The Longhorn Way: Reading is key to lifelong success

Dr Seuss would say, “The more that you read, the more you will know, the more that you know, the more places you will go.”
I believe all of us want the best for our kids. Studies indicate, if each of our birth to five-year-old kids were given a chance to have five books a day read to them, the child would hear about 1.4 million more words than a child who has never been read to. By filling our children’s brains with all the vocabulary words, we are preparing our children to read and understand those words in print.
The Nebraska Reading Improvement Act, which was enacted in 2018 and went into effect during the 2019-20 school, is a law that takes a comprehensive approach to improve the early literacy skills of our K-3 students. It asks each school to measure a student’s reading ability three times a year.
Chase County Schools is currently using MAP Growth. If a student does not make the benchmark for his or her grade level, the parent will be notified by a letter explaining their child’s reading deficiency and the plan of action in which to help that child gain the knowledge needed to get their child to read on grade level.
The Act assists in developing the strong relationship needed to develop a strong support system between the family, community and school. The goal is to develop our students into successful readers and problem solvers so our child will graduate and succeed.
A few reading tips to help your child succeed in reading are included in the following paragraph.
Make reading a part of your every day, even for just a few minutes. Find the parts of your day where you can add time to read, and areas where you can keep books, so they are always available. Talk about the pictures in books. You do not have to read the book to tell a story. Let your child turn the pages when you read together. Show your child the cover page and explain what the story is about. Run your finger along the words as you read them. Read the story using different voices for each of the characters. Have fun! Choose books about events in your child’s life, such as starting school, going to the dentist or taking care of pets. Ask questions about the story. What do you think will happen next? What is this? How does this character feel? Let your child ask questions about the story. Talk about familiar activities and objects. Let your child retell the story.
Reading is the key to a student’s academic and lifelong success. We want our students to have the ability to be resilient, and become critical thinking problem solvers who have the capability to articulate their thoughts and feelings.
So please take the time to share a story with your child.