Students celebrating the launch of ROSO, a photo by MACS Pittsburgh on Flickr.On Friday, MACS second and fifth graders celebrated the start of their new reading program – Read Out of School Often, or ROSO.
Designed by MACS teachers and Dr. Isabel Beck, Professor of Education at the University of Pittsburgh, ROSO is based on a little piece of conventional wisdom that research has shown to be truer than we all thought: practice makes perfect.
According to the research, developing skills or expertise is not a question of talent or intelligence but of commitment and dedication. Whether you want to become a concert pianist or a star running back, you need take the time to work hard and practice.
ROSO applies this concept to a fundamental skill – reading. It requires students to read out of school for 20 minutes a day, 5 days a week, throughout the duration of the school year. Dr. Beck says that by reading more, kids will become better readers – and better readers have more academic success throughout their time in school.
The program is simple. Each student can check out books from the classroom ROSO library, which she or he can take home to read. Students record their hours and return their reading logbook to teachers at the beginning of each week to review. Three times a grading period, the teacher has a conference with each student to discuss their books and how their ROSO time is going. Parents are also encouraged to supervise ROSO time and talk to their kids about what they are reading; and they also stay connected to ROSO by signing each reading log.
After completing a certain number of ROSO hours, students are eligible for rewards, ranging from pencils and toys to dress-down passes and field trips.
While it’s only in grades two and five right now, ROSO plans to expand to third and fourth grade in early 2012.
