Encourage Your Student to Read over Winter Break!

EducationNews.org - A Leading Global News Source - Why doesn’t reading more make us better readers?

According to this article, originally published in the Washington Post, Americans now are reading more than we did in 1980, but our nation's reading scores haven't improved since the 1970s.

Why? Well, it all comes down to the kinds of reading we're doing. Although we're reading more, we're reading web sites like Facebook, we're reading text messages, and we're reading how-to information on our favorite video games.

The key to improving reading skills is to read more books, magazines, and newspaper articles! According to the author, Daniel Willingham, whose article is linked above, "Practice in reading lightweight material won’t improve your reading much. Reading content-rich material will."

So... please help our Oracle students make a commitment to content-rich reading over the Winter Break. We've even put together some book suggestions from Mrs. Behr:

• Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins - From School Library Journal: "In a not-too-distant future, the United States of America has collapsed, weakened by drought, fire, famine, and war, to be replaced by Panem, a country divided into the Capitol and 12 districts. Each year, two young representatives from each district are selected by lottery to participate in The Hunger Games. Part entertainment, part brutal intimidation of the subjugated districts, the televised games are broadcasted throughout Panem as the 24 participants are forced to eliminate their competitors, literally, with all citizens required to watch."
• The Book Thief, Markus Zusak - This book, set during World War II and narrated by Death himself, is ultimately a story about the power of words and friendship.
• The Lovely Bones, Alice Sebold - From Amazon: When we first meet the narrator of this novel, she is already in heaven, looking on as her family copes with their grief and searches for her killer. This novel is both suspenseful and touching, and is ultimately a story about the power of memory and understanding.
  
• We Were Here, Matt de la Pena - From Amazon: "When it happened, Miguel was sent to Juvi. The judge gave him a year in a group home—said he had to write in a journal so some counselor could try to figure out how he thinks. The judge had no idea that he actually did Miguel a favor..."
• Half-Broken Horses: A True Life Novel, Jeanette Walls - From Publishers Weekly: "For the first 10 years of her life, Lily Casey Smith, the narrator of this true-life novel by her granddaughter, Walls, lived in a dirt dugout in west Texas. Walls ... writes in what she recalls as Lily's plainspoken voice, whose recital provides plenty of drama and suspense as she ricochets from one challenge to another."
• Catching Fire, Suzanne Collins - If you finish Hunger Games and want more...this is the second book in the series.