ALL LEADERS ARE READERS!
If you would be able to get into your favorite book to live its adventures, what book would it be? Even this question is hard for me to answer, since I have many books I would love to immerse myself into. Nevertheless, the book I would like to live in real life would be The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien because of the great adventures and battles I would have to confront. It would be scary, I know, nonetheless, it will test my bravery and mettle to defeat the darkest of the powers. Books can take you into infinite trips in your imagination. There are no boundaries that can stop you from creativity. Unfortunately, the young minds of today don’t seem to be interested in this truth. So, I took the matter on my own hands. With the help of my partner Jesus Rodriguez, we decided to bring that excitement of reading to the school’s young adult population.
Before we started the actual club, we had to go through much preparation. How many students will attend?, where will we meet?, and most importantly, what would we read? After some intense preparations, we started our club. We went class to class asking students if they wanted to join. And then we faced our first disappointment;only 6 students wanted to attend. We thought that we would have at least 10 students, still we did not let that turn us down.
Our first meeting came, we talked to the librarian so that we could have the library to meet every Tuesday until mid-April. I would say that we did not start with the right foot with the students, since the first thing they had to do was take a test. No fun at all. But, it was necessary so that we could assess student abilities and see if they do improve their comprehension abilities. Next meetings were not fun neither, because the students had to keep working on the test since one single meeting was not enough to finish.
After all this, it doesn’t seem that we were accomplishing our goal of making reading exciting again. But things were about to get better… The third meeting we started our first book.The Time Machine by H.G Wells. My partner, Jesus Rodriguez, and I thought it was a interesting book to read, since it has such a famous name. At first it seemed difficult to understand, but the students were capable of understanding the main plot. But with foresight, we knew students would like something easier and more interesting to read, so we have prepared a number of short stories for each meeting. It will be short, easy to understand, and exciting for the students. Plus, it would surely benefit in their reading comprehension skills.
Reading every day, not only will improve reading comprehension, but also memory, writing, and vocabulary. In a study in Emory University showed that immersing ourselves in a novel it “enhances connectivity in the brain and improves brain function“. Also, interesting enough, every time we engage in reading fiction the reader improves their ability to “ put themselves in another person’s shoes”, plus it “flexs” imagination almost like muscle memory in sports. So the more you read, the more does the brain gets accustomed to it, and it becomes easier and faster.
The United Nations estimates that about 800 million adults worldwide are illiterate. So, the students participating in our book club should be grateful that they can read and write with no problem at all, and that they have other people around them that care to improve that reading capability that many people only wish to have. Be thankful of the small, but extremely important, skills that we are given. And never forget to read at least 15 minutes a day!
\http://www.reading.org/Libraries/meetings/facts-about-international-literacy-day.doc
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201401/reading-fiction-improves-brain-connectivity-and-function
By: Thomas Finco
If you would be able to get into your favorite book to live its adventures, what book would it be? Even this question is hard for me to answer, since I have many books I would love to immerse myself into. Nevertheless, the book I would like to live in real life would be The Hobbit by J.R.R Tolkien because of the great adventures and battles I would have to confront. It would be scary, I know, nonetheless, it will test my bravery and mettle to defeat the darkest of the powers. Books can take you into infinite trips in your imagination. There are no boundaries that can stop you from creativity. Unfortunately, the young minds of today don’t seem to be interested in this truth. So, I took the matter on my own hands. With the help of my partner Jesus Rodriguez, we decided to bring that excitement of reading to the school’s young adult population.
Before we started the actual club, we had to go through much preparation. How many students will attend?, where will we meet?, and most importantly, what would we read? After some intense preparations, we started our club. We went class to class asking students if they wanted to join. And then we faced our first disappointment;only 6 students wanted to attend. We thought that we would have at least 10 students, still we did not let that turn us down.
Our first meeting came, we talked to the librarian so that we could have the library to meet every Tuesday until mid-April. I would say that we did not start with the right foot with the students, since the first thing they had to do was take a test. No fun at all. But, it was necessary so that we could assess student abilities and see if they do improve their comprehension abilities. Next meetings were not fun neither, because the students had to keep working on the test since one single meeting was not enough to finish.
After all this, it doesn’t seem that we were accomplishing our goal of making reading exciting again. But things were about to get better… The third meeting we started our first book.The Time Machine by H.G Wells. My partner, Jesus Rodriguez, and I thought it was a interesting book to read, since it has such a famous name. At first it seemed difficult to understand, but the students were capable of understanding the main plot. But with foresight, we knew students would like something easier and more interesting to read, so we have prepared a number of short stories for each meeting. It will be short, easy to understand, and exciting for the students. Plus, it would surely benefit in their reading comprehension skills.
Reading every day, not only will improve reading comprehension, but also memory, writing, and vocabulary. In a study in Emory University showed that immersing ourselves in a novel it “enhances connectivity in the brain and improves brain function“. Also, interesting enough, every time we engage in reading fiction the reader improves their ability to “ put themselves in another person’s shoes”, plus it “flexs” imagination almost like muscle memory in sports. So the more you read, the more does the brain gets accustomed to it, and it becomes easier and faster.
The United Nations estimates that about 800 million adults worldwide are illiterate. So, the students participating in our book club should be grateful that they can read and write with no problem at all, and that they have other people around them that care to improve that reading capability that many people only wish to have. Be thankful of the small, but extremely important, skills that we are given. And never forget to read at least 15 minutes a day!
\http://www.reading.org/Libraries/meetings/facts-about-international-literacy-day.doc
https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/the-athletes-way/201401/reading-fiction-improves-brain-connectivity-and-function
By: Thomas Finco