dent also increases on pro rata basis (Alter, 2014).
Apropos to the study by Common Media Sense, the
percentage of 9-year olds and 17-year olds who read
for fun is 58% and 19% correspondingly (Alter, 2014).
While it is unvarnished that teenagers are more tech-
savvy, they also have more homework to complete.
Social Factors
As per the RTOS formula used by Renaissance Learn-
ing Inc., A book’s complexity is determined by “av-
erage sentence length, average word length, word
difficulty level and total number of words in a book/
passage” (POST, 2012). A complex text would thus be
didactic in vocabulary and sentence complexity. An
annex of complexity is non-fiction books. However,
non-fictions are less popular among children – with
the ratio of fictional books sold to non-fictional books
being 4:1 (Goodwin & Miller, 2012). Informational
texts like non-fiction and news are important aspects
of reading and should be cultivated at some point of
time into our kids. The latter is not only because kids
can learn vocabulary and sentence complexity, but
it’ll also expose them to real-world issues and not is-
sues revolving a fantasy realm.
1. Social Image
Media played a significant role in besmirching the
image associated with reading – the habit is treated
with derision. Furthermore, individuals who read are
denigrated to be the epithet of a “nerd”. Ergo, the so-
cial stigma associated with reading books discour-
ages children from reading/carrying a book. Almost
one third of the surveyed children in a study by the
National Literacy Trust admitted that they are “embar- 3. Reading at Home
rassed to be seen reading” (Paton, 2013).
Reading habits should be cultivated at home by
parents. Parents should embrace their role as read-
2. Fiction vs Non-Fiction
ing examples as it not only connects them with their
Compendium of the 40 books that are widely read by children but also nurtures their kids to pick up the
American adolescents in grades 9-12 placed the
habit. However, today’s milieu coerces parents to
mean reading level to be at 5.3,which is paral-
spend less time reading to their kids. The aver-
lel to a 5th grade reading level (POST, 2012).
age time spent by parents reading to their kids
Mr. David Coleman, contributing author of
aged 2-7 was 45 minutes in 1999 but dropped
common core state standards, avowed
to 30 minutes in 2013 (Alter, 2014). Idiosyncra-
that children must be exposed to
sies in different races also determine how
“more high quality informa-
much reading a child is exposed
tional text” and should “read
to when they are young. Re-
books with increasing com-
search by common media
plexity as they
suggested that 75% of
get older”
white children’s parents
(POST,
read to them while the
2012). Mr.
percentage of black chil-
Co l e m a n
dren and Hispanic chil-
attributed
dren whose parents read
a student’s
to them are 66% and 50%
success in
respectively (Alter, 2014).
college to
The difference in the level
their ability
of reading experience that
to compre-
the children accumulated
hend a gam-
reflected on their academic
ut of com-
performance – As of 2013,
plex texts. However,
white children were the
the current popular books
most proficient in reading,
among high school students are
followed by black children and
not complex enough for their age to pre-
lastly by Hispanic children (Alter, 2014).
pare them for the austerities of both college and work Moreover, according to the National literacy Trust,
(POST, 2012).
more than one fourth of the surveyed children con-
Winter / Spring 2017 | ZEALOUSNESS MAGAZINE |