The Harlem Renaissance Gallery in the Nathan Hale Performing Arts Center
Did you know that silent reading has been part of the Nathan Hale daily schedule for ten years? Currently, students read for 30 minutes at the end of the day every Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. This commitment to fostering reading is a key component of Nathan Hale's vision.
I try to read in a different classroom each silent reading period. Today, I read with Ms. Brown's 6th period students. Here's a sampling of their books:
- Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer
- Die for Love by Elizabeth Peters
- Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
- Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein
Check out this link to the recently published NEA study on the decline of reading in the United States entitled To Read or Not to Read: A Question of National Consequence.
http://www.nea.gov/research/ToRead.pdf
Here's a quote from the study:
All of the data suggest how powerfully reading transforms the lives of individuals—whatever their social circumstances. Regular reading not only boosts the likelihood of an individual’s academic and economic success—facts that are not especially surprising—but it also seems to awaken a person’s social and civic sense. Reading correlates with almost every measurement of positive personal and social behavior surveyed.
Reading is alive and well at Nathan Hale!
