Math skills vs. Reading skills [infographic]

Is reading more difficult than math? Could it be?

I've too often heard people complain that math is hard or that they hate math. I've always found it sad. Over the years, I've gotten the impression that I'm a rare breed: someone who loves both math and language, and I'm endorsed to teach both.

I hear people say that they don't like reading. Usually they mean books. But I rarely hear people say it in the way that people complain about math. Does that mean reading is easier? Does that mean people have a better grasp of reading than mathematics? Not necessarily.

Edudemic recently posted "Which is easier: math or reading?" It looks at the numbers and gives a convincing argument that students in the US are having much more difficulty learning to read than learning math. If accurate, this would be a huge problem, as the vast majority of the world's academic, technical, and otherwise useful information is in written form. Poor reading skills creates an almost impenetrable barrier to further learning.

Read the article, and peruse the infographic below.


Image source: www.topeducationdegrees.org


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Reading aloud is an ageless activity

Story time at the Ketchikan Public Library, Ketchikan, Alaska (From krbd.org) 

When was the last time you read aloud to someone?

When was the last time someone read aloud to you?

As I read "Why reading aloud to older children is valuable", I thought of my step-mother. Like me, my step-mother loves to read, and she loves to borrow books form the library. Unlike me, however, she checks out a lot of audiobooks.

You see, my step-mother must commute 30+ minutes to and from work every day. I'm sure that one some of those trips the radio is tuned to a favorite radio station. On many days, however, a book on tape is the entertainment of choice. I can recall many time: her sitting in her car in the driveway several minutes after arriving, finishing up a chapter in her audiobook.

I also thought of myself. I don't borrow audiobooks, though perhaps I should. I do, however, listen almost exclusively to NPR. Don't laugh; in an average US city or town (i.e. not metroplex), it will have more diverse and interesting programming than almost any other radio station. There's music. There are interviews. There are even stories. I love listening to stories.

People have always enjoyed listening to stories. It's common across the cultural spectrum. When with friends, people tell stories to one another constantly: stories about friends, stories about ancestors, stories about their weekends, stories about their children, etc. We are a story-loving species.

I agree with all the ideas mentioned in the article. Reading to students' listening levels, modeling, "broadening the menu", the power of shared words, etc. are all important to learning, important to academic and emotional growth. But there is another reason: It's simply enjoyable.

Do you read to your students? What do you read?


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The demise of pleasure reading

There have been many reports recently with headlines such as "Why don't teen read for pleasure like they used to?" or "Why aren't teens reading like they used to?" or "U.S. children read, but not well or often: report". Most of the articles seem to reference this article from Common Sense Media.

The statistics, quoted from Common Sense Media, are not encouraging:

• 53% of 9-year-olds vs. 17% of 17-year-olds are daily reader
• The proportion who "never" or "hardly ever" read has tripled since 1984. A third of 13-year-olds and 45% of 17-year-olds say they've read for pleasure one to two times a year, if that.

Two of the articles linked above also delve into reading proficiency. Did you know that only about 1/3 of fourth grade students read proficiently? Or that another 1/3 read at a below basic level?

As a citizen of the US, this concerns me. As an educator, a language educator no less, this concerns me. As a father of young boys, the oldest of which (2 years 8 months) loves being read to, this concerns me. As an individual who tries to set aside at least a little time for reading every day, this concerns me.

Most of the articles are fairly quick to single out rising rates of media usage as the primary culprit. Rates of television viewing have remained basically stable, but computer and handheld device screen time has risen precipitously. Most articles also mention, however mostly in passing, that screen time could be spent in reading activities.

I would also point to digital (visual) media as a primary culprit. Between watching a video and reading a story, watching videos has a lower cognitive load than reading, and people tend toward lower cognitive loads when they can. Watching videos is more immediately gratifying than the slower process or reading. Together, this is a near death sentence for pleasure reading.

People are quick to bring up the examples of the Harry Potter series and The Hunger Games, forgetting that these phenomena were not primarily a victory of reading. These were primarily social movements, drawing people in because all their friends were reading them, not due to an intrinsic interest in reading. It's that intrinsic interest that defines pleasure reading.

While many young people are reading via social media and the like, I would be loathe to call this pleasure reading. That type of reading only builds language skills for that arena: social media. The language used among peers does not readily transfer to the skills needed to comprehend or appreciate texts of fiction, non-fiction, biography, science, technology, etc.

It is popular today to hear people talk about "digital literacy" and to make trendy assertions that today's students are simply different and have different "learning styles" than students of the past. Reading, however, still does and will form the foundation of an educated society. Reading needs to to be a primary concern of parents, educators, and society as a whole.


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Sometimes books are the best teachers?

Most expat families I knew in Changsha homeschooled their children. Generally this was done for linguistic reasons, the children not speaking Chinese well enough. Even those families whose children did go to Chinese schools often provided extra lessons at home. This would be homeschooling by virtual necessity.

In the US homeschooling is understandably less common. Recently, however, I've found myself in conversation with several families who teach their children at home. Their reasons have varied, but at least two of these families have chosen to homeschool, at least in part, because their children were not being challenged in their previous public schools. I've been very impressed with the curiosity and knowledge of these children and by their willingness and ability to interact well with adults. One thing has stood out for me with all of these families: the prominence of reading.

All of these kids read a lot. Two parents (different families) remarked that their children often grab books and teach themselves. One child likewise told my wife he often just gets a book and teaches himself. These parents are not lazy, but rather these students are motivated, curious and have the reading skills needed to pursue their interests. It reminds me of a family I met in 2003 whose daughter chose to study Latin (as an extra subject) once pulled out of the local school.

In a post last week, Stephen Krashen discussed the role access to books plays in promoting literacy. Jeff McQuillan also has also authored a study on the effects of print access. As common sense would seem to make obvious, students with higher literacy tend to perform better academically, as they are better prepared for texts, both written and aural. Overall, the importance of reading and of creating a culture of reading at home and at school has been reinforced over the past two weeks.

My family recently relocated to the US. Most of the books in our wall-o-books had to be left in China. Amusingly, I brought so many of my sons' Chinese language children's books back to the US with me, that two bags were searched in the airport to make sure I wasn't transporting "illegal literature". Now in the US, we go to the library a lot, but I miss the heavy physical presence of books in our home. We may end up homeschooling our children, also partly for linguistic reasons. Whether we do or not, literacy will remain a theme in our home.

How do you foster reading in your homes or classrooms?

Follow Matthew on twitter at @MatthewTShowman

A few other interesting articles
Cullinan, B.E. (2000) Independent reading and school achievement. Assessment of the role of school and public libraries in support of educational reform, Rockville, MD: Westat, Inc. [Accessed 5 January 2014].

Cunningham A.E. and Stanovich, K.E. 2001. What reading does for the mind. Journal of Direct Instruction, 1(2), p.137-49, [Accessed 5 January 2014].

Dickinson, D.K., Griffith, J.A., Golinkoff, R.M. and Hirsh-Pasek, K. 2012. How reading books fosters language development around the world. Child Research Development [Accessed 5 January 2014].

Duursma, E., Augustyn, M. and Zuckerman, B. 2008. Reading aloud to children: the
evidence. Arch Dis Child, 93(7), p. 554-57, [Accessed 5 January 2014].

All reading is not equal

When it comes to pleasure reading, what should your students or children be reading? What do you encourage them to read? Classic or modern? Fiction or non-fiction? Academic or non-academic? Newspapers? Magazines? Comic books? The backs of baseball cards?

What about physical vs. digital?

As Common Core State Standards (CCSS) begins to roll out across much of the country (for better or worse), the debate about what students read and should read has increased. CCSS calls for more exposure to informational texts and deemphasizes literature. Some support the change, others do not. What I do not see in the debate is how to create lifelong readers, which all but requires pleasure reading.

I'm a firm believer of self-selection. Readers naturally tend to gravitate towards readings that not only suit their interests, but also match their relative language ability. That is, while I may enjoy a comic book or a youth fiction now and again, or while I may occasionally challenge myself with a text like James Joyce's masterpiece Ulysses, I generally and naturally tend to read texts that fit my level of skill and comfort. I'm sure other readers do the same. Whatever genre your students or children like to read is probably just fine, just so long as they're reading and learning to love their reading experiences.

The issue becomes a bit more muddled when we talk about medium. Is reading from online, on e-readers, or on tablets equal to reading from physical formats? There are mixed answers to this question, with some studies showing equal or better results from electronic and hyperlinked (especially those with leads) text but the majority showing reduced recall (learning) from non-paper sources.

So what is the answer? For now I think the most prudent thing would be to encourage paper reading as much as possible without totally discounting electronic formats. Despite the the fact that hypertext and electronic formats intuitively seem ideal for learning, the research just isn't there yet. Below are listed some mixed resources that fall on either side of the debate.

What genres do you encourage for your students or children? Based on the research you've read, where do you fall along the digital-paper continuum?


Some articles for further reading
Antonenko, P., Dale S. Niederhauser, D.S. and Thompson, A. (2007) Optimization of cognitive load in conceptually rich hypertext: effect of leads. Cognitive science journal  [Accessed 29 December 2013]. 

Cagnoz, B. and Altun, A. (2012) The effects of hypertext structure, presentation, and instruction 

types on perceived disorientation and recall performances. Contemporary educational technology, 3(2), p.81-98. [Accessed 1 January 2014].

DeStefano, D. and LeFevre, J. (2007) Cognitive load in hypertext reading: A review, Computers in human behavior, 23, p.1616-41. [Accessed 29 December 2013].

Genç, H. and Gülözer, K. (2013) The effect of cognitive load associated with instructional formats and types of presentation on second language reading comprehension performance. Turkish online journal of educational technology, 12(4), p.171-82. [Accessed 2 January 2014].

Miall, D.S. and Dobson, T. (2001) Reading hypertext and the experience of literature. Journal of digital information, 2(1). Available through: Texas Digital Library [Accessed 29 December 2013].

Şahin, A. (2001) Effects of linear texts in page scrolling and page-by-page reading forms on reading comprehension introduction. Turkish online journal of educational technology, 10(3), p.94-100. [Accessed 2 January 2014].

Zumback, J. and Mohraz, M. (2008) Cognitive load in hypermedia reading comprehension: Influence of text type and linearity. Computers in human behavior, 24, p.875-87. [Accessed 29 December 2013].