articles on ESPN?
My fellow OOMers weighed in on the cool ways they read every day:
- Morgan - I love reading my daily horoscope! (That can be a great way to sneak reading in each day, especially for teenagers!)
- Brittany - I read TheSkimm emails every morning. They provide handy summaries of current events, including everything from politics to entertainment!
- Nadia - DailyLit is a cool way to get snippits every day. I use it to read a few essays and short stories, which is something I normally wouldn’t read on my ereader. Because it’s meant to be read in 15-minute increments, it’s good way to take a break.
- Anne and Megan both subscribe to Poets.org. It "emails me a 'Poem-a-Day,'" says Anne. "Today’s is 'Anxieties' by Donna Masini."
- Kristen- My tactic for reading every day is to follow awesome content-sharers on social – I always keep an eye out for the people I know share great content, which typically gives me at least 3 or 4 interesting and entertaining articles to read each day!
- Jessica - Pottermore! You get sorted, you play games, and you get to learn more facts about the world of Harry Potter. There’s a lot to read there. Plus, there are a lot of video and other games where reading is a component.
How about you? In addition to books, newspapers, and magazines, what do you read every day?
Original art by LeUyen Pham
