This, the 21st century, is the century of the critical reader. The 21st century reader is absorbing the world on a screen, on a mobile phone, on an ereader. More than ever before, every child needs not only to decode words and not to simply answer an adult’s questions such as “Who is the character in this story?” but more, much more: to navigate the cacophony of words in a universe of information, opinion and stories. They need to be able to input their own questions in that Google bar, and marshal information that matters to them, and that can change their lives.

The way we’ve taught reading until now does not match what the 21st century child needs to know, and to know what to do when navigating this complex and varied universe of information and opinion.

Imagine if you enrolled your child in a soccer tutorial and for three quarters of the hour long practice the coach described soccer using words instead of action. In place of drills or scrimmages, players were lectured on the precise angle to hold their foot when kicking the ball, or the theory behind a good offensive play. This is how reading has been taught for years in our schools. Teachers lecture about “reading comprehension strategies” and “decoding skills” instead of giving children the real and authentic opportunities to actually read from varied and meaningful resources in school. They are reading less than seven minutes every day, if that, independently, by the middle school grades.

With this in mind, the simplest solution and the key to stronger reading is to treat reading as practice. Teachers need to reduce the amount of time spent talking about the benefits of reading and allow students to sit down and read. It really is this simple. It is widely accepted that math aptitude comes from working through problems and exercises. It shouldn’t be hard to see then that the muscles for reading well are cultivated by absorbing words and practicing how to synthesize new ideas and new information for a new world.

Raising voracious, passionate readers means allowing children to take charge of their reading lives. A highly popular method for teaching reading is the “whole class novel” approach; it has never been proven effective by any measurable data but it is the single most common method for teaching reading anywhere in this country. Researchers (I have a particular affinity for the tireless work of Richard Allington on this subject) have been campaigning for years to say that reading at one’s own independent reading level is a dynamic and effective way to build students’ reading stamina, confidence and capacity for reading at higher levels.

What I am proposing is exquisitely simple, and therefore not costly. Children building capacity to read at and beyond their levels means they have to read from a deep variety of texts and for a wide variety of purposes, from a video game manual to a graphic novel to a blog on a subject of interest to the back of a cereal box to a classic canonic text. My idea is the converse idea to what has arisen from the ratcheting up of anxiety in our schools’ decision makers by poor data outcomes, who resort to the purchase of snake oil remedies when instead they could solve a very simple problem with a very simple solution. It’s as simple as this: children learn to read by reading. People get really good at what they do by doing it. Let’s bring reading back to the classroom.

Let’s let our children read.

These LitClubs, they feel like life and death work to me now. Why? The LitClubs are showing the girls that there is something to live for, that they can come to school instead of trading their bodies for food and potentially contracting the same disease that has killed many of their family members. And the LitClubs are showing the world that education, in time, is like vaccinating a child against poverty. That we are racing time to make this happen because every day a child misses school and begins to fade out, we lose part of the next generation.

A story: One of our LitClub members is the child head of a household of many children, her siblings; both her parents died of AIDS. She frequently visits the lake near her school because the men down there will give her scraps of food in the morning; in exchange for the use of her body. She goes to school after this, and then home to collect water from a distance, cook, clean and care for her many younger siblings, and go to bed in the pitch black, sleeping on the floor in one room with all her siblings breathing quietly beside her. She has told me her life is hard, but she was the first to offer me her only biscuit at the snack time we provided (it was her only meal of the day). She said to me the other day: “The Girls Club is the first place I ever felt what it must be like to be happy. I love coming here and I wish I could be here with everyone singing and reading always.”

I love the line “I am here for you” I found recently in a book of Buddhist meditations. I hope the LitClubs can be a way for us all to be here for her, for the girls to be here for each other, for us to be here for them, and through this, we all exist transactionally: We are here for each other.

To read the full article, click here.

It is my hope that you will join me in this movement.

You can also find the rest of my stories, as well as the stories of the LitCorps Ambassadors, on the LitCorps Ambassador blog.

I am far away right now, in Kibera, Nairobi, Kenya with our LitWorld Delegation working with the Children of Kibera Foundation to strengthen local teachers and community members as literacy leaders so that all children and all people can partake in the wildly miraculous world that is the world of words. I am thinking of you. I am thinking of how the world is in need of justice and fairness. I think this can only happen if we fortify the world for the world’s children. Like vitamins in milk and fresh air itself, literacy pumps power into minds and bodies…read more here.

My guest blog has recently been published on NBC News Education Nation:

1. Writing builds confidence in a child’s sense of herself and her voice.

2. Writing helps kids create and strengthen their identities.

3. Writing fosters a child’s emotional growth and gives him coping skills for dealing with life’s many highs and lows.

4. Writing helps kids develop critical thinking skills – it helps them understand and communicate complicated ideas.

5. Writing leads to guaranteed improvement in academic achievement.

As humans, we all want to belong and feel connected – it is in our very nature as social beings. We want to be able to share our stories meaningfully and to hear other people’s stories in a way that resonates with our own lives.

Language is the tool that brings us together. Giving our children the gift of expression at a young age sets them on a path of purpose, intention and engagement. Writing will give your child a sense of herself as a person in the world and will give her a voice that she will be proud to share with the world. A study done by the U.S. Department of Education shows that writing is one of the best ways to not only improve your child’s academic progress in school, but to also improve your child’s self-expression and self-reliance. Two other studies show that writing improves children’s academic progress by helping them learn and retain new material better and – when done frequently both at home and at school – by building their confidence in their writing and communication abilities.

Writing will also bring you closer to your child because it will give you access to his wonderfully complex inner life. The human desire to connect through language begins with a baby’s first smile. It is never too early to start your child down the path of a writer’s life. By engaging in the act of writing, we are engaging in the valuing of life, valuing one another, and valuing the precious moments we share.

Writing opens up an enormous world of possibilities for people of all ages and occupations. No matter the age, people are fascinated, consumed, enchanted and delighted by the power of the written word. Children are especially drawn to the incredible power of stories and words, and they are already so naturally living a writer’s life – one of observation, wonder, memory and imagination. A life where, by simply writing something down, you can make it happen.

This is a sentiment that we simply must encourage, nurture and allow to take root in our children so that it will become a lifelong conviction. By having access to the written word, your child grows up with a sense that he has and will always have something to say that could change people’s minds. There is great power in being able to say exactly what you mean and seeing that people understand and are engaged by your words and ideas.

Read more at EducationNation.com….

Thank you CBS Radio and WCBS 880 for interviewing me for your show!

Interview by Catherine Cioffi In Westchester County: Pam Allyn is busy packing up books and lessons before her plane to Kenya leaves on Friday.

Listen to my interview on WCBS 880 here.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011
The Metropolitan Pavilion
110 West 19th Street
New York, NY 10011

6:30-9pm Cocktails & Hors D’oeuvres

Kindly RSVP by April 29, 2011 at litworld.org/donate

° ° °
Watch this quick Sneak Peak Video
featuring the song “Whole Wide World” by Mindy Gledhill

I send my words out into the air, listening for yours from everywhere.
- Naomi Shihab Nye

What words do you send out into the air?

What words do you listen for?

Celebrate Poetry Month and create a Global Poem for Change with LitWorld!

What comes next?

Submit a line of your own at litworld.org/poem and make our Poem GROW.

We need Your Words to Change Worlds.

Share our announcement and help our poem soar around the world…

I celebrated the day in New York City with LitWorld staff members and great friends. Among many events happening on this day we had a 24 hours read-a-thon at Times Square, which was covered by Good Morning America.

Here’s a quick peak at our set-up and the big day: