Ep 185 | The REAL trick to get your kids to read

SPEAKER_01 0:00

I know that time is very limited with your children, especially if you're a full-time working parent. Maybe you have an hour or two before bedtime by the time you get home, but just 15 minutes right before they go to sleep. They are more likely to score in the 90th percentile just by reading 15 minutes a day. They are four times more likely to increase their reading score, and they are two times faster at making gains in the classroom and four times more likely to start reading at proficiency by the end of the year.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

You'll meet the real people behind the titles and learn about the amazing resources to support your child's success. Reading and writing are foundational to a child's education. But how can you move your kid from have to to want to? From obligation to interest. My next guest has been a teacher for 15 years. She currently teaches fourth grade at Scenic Heights and is also a board member at Books by the Bay and Emerald Coast Writers Association. Today she's going to share how Books by the Bay is not just a book fair, but a literary extravaganza in inspiring the next generation. Published author and Booker T. Washington graduate and celebrator of books, Ann McDonald. Thanks for being here. Thank you for having me. I love how you mentioned the high school I went to. Well, okay, there's a reason for that. The reason is because since doing the show, we're in our third year. There are so many incredible people and resources in the county. Yes. And the number of those people behind the resources that are products of Escambia County Public Schools is so amazing to me.

SPEAKER_01 1:58

Oh, wow.

SPEAKER_00 1:59

So I think it just creates like a sense of camaraderie and pride of Escambia County Public School graduates when you're like, oh wow, that person doing that really cool thing, they're from the same high school that my kids going to or that I also graduated from. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:14

Oh, I like that connection.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

But you're a woman of many hats. You're a teacher, a published author. You edit books. Yes. Right. You have a podcast called Debut Writers. You're on, I mean, the list is long. You're gonna catch my breath. You're on the board for Emerald Coast Writers Association and on the board for the Books by the Bay event. So safe to say you're kind of all in on this reading thing. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

Why is that? So having been teaching in the district for 15 years, I've taught mostly elementary school. I have dabbled in middle school. I actually created and taught a creative writing course for my son's private middle school, St. Paul's, and it was really successful. Kids, I was impressed by how many kids were honestly interested in writing a book and putting the story together. Because you find a lot of kids are not really interested in reading. They're forced into doing it's like you had in the intro, it's a have to. And you know, how do you move them into a want-to? How do you create that love of reading within children? And having been a reading teacher for the last five years of that 10 years, I've done a lot of reading with kids. And it really spawned from my own kind of aha moment into how important daily reading is for children's gain. And it happened with my own son when he was moving into third grade. We all know about the fast test and the scores and the levels, and you got to be a certain level to pass. So when he went to third grade, he was a low level two. So low second grade reading level to the point where, with my knowledge and background, I was really starting to worry that he might have a learning disability, specifically a reading disability. And we're going into third grade. I talked to his teacher about it. He also is being taken off his ADHD meds the same year. So all of this is gonna happen while he's not on his medication, too, by the way. So I think it's even more of a testament to how much this matters. But that teacher was hardcore, man. They read every single night. They did, I think, 10 books that year and book projects. And he had to read every single night because my kid, he's only gonna do it if you have to. And so every night he read before bed, he's reading. And by the end of his third grade year, and shout out to Miss Prania, he tested out at a level five. And that I know it was a huge jump in his reading level.

SPEAKER_00 4:50

Okay, wait a minute. When because you say year, like at first I was thinking, oh, 12 months. No, you're talking school year.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

Yes, school year. So from September, when he took that like back to school test to May when they test out, that's how much of a gain he had made. And I really believe it is because he sat there and he read every single night. There wasn't an iPad before bedtime. There wasn't TV before we go to sleep. He was reading in bed every single night. And not just a page, it was chapters. I mean, she just signed two, three chapters a night. He's up for like an hour sometimes reading, but it made such an incredible difference. And it also set an amazing routine for him to where now, even though it's not required, he's reading before bed every night. Really? Yeah. And that's kind of because I tell them, I'm like, we have dinner and then we watch one TV show. And then I'm like, all right, it's time to go to bed. And it's eight o'clock, and he's 13 now, and he's I don't want to go to bed at eight o'clock. I'm like, well, you don't have to go to sleep, but you have to go get in bed and you can read as late as you want. He was like, Well, what if I want to read till three in the morning? I was like, go for it, man. Like, as long as you're reading, I don't care if you stay up all night. I think there's some serious reverse psychology happening here. Yes, definitely, definitely. And so I was so impressed by just the gains he made that year. And now as a teacher, and now I'm in fourth grade and teaching that my students this year, I'm really working with them on. We're doing holes right now as our book study. And they're reading multiple chapters a night. And I'm specifically not reading in the classroom with them because I want them reading at home. I want them creating that routine because it does make a difference. It makes a huge, huge difference. They say that children that read just a bare minimum, 15 minutes a day. Think of how much time you have. I know that time is very limited with your children, especially if you're a full-time working parent. Maybe you have an hour or two before bedtime by the time you get home, but just 15 minutes right before they go to sleep. They are more likely to score in the 90th percentile just by reading 15 minutes a day. They are four times more likely to increase their reading score. And they are two times faster at making gains in the classroom and four times more likely to start reading at proficiency by the end of the year. So, I mean, these are some like heavy numbers that I researched and I looked up. And so it's making a difference. So when you ask your teacher, what can I be doing at home with my kid? It's not write those spelling words 20 times or you memorize your vocabulary words on cards. Just read with your child. It doesn't even matter what you read. I had a parent one time say, Well, can we read a cookbook? I'm like, I don't even care. Just read anything, just words on paper, whether you're reading to them or whether they're reading to you or whether reading independently, just please read.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

I feel motivated to read just from the five minutes that we've been recording. Your enthusiasm is contagious. And it makes me reflect back on the culture of reading that I grew up in because I think for all kids, they have a lot of energy. It's hard to sit still. But reading stamina is something that you hear a lot of complaining about online. There's all kinds of teacher talk or whatever, like TikTok, that they complain the kids cannot read and definitely not reading with understanding, like full chapters, full books. And I remember we had something called DEAR, and it was an acronym drop everything and read. And we still do that. That's so cool. I didn't know that. And but I remembered it as like an adult. And as I was trying to create healthy habits for reading as an adult, because use it or lose it, your brain atrophies. I remembered the acronym DEAR. And I started to set an alarm when the weather was nice for me to go outside and just sit on the porch and read for 15 minutes. And so I reflect on that because I'm wondering what habits that you are creating through your enthusiasm and through books by the bay and through the culture that you're creating in your classroom, what kind of adults you're going to make from that? I hope good ones. I'm trying to raise them right.

SPEAKER_01 9:13

But I really have being a writer, I remember when I wrote my first book and I met with my very first literary agent. And one of the big questions she asked me is, okay, well, what is your book compared to? Because who are we going to sit you next to on the shelf when you're in the store? And I was like, Well, I don't know. I barely understand the genre I'm writing in. And she was like, This is a problem. You need to understand your genre. You need to know the other big names in. I write psychological thrillers, fiction. And so she's like, you need to know the other big players in this game and you need to be reading them like very frequently. And so that kind of spawned my love for reading, my like re-engagement as an adult, because I definitely think you lose that as an adult, especially in our world today with all the technology and the TV and the iPhones. Reading just falls into the background. And if you don't love it, you definitely don't do it.

SPEAKER_00 10:10

And you don't realize the deficit within yourself until you sit down and you try to read a book that isn't a BuzzFeed article. Yeah. And then you're like, wow, I just read that paragraph three times. I know. I know. Time to dust off these reading muscles. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:26

Or you're like reading, you're like, I don't even know what I'm reading. What happened? Something's going on. And that's why I think I love psychological thrillers and mysteries so much because you have to pay attention. If you're not paying attention, you're going to miss the clue. So that's why I'm really always all engaged in those books. And I really do love them. And I love writing them because with my mind, my son has ADHD for a reason because I have it pretty bad. So, but when I'm writing, it engages all of that. And so it's one of the only times where I feel like my brain is focused and quiet and like in a piece because it's just rolling on this one thing, you know? And I never get to do that. I never get to just focus on one thing, right? With my ADHD brain. So that's where my love of writing came from. And then through that spawn, my love of reading. And now, I mean, you won't find me without a book in my purse, without a book on my lap. I mean, I take a book everywhere. And every minute I'm not having to engage or do something. I'm reading as much as I can. And so I think that's also as a parent, something you can set a standard for your child to. Don't just have them reading at night. You start reading at night too. Or sit down and do that, drop everything in read time. Say after dinner, no more tablets, no more TV. That's our reading time. And again, I don't read a BuzzFeed article or read a graphic novel, which I really think graphic novels are leading to the death of writing. But, you know, they have their place. I think they have their place with helping kids learn how to read and that transition from like picture books to full, like just textbooks, but don't hang out in graphic novels too long because it really will hinder their ability to comprehend just text. Just side piece there. But just really like sitting down with them and modeling that reading. We always talk to parents, I'm sure, about modeling that behavior for our kids.

SPEAKER_00 12:26

Well, it's interesting to me that you're connecting your love of reading and your love of writing. They are weaving in and out of each other as you're describing your obsession with it. And I don't know that I've ever connected the two. I think to me, they were a bit separate. So, what does that look like for strategies at home? Because you just said strategies for reading could include after dinner time, maybe it is a drop everything and read technique, modeling it. But is the writing piece as important at home?

SPEAKER_01 13:02

Yes, I think it's hugely important. And I think it's really important, especially for kids today, to have an outlet. And so this is what I got my son for his 13th birthday. I got him a journal. And I'm really encouraging him. He hates it, by the way. I was gonna say, um, can we please not on board, but I'm really encouraging him to like write in it. Just take a moment to like check in with your feelings. This is my mental health background that like comes out underneath the teaching. But it's just check in with yourself and write it down. And I saw this amazing TikTok video about these kids when they were 12 or 13, they wrote a letter to themselves when they graduated high school. What? And so now they're graduating high school and they're reading this letter from themselves. And it's so inspiring and they're laughing. And some of them are like, oh, I wanted to be a professional soccer player. Well, I'm going to school for engineering now. So, like, that doesn't work, you know, but to see like what you felt like when you were 13. So I think it's so important to give kids an outlet to really let those emotions flow just freely without any judgment. And so I think writing at home, giving your kids a journal is really helpful. I think you'll find, especially with girls, because like we have free journal time in our class and the girls are all about it. They love writing in their journal. I've got a few boys that like it, but I think you have to encourage them a little bit more. Because again, boys I think have a harder time sometimes sitting still too and like really focusing. But I just feel like good writing is from good reading. And to improve your writing, read higher level books, read better books. This is why I say graphic novels are the death of writing. Because if all you're reading is graphic novels, then your writing really suffers because you don't really understand how to write in complete sentences. You don't understand how to write descriptively and to describe a scene because you're like, oh, well, it's just always there for me. I don't have to describe it, or I don't have to know how to read a scene and picture it in my mind because the picture's always there. So that's where graphic novels start to hinder at a certain age. And so writing supports the reading, reading supports writing. And I just feel like they're so intertwined. You really can't have one without the other.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

That's really insightful. It sounds like almost like an analogy of food, is what I have in my mind. Good fuel in, good, you know, good output. Because yeah. So I love that. Thinking of it as more of a cycle and less of an either or. So when it comes to the books by the Bay event, how does that amplify the enthusiasm for both reading and writing for kids? So this will be our third year.

SPEAKER_01 15:43

And I've been on the board each year. I actually got involved, luckily, a few months before the very first one launched. And I happened upon it just through mutual friends and happened upon Emerald Coast Writers just by being an author in this community. And it's such an amazing organization. They're so incredibly supportive of writers. The entire event is grant funded. And so that's really awesome. It's the humanities grant that we work under. And so that's really great that they support literacy in this area. And it really is meant to elevate local authors. We have a ton of local authors that are coming, children's book authors like Eric Paul and Lisa Wright will be there. I'll be there. There's a lot of adult authors coming. Laura Boyles, she's another local author. And then Duel Christian is going to be there. And he just came out with this Pensacola cookbook, but it's a historical cookbook. It's really cool. I saw him at the Saturday Pala Fox Market. Yes, his book is really awesome. So definitely come and check it out. But it all started as just an event to really support local authors. But what we found that first year was so many kids came. And it didn't hurt having John Patrick Green there, the author of Investigators. He's a pretty big graphic novelist. And so a lot of kids came to that and they really enjoyed it. And so last year we really leaned in a little bit more to that. We got the Emerald Coast Writers Youth Organization involved, which is a thing, by the way. So if you do have a child who's really interested in writing, definitely go to that website, fill out an application so you can become part of the youth Emerald Coast Writers because it really is a great growing community that we're nurturing. It's one of my as a board member projects that I'm working on. So I'm really excited about it. But back to Books by the Bay, we're having a whole children's space. So we're going to have an area that's all kid-lit authors and an area that's all mid-grade authors. And then a place where we're teaching kids about writing, teaching kids about making books, doing author readings, author signings, helping kids learn how to do illustrations if that's what they're interested in. So I'm just really excited for this because I always think that it's great having adults come out. It's great supporting the community that way. But really, literacy is such an issue, such an issue. And so to have an event that can really support and make that fun, like you said, it's taking it from a have to to a want-to. And I think meeting an author, like I can't tell you how many times I've met people. And just because they've met me, they've read my book. And I actually had one of my really good friends, we know her, Gretchen, Mutual Friends. Shout out to Gretchen. And I remember when I came out with my book, her and her friend Danielle, we were all three friends, they both read my book. And since then, they have started a book club. They have stayed in this book club. They are reading nonstop. And before that, they'll tell you, they're like, we weren't reading, but reading your book reignited that love of reading, like what we forgot, you know, kind of how I talked about earlier. And so I just always love that story because I'm like, I'm just glad that I like reinvigorated your love for reading. And that's what I think Books at the Bay is all about. It's like bringing people in, meeting that author can be really special, getting a signed book, saying I know that person. I think it makes a difference and it makes you more connected to the material and more willing to read it as a want-to instead of a have to.

SPEAKER_00 19:19

It also sounds like what's the word I'm looking for? You know how in our culture we have celebrities and athletes, and they're all amazing at their craft. I'm not saying they don't deserve limelight, but how cool is it that we can have limelight on people that are also excelling in their craft and it encourages students to participate in reading and writing that could launch them into a career. But like worst case scenario, they will be literate lifelong learners. I mean, hello. I know there's no bad takeaway from this. That's a pretty good consolation prize. Can you paint a picture of what the event looks like? Because it's down by the Bay, the senior center, or used to be called the senior center. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 20:10

So at the Bayview Park. Baby Park. So right there in East Hill. This is our first year doing it there. We've typically done it downtown, but we needed a bigger space this year. We have over 200 authors coming from 20 different states. They come in from all over the place. And so it's becoming a really big event, which is really exciting for us. About 2,000 people came last year. So you know we're hoping for the same amount, if not more, but it really is. I mean, there's activities to do, there's authors to meet, there's books to buy, and then there's also author readings the whole time. So definitely go check out the website, Oaks by the Bay under Emerald Coast Writers, and it'll have a whole list of events and the times. And it's family friendly. And it's just going to be such an amazing event to really just come and especially if you're trying to get your kid in that love of reading, bring them down there and let them see this is successful. There are people out there writing and putting books out, and this is fun. And it can be a career. Cause when I was teaching the creative writing course for my middle school students, that was something that a lot of them were like, well, I just do this for fun. You made a career out of it. How did that happen? Can I make a career out of it? And I'm like, yes, yes, you can.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Yeah, that's incredible. So is there like a children's section? Because like I come from old school book fair at the school, and it was so fun. It was exciting, the smell of the new books. Is there that element?

SPEAKER_01 21:38

Yes, there's gonna be a whole children's section and it's gonna be inside the senior center, and there's gonna be all sorts of activities for children to do too, centered around reading and illustrating and writing.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

I love that. What are some other ways that parents can create a culture of reading at home?

SPEAKER_01 21:55

So we really talked about that modeling, just modeling that reading. We're sitting there. I mean, I just remember my son when he was a toddler and he took my phone off the table one time and he just started punching it and scrolling it. And I was like, this is what I look like to him. This is how he sees me. He sees me on this phone constantly. So I changed it and I started putting a book in my hand. And then all of a sudden, when I look to my son and I'm like, what is he doing? He's got a book in his hand. And I've got so many pictures of him sitting in like this, we called it his little reading corner. He would just go over to the basket of books and he would just sit there. I mean, he can't read them. He's a toddler. He's not reading the words, but he's sitting there just modeling exactly what I was doing at the time because I made that shift. So just making something so simple, just a little thing, like go to the bookstore with your child. Both of you pick out a book, share that love, share that even if you don't have a love or excitement. Like us parents, we can pretend. And hey, you probably will pick a good book and you will develop a love of reading. I remember my brother net hated reading, would never do it. Then Harry Potter came out. And I mean, we went to, I remember standing in lines at Barnes and Nobles at midnight with that boy, waiting for that final Harry Potter book. And she created, whether you love or hate her, love or hate her books, she created a massive culture of reading. And I see it happening again. It's like the next generation is loving it all over again. So I always tell parents, like helping your child find some series or something that they're just like Magic Treehouse, the I Survived books, anything, the Wings of Fire, like these are all really popular series right now. Just have them try different ones out, go to the library, rent the books, all that kind of stuff, but do it with them because I think that right there is you're just gonna see a massive change in their want to do it.

SPEAKER_00 23:58

I love that. I'm excited that you also have this event that parents, you know, it's presumably on a weekend. Yes. And that parents. So parents can go somewhere on a Saturday with their kids, have an activity. It's free. Yes, totally free. So then they can go for free and have something to do. It's a beautiful park. Yes. And then they can get excited about reading. Did you already shout out the dates? Can we do that before we go?

SPEAKER_01 24:21

So it'll be March 28th and it's 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. I'll be there signing and selling my books from 10 to 1. Shout out to that. So look me up, find me. I don't have any children's books. I do have a young adult book, and then I have my adult book. So no children's book yet. That's still in the works because so many times I've told people I'm an author and they're like, oh, you write children's books. And I was like, you would think so, right? Being an elementary teacher, but no, I don't let them read my books. So I finally like got together and put just some children's books together. So hopefully getting those into production soon. I wrote them with one of my best friends. And it's going to be a series for about autism and for children with autism and kind of things that parents can do to kind of help their children, just little skills that we've learned working with her child and working, I've worked with a lot of autistic children. And so I'm really excited about that series. Finally going to have a children's book series. He's out there eventually.

SPEAKER_00 25:18

I love that. And what's the event website? So the event website is booksbythebay.com. Super simple. Okay, I love it. I am so glad that you are doing this and that your enthusiasm is so, so contagious because it does make a difference and it gives kids the agency to explore whatever it is that they're interested in while increasing their literacy and their habit of lifelong learning. So thank you so much for doing this. This was great.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

Yes, thank you so much. I've really enjoyed it. And it's my passion, so you know. It's not obvious at all.

SPEAKER_00 25:56

Thanks for listening. Be sure to subscribe and share. Voices United in Education is a production of Scambe County Public Schools.