Photo: Luzinterruptus |
We are worried about
reading. Parents and grandparents, librarians, pediatricians, teachers, school
boards, college administrators, employers, museum educators, and avid readers, are worried
about children being ready to read at earlier and earlier ages. We worry about the word
gap becoming a reading gap becoming a stubbornly persistent achievement gap. We worry
about the presence of reading material in homes and about boys not connecting
with books. Each summer we worry about summer reading loss. Around 3rd
and 4th grade we worry about the transition from learning to read to
reading to learn. Every year there’s worry about reading test scores and
grade-level reading at the end of 3rd grade and graduation rates. We
worry about children, youth, and adults wanting
to read. We worry about reading in short bursts on small devices. In museums we
worry about visitors reading text panels and way-finding signs
Given what we know about the
far-reaching impacts of reading on success in school and throughout life, this
concern is not misdirected nor is it exaggerated. Every important social issue
is affected by low literacy: poverty, education, employment, social justice. More
than merely a single set of skills for sounding out letters and printed words,
reading is intimately related to writing, listening, speaking, and thinking. It
is through sounds, words, stories, books, and ideas that we explore,
understand, and navigate the world starting in infancy. Limited early
experiences with language, interactions with others, and access to books can
change the life-long trajectory.
Moreover, reading is
pleasurable and
empowering–something everyone deserves to enjoy.
Our worry about reading is
expressed in many and varied ways and at different scales and is clearly not only
the domain of schools. Because early language development is early literacy
development, campaigns like TalkingIsTeaching, Providence Talks, and the Thirty Million Words initiative are spreading through communities across the
country as programs, billboards, and bus sides. Basic literacy is one of the 21stcentury skills highlighted by IMLS. Libraries, schools, community centers,
and homeless shelters offer programs and camps to slow summer reading slide and build
reading skills. Newspaper articles offer parent tips on encouraging teen reading
year round. There are apps for reading, rhyming, and spelling.
How do museums fit into addressing
this pervasive challenge? Museums don’t teach reading. It’s hard to find an
interactive experience that attempts to explore punctuation, spelling, or transitive
and intransitive verbs. Museums, however, do share information and tell
stories. As places where people gather and connect and explore objects,
artwork, ideas, and fascinating slices of the world, museums combine the
conditions that encourage language and literacy development, build an interest
in words, and inspire readers of all ages.
As
they greet visitors, sell a membership, lead a tour, answer a question, write
label copy, museums can, and do, deliberately and actively engage children and
adults in speaking, listening, reading and writing; in thinking and
making connections, and in deepening enjoyment with ideas and interests. In the
exhibits they develop, text they compose, programs they offer, resource centers
they house, partnerships they form, authors they present, and in the book clubs they host, museums have a vital role to
play in our becoming a nation of readers. Some of the ways this is happening
are highighted in the following posts.
The connections between
literacy and learning are strong and striking. These interconnections
underscore the impact of literacy on learning throughout life, not just in the
early years. When museums shape experiences for learning, they also have
opportunities to shape experiences that engage and enhance language skills.
Museums are settings rich
with fascinating objects, tools, processes, and materials to explore, describe,
point to, and play with. They are also social settings explored with family and
school groups, people to talk with and listen to. This combination of talk and play is the foundation for
literacy.
Playing with the sound, shape and meaning of words is
an important part of how children learn language and learn to read and play. From knock-knock jokes, to Pig Latin and riddles,
playing with words and language, sounds and meaning stretch their language
skills. Joyful experimentation doesn’t stop with childhood; adults are often
eager punsters, rhymers, and neologists.
Imaginatively decorated, Little
Free Libraries dot lawns, parks, and
stores responsive to a passerby’s sudden urge to read or find a bedtime book. In
museums, book nooks and reading areas in galleries and exhibitions make it easy
for visitors to relax and dig deeper into a topic. Even branch libraries serve
visitors in museums.
Books children and adults love and remember, whether
childhood favorites or world classics, carry information about the world, stimulate
conversation, and offer wide access to literacy tools. Whether walking into a book’s illustrations or acting out a story, children
and adults immerse themselves in books through active exploration, sharing
favorite parts, engaging in pretend play, and inventing stories.
Reading may not be strictly
required in book arts, but the expressive possibilities of the book form inspire
and empower both new and accomplished readers. Book arts integrate aspects of
literacy–letter shapes, words, images, and layout. Experimenting with these
elements involves direct experience with the book and its parts and invites constructing
new meaning from them.
Words
and language help illuminate ideas, deepen a visitor’s understanding, and broaden
a view of the world. This is precisely what museums do, do well, and can do more of.
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