How - To: Brew A Reading Habit

As a ten year old girl with a mild obsession with sugary breakfast cereal, my mother opted to let me try a new flavor or brand every few weeks in hopes that I would “get it out of my system." To this day (and to my amusement), I can still recall fads from the past like Blueberry Morning, Rice Krispy Treat Cereal, Cracklin’ Oat Bran, and Count Chocula. And while my mornings for the good part of year each tasted different, there was one thing that remained the same: Peet’s Coffee.

Don’t cry out, it’s not like I took in the bitter brew at the young age when my bones were tender to the possible ramifications of caffeine (stunted development, etc.) The only thing I knew of coffee was the warm yet sharp scent of my fresh beans being ground every morning and the monotone whir of the ancient grinder splicing each bean into a fine ground espresso.

After years of smelling coffee in the morning, it became part of my life. Now, I am as notorious with my morning cup of coffee as I was as that little girl eating sweet cereal every morning. And while I cannot imagine life without coffee (well, I can, but I’d rather not), I’ve also realized the type of impact that a consistent, omnipresent environment can have on the shaping of one’s values and priorities.

As adamant as my mother was about letting me get my interest in sugar cereals out of my system (it pseudo-worked), she was even more invested in making sure that my brother and I were life-long readers. To the extent that she read to us every single night until we could read ourselves, lugged us back and forth to the local library and bookstore, modeled reading the newspaper every day, and filled each bookshelf in the house with National Geographic, novels, and short stories that were of our interests - boggles my mind.

But it worked. Today, my brother and I are obsessed with reading, and even our private SAT tutor brought us numerous books. We read books until the spines split and peel, we scour the news every morning and generally would not be happy without always having a book ready to read on the night stand.

While making reading a part of your family life may seem like a lot of work, think of it as a coffee habit, or the formation of any other habit. Remember to make the topic appealing, easily accessible, and inescapable. How else do you think I became a die-hard fan for some of the most pungent coffee in all the land? It’s in my blood. And, like reading, because it was made part of my life for as long as I can recall - it’s there. For life.

Do What You Love - Every Day After School

In life, you have work, and you have play. Yes, at any stage in the human experience, your time is divided between things you have to do and things you want to do. Part-time we are prisoners, and part-time we are free.

It's simple.  Right?

Well, not quite.

First of all, if it were that simple, this blog post would be over—and what kind of blog post would that be?

No, if we are going to simplify life into categories, we will need to clear room for a third category, somewhere in between work and play—something I call “Passionate Pursuits.”

Work, whether you’re an adult (your job) or a student (your classes and homework), takes a lot of time—typically somewhere between 40 and 60 hours a week.

But if people are awake for about 16 hours a day, that leaves…carry the 4…50-70 remaining hours.

So even the really busy people have about 50 free hours each week outside of their work.

Now, we mustn’t disregard play. Play is the time you spend with your friends and family, the time you listen to music, go hiking, play pickup basketball, watch TV, play video games, go to parties, eat candy, and whatever the devil else Americans do with their free time.

But 50-70 hours of play? Not necessary. You can have a rich social and leisure life and still have some solid hours left over. Right?

In my humble opinion, these key hours are best spent undertaking “passionate pursuits”—activities you care about and take seriously outside of your work. At the minimum, a passionate pursuit is a hobby; at the maximum, it’s a part-time career.

In the adult world, some people are great at dedicating time to one or more passionate pursuits—others are less so.

But in the student world, passionate pursuits are called “extra-curricular activities,” and you need to have them in your life and take them seriously. Why? Because they are critical to the college admissions process. Colleges want to accept interesting, passionate, involved students, and the best way for them to judge this is by looking at how each student uses those key hours outside of work and play.

At this point, you’re thinking, “So extra-curriculars are important. I already…knew…that.”

Right. But I want to change the way you think about extra-curriculars.

Rather than think, “What does my school offer?” and pick something, try asking yourself, “What do I love to do?” and “What would I love to get good at?” and “What’s important to me?” and then figure out how to work those things into your life as your extra-curricular activities—because those are your passionate pursuits. And if you’re not passionate about your extra-curricular activities, you won’t have as much fun doing them, you won’t excel as much doing them, and colleges will not see you for the passionate person you are.

Sounds simple, but students approach this the wrong way all the time. Some people really love playing sports, so sports are a perfect passionate pursuit for them. Others don’t love it as much, but think, “Well, I’m pretty good at this sport, and that’s what everyone else is doing, and that’s what you’re supposed to do in high school, right?” Some people love running for class office and governing their class. Others think, “Private SAT tutoring isn't very fun, but it’ll definitely help me get into college.” Some feel passionate about a cause in their community and they want to get involved and help. Others think, “community service looks good on a college resume.”

If you don’t love your extra-curricular activities, you’re doing the wrong extra-curricular activities.

So get creative.  Think about what you really love or what you would really love to try, and then do the following:

1) Figure out if this activity is already offered at your school
2) If not, start a club. There’s no way you’re the only one interested in it.

Your life will be a lot more fun and rewarding, and it’ll be a breeze to tell your real story to colleges because you will have lived it.

Life and Music

I’ve always been told: “If you do well in school and attend SAT tutoring, you’ll get into a good college. If you graduate from college, you’ll get a good job. If you work hard at your job, you’ll move up and make a big difference or big money or both.” So here I am, on the path that so many of us are on, with my eye on the prize: this undefined thing that people call success. But the closer I get and the older I get, the more I realize that my life is not about this destination—whatever it may be—it’s about the journey.

I was recently reminded of this when I stumbled upon this video called “Life and Music,” in which renowned philosopher Alan Watts compares the pursuit of happiness to a musical composition.



So boys and girls, as you make your way through school, or any other part of your life-long musical production, make the best of it—listen to the music, and sing and dance along the way!

What is Reading?

As I was getting out of the pool after teaching one of my 2-year-old swimmers to swim last weekend, his mom said, "What if he has a hard time learning to read like my husband and I did?"

The reality is, he might struggle to read since his parents struggled. Research shows that he has a 50% greater chance of having dyslexia if either of his parents had dyslexia, and he isn't alone. Since 92% of students with learning disabilities have reading problems, it’s important to come up with a workable definition of reading so that we know what it is and how to teach it.

What is Reading?
Reading has been defined differently throughout history. In the 19th century, the focus was on oral fluency and accuracy. In the early 20th century, the focus shifted toward reading for meaning and comprehension, especially in SAT tutoring. Given the transitional definition throughout history, we see that reading is difficult to define. In my opinion, reading is made up of a variety of tasks that are influenced by social context, the reader’s purpose, and background knowledge, and that the definition of reading lies somewhere on the continuum of decoding and comprehension.

What Causes Reading Difficulties?We don’t know. Similar to many diseases, we don’t know what causes the problem, but we know how to treat it. Research shows that students with reading difficulties respond best to specific and intensive reading instruction. If you know a student who is not responding to reading instruction, it’s time to question the quality of instruction and consider working with someone trained in reading interventions such as an educational therapist, reading specialist, or special education teacher.

What Skills Are Involved in Reading?Efficient readers have usually mastered the following skills:

• Phonological awareness
• Word identification
• Fluency
• Comprehension
• Vocabulary

Reading assessments help us figure out which skills are deficit in a struggling reader. Once we can identify the deficit skills, we teach them! Teaching reading isn't easy, but the combination of the right specialist and the right research based intervention will lead to success for almost all struggling readers.

Now that we have defined reading, looked at the skills involved in reading, and addressed the purpose of reading assessments and interventions, we have a more solid foundation from which to approach struggling readers.

Happy Reading!