Importance of Reading Daily
Twenty minutes of reading a day can help lead students on the path to success. How so? Reading daily has a number of significant benefits that can ultimately guide us in the right direction as we get older. Students that read for these 20 minutes every day are getting a big jump start into achieving student success. The following is a list of advantages of reading every day.
1. Mental Stimulation- Students that read daily are keeping their brains active and engaged, making it harder for their brains to "lose power." By exercising their brains through daily reading, they are keeping their minds healthy and strong.
2. Knowledge- As obvious as it sounds, reading helps students gain knowledge in topics they may have never known about beforehand. By reading, students are filling their heads with bits of information that they may take on with them throughout their lives. The more knowledge a student has, the better equipped he or she is at handling challenging tasks. It also improves their confidence levels and may come in handy at any level of school or when looking for a job as they get older.
3. Vocabulary Expansion- By being exposed to more words through reading, students are adding more word knowledge to their vocabulary inventory. This exposure can help boost their self-confidence and self-esteem as they grow, even into a profession. Having more access to words can significantly help those readers that are learning a new language, such as English Language Learners (ELLs). When reading new vocabulary in a text, ELLs are exposed to how the word is being used in context, leading them to a better understanding of new vocabulary.
"A student that reads just 20 minutes every day has read for 3600 minutes during the school year and roughly 1,800,000 words. Meanwhile, a student that only reads an average of one minute per day during the school year only reads for 180 minutes and roughly 8,000 words" (Tori Pakizar).
4. Stronger Analytical Thinking Skills- Having strong analytical thinking skills can improve one's comprehension of different texts that are being read. Readers that read daily practice these skills that help them take note on important details from a text and are able to sort these details out to form predictions, make inferences, and ultimately read between the lines.
5. Concentration- Twenty minutes of daily reading can improve one's focus levels. With a stronger stamina in reading, students are more involved with the texts that are being read, ideally dismissing all of the distractions from daily life.
6. Writing Skills- By reading different texts, students are more exposed to authors' writing styles and use these models in their own works, such as when writing an essay or research paper. Students have more access to observing writing conventions and word usage.
Credits:
The Importance of Daily Reading, Tori Pakizar, April 2016
10 Benefits of Reading: Why You Should Read Every Day, Lana Winter-Hebert, April 2018