What reading does for your mind

I have come across a fascinating article that superbly illustrates why recreational reading is so important, especially to young people as they grow up.

The article argues that students will usually pick up new words outside of the classroom. In other words, you do not normally learn new words by having your teacher explain them to you. Many studies have been done that support this point of view. How then do we pick up new vocabulary? The answer is by being exposed to new words, both verbally and in print. Conversation, books, newspapers, magazines, and television are all sources from which we learn new words.

However, these sources are not equal. In 1988 a study was done by Hayes and Ahrens which looked at how many rare words there were in various sources of spoken and written language. A rare word is defined as one being outside the top 10,000 most commonly used words.

Here are some selected findings:

• Newspapers: 68.3 rare words per 1,000
• Popular magazines: 65.7 rare words per 1,000
• Children's books: 30.9 rare words per 1,000
• Popular prime-time adult television: 22.7 rare words per 1,000
• University graduates conversing with their friends and spouses: 17.3 rare words per 1,000

What we can see here is that printed texts have many more rare words, and therefore more opportunity to learn new words. Even books written for children have more rare words than television programmes made for adults.

The article also examines why children who do more recreational reading tend to perform better academically. In another 1988 study, it was found that 30% of children did on average only about 1 minute of reading a day. In a year, such children will read about 100,000 words, which seems like a lot.

However, children who put in a little effort and read for about 20 minutes a day will read 1.8 million words in a year. Just imagine how many new words such children are exposed to. It really is no wonder that these students perform better at all subjects, not just English. Having a good vocabulary lets you express yourself better, which helps you in every subject.

So the obvious conclusion is to set aside some time every day for reading. It doesn't have to be a book - magazines, newspapers, and quality Internet sites are all excellent sources of new words.

Source:

Cunningham and Stanovich (2001), 'What reading does for the mind', Journal of Direct Instruction, vol. 1, no. 1-2, pp. 137-149.

Your Librarian is leaving...

It is with mixed emotions that I announce that I am leaving Island School to join the Hong Kong Baptist University Library. On the one hand I am excited about the opportunity, but I am also reluctant to leave the school after only one short year.

I'm not sure what will happen to the blog - it will be up to the new librarian as to whether it will continue.

Christmas comes early!

You will of course remember way back in March the Library announced during Book Week that the PTA had donated the sizeable sum of HK$150,000 to the Library for new books. Well, the first shipment finally arrived last week, and Library staff have been working flat out to get them on the shelves as quickly as possible:

Just arrived!

Fresh out of the box!

Ready for borrowing!

So what are you waiting for? Get yourself down to the Library and check out a shiny new book! I've already read Darkness Creeping (TF SHU), a collection of creepy tales in the same vein as the Horowitz Horror series. Now I'm halfway through Bunker 10 (TF HEN), a thriller about teenage geniuses that work for the military.

This shipment represents only a small fraction of the total PTA donation. More books are on their way so keep checking back!

Facebook security warning

One of the most popular Web 2.0 applications among Island School students is Facebook. This is a social networking site that lets people send messages, and to share photos and play games with each other as well. In the Library, you can often see Sixth Formers using their free periods (somewhat unwisely, in my opinion) to update their Facebook profile. While using Facebook in school is not prohibited, I would encourage students to think carefully about how they are using their study periods.

But apart from being a distraction from the revision that you are supposed to be doing, there are other reasons to be concerned about Facebook use. Recently the BBC technology programme Click aired a segment on how they had written a data mining application for Facebook in less than three hours.

Such an application can pretend to be just a game, but secretly it is collecting your personal details and those of your friends, and e-mailing them back to the application's author. Most worryingly, it can collect the data of your friends, even if your friend has set tight security settings.

Because applications run on third-party servers not run by Facebook, it is difficult for the company to keep track of what is going on. Facebook are aware of the problem, but if your details are stolen they won't be legally responsible. The terms and conditions of use that you agreed to (but probably didn't read) mean that Facebook won't be held liable.

This doesn't mean you should stop using Facebook, but you need to be aware of the risks. Consider changing your privacy settings, and read Click's Facebook security advice.

Watch the segment below:



Here is the link to the article on the BBC Website:

Identity 'at risk' on Facebook

No cookies in the Library

Funniest. Cookie Monster. Ever.

Wired Magazine

This post is to draw your attention to one of the new magazines that the Library has subscribed to. Wired is an American magazine that explores how technology affects our society, economy, and culture.

The articles are all well worth reading. In this month's issue there was a very interesting piece on how one car company has allegedly taken advantage of the popularity of the electric car concept to swindle many small investors.

You can access the online edition of the magazine here.

Asimov's Foundation

One of the Library's goals is keep its collection fresh. Apart from buying new titles, we also try to replace our old copies of classic works with new ones as they wear out. It was during this process that I discovered the Foundation series written by Isaac Asimov. The Library had some very tatty old copies of this series. Asimov is of course very famous but I had never read any of his books. When the shiny, brand new copies arrived I decided to take the opportunity to read them.

I was instantly hooked, and over the Christmas holidays I read the entire original trilogy (Foundation, Foundation and Empire, and Second Foundation). It is set in the far future, so far that humanity has spread across the galaxy and forgotten which planet originally gave birth to the species. The galaxy is ruled by an Empire that has existed for over 10,000 years, but its huge size has set it on the road to terminal decline.

One man, the genius Hari Seldon, uses the science of psychohistory to mathematically predict the decline and fall of the Empire. It will lead to a 30,000 year dark age where humanity will live in chaos and confusion. But Seldon believes that with intervention this can be shortened to 1,000 years. He sets into motion a Plan that will span dozens of generations, but it turns out that there are some things that even psychohistory cannot predict.

The story is breathtaking in its scope, yet Asimov is able to effectively entwine centuries of galaxy-changing events with the lives of individuals. Anyone who considers themselves a science-fiction or fantasy fan owes it to themselves to read this amazing series of novels.

Also noteworthy is the fact that the Foundation series won the Hugo Award for Best All Time Series, beating The Lord of the Rings, among others.

You can find the Foundation novels in the Senior Fiction collection, under ASI.

Reference:

Wikipedia, 'Foundation Series'

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Foundation_Series