IRA Convention
Last Wednesday I had the privilege of attending the mammoth International Reading Association Convention at McCormick Place in Chicago. It was interesting to see some of the new items companies are selling to help teachers teach reading. Apps for I-Pads was huge. The workshops were also great. One presenter showed a graph of how many words a student reads in a year compared to how long they read. She then showed us the difference in the number of words if the student reads 10 more minutes per day than they were reading. It was astounding. People tend to think - 10 minutes, what is 10 minutes? But if each child could spend just 10 minutes more per day reading than they already are, it would make a huge difference in the amount of words they have read in a year. It could also make a huge difference in their reading ability. Small amounts every day add up to large amounts, and larger gains by the end of the year.
