"We all talk about needing more parent engagement, but most educators struggle with how to get parents engaged," said José Parra, superintendent of the Irving Independent School District in Texas. "Parents want to be helpful. We just have to show them how. The One District, One Book (ODOB) program has given us a mechanism to show parents how they can work with their kids and help—and have it also be an enjoyable experience."
Dozens of districts and hundreds of individual schools have discovered that shared reading programs offer a powerful model for engaging parents in family literacy activities. Through ODOB, every family in participating elementary schools receives a copy of a book, meaning that even reluctant readers and parents who don't normally participate in school activities have a direct link to get involved. Everybody throughout the district takes part—students, parents, teachers, administrators, and bus drivers. Daily trivia questions and other activities in the schools ensure that reading takes center stage throughout the community during the nearly month-long activity. Superintendents in participating districts report overhearing discussions of the book at restaurants, supermarkets, and community events around town.
The concept of an entire community reading a single book builds on several important principles educators know are effective in engaging students—especially reluctant students—in reading.
Promoting Positive Peer Pressure
We all know that peer pressure can lead to negative behavior in students. The flip side is when peer pressure promotes positive behaviors such as reading for pleasure. We've all seen the excitement that sweeps through a classroom when a student discovers a book such as Wonder, The One and Only Ivan, or a book in the Humphrey series and spreads the word among friends. Soon, the book makes its way through the entire class. Having all elementary students in an entire district simultaneously reading the same carefully chosen book further magnifies the "bandwagon" effect.
Engaging Parents
Rather than nagging their kids to do homework, parents are overjoyed to have a reason to pry kids away from electronics to spend quality family time together. According to a 2015 Scholastic survey, 54 percent of children ages 0 to 5 are read aloud to at home five to seven days a week. This number declines rapidly throughout the elementary years. Still, more than 8 in 10 children (83 percent) across age groups say they love(d) or like(d) being read aloud to at home—with the main reason being it was a special time with parents. The ODOB program allows parents to extend that special time spent reading with children.
Making Reading Fun
Creating a fun atmosphere for reading helps students develop good reading habits. Schools use daily trivia quizzes and book-related events to fire up students about reading, building interest that remains long after they've read a specific book.
Research shows that students who read more tend to score higher on standardized reading tests, and this is borne out in surveys relating to the ODOB program. Elementary schools in Northumberland, Va., saw their pass rates on the statewide 3rd grade reading test rise more than 30 percentage points after participating in the program.
Meanwhile, surveys in Watertown, N.Y., indicated that 96 percent of parents believed the ODOB program would lead their children to read more often or reinforce their current love of reading. Furthermore, the responses showed that the percentage of children who read for pleasure in their spare time rose from 8 percent to 57 percent over a period of two years, indicating that the shared reading experience had a cumulative and lasting effect among students.
Superintendents view programs that boost reading interest as key components of their overall literacy programs. Superintendent Brad Reed of USD428 in Great Bend, Kans., said that the ODOB program "presents a perfect opportunity to re-establish parent/child connections over reading." Noting how enthusiastically parents and students embraced reading The World According to Humphrey together last fall, Superintendent George Steinhoff of the Penn-Delco School District in Pennsylvania plans to offer two shared reading experiences each year. "It's hopefully the start of a new tradition," he said.
By stimulating family involvement in the reading process and boosting student engagement with books, shared reading programs can contribute to breaking the cycle of illiteracy—and therefore poverty—that exists in many low-income families.
For the second consecutive year, the Dallas Cowboys' head coach Jason Garrett kicked off a statewide Texas Reads One Book initiative in April. His videotaped reading of the first chapter of Charlotte's Web was made available to participating schools statewide. "If you want to become a better football player, you have to practice," said Garrett in the video. "If you want to become a better reader, you have to practice. It's fun to read! It's fun to find out about these characters and many others."
And that's the key—helping students find the fun in books and encouraging them to practice their literacy skills by reading for pleasure. Bringing together parents, students, and books in a shared reading experience can motivate even the most reluctant reader. The ODOB program offers an excellent mechanism for accomplishing this. To learn more, visit www.readtothem.org.