On almost a daily basis, an educator or opinion leader comments about how too few young people develop a habit of life-long reading. Probe a professor at even top colleges and you will hear about how painfully obvious it is that many freshman have read few complete books much less can write at a college level. The STEM disciplines now receive attention, but the humanities – and reading complete books, specifically – receives far less in high school. While digital technology has aggravated the decline in reading, we think it also provides the platform for a solution.
At Reading Portfolio we use the latest online technology to promote old-fashioned reading of the most highly recommended high school books for readers 13 and up. In lieu of a close mentor, we believe that young people will read more if there is a verifiable metric for complete books read. “What gets measured, gets done.” A verified metric could help them get into high school honors courses. Get into college. Get promoted in the military. With Reading Portfolio, college applications can now add ‘reading’ as an extracurricular item along with athletics, music, and theatre.
At www.readingportfolio.com readers build a verified portfolio of books read via a short, self-directed audio-video recorded multiple-choice quiz. Read a book, we confirm you read it, go read another. The quiz includes questions at a relevant reading level about the plot, characters, themes, context and author’s point of view.
Unlike standardized tests, the stakes on each book are low – pass / fail only. We spot-check the videos afterwards, so there is no interaction between readers and staff. As readers build their portfolios, questions will be more nuanced requiring comparative analyses and higher level observations. Reading aloud is also coming.
Preparation for the culture of college is at the core of Reading Portfolio. The successful completion of a quiz indicates the reader is familiar with the story or events, that they have read a book at least a first time and will be ready for a closer reading in college. When your college professor jokes about Holden Caulfield, the Cheshire Cat, or Elizabeth Bennet, it’s important that you be able to laugh along. In time, we hope to hear high school students ask each other “How’re you on Reading Portfolio?”