Don't sign the agenda!

Recently, I had a great conversation with a parent. They told me that if they're child does not do their nightly reading, they will not sign the agenda. I thought this was brilliant. 

In this post, I want to focus mostly on the nightly reading component of the agenda. 

That conversation brought to mind a favourite quote of mine from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD): 

"Reading is the single most important skill necessary for a happy, productive and successful life. A child that is an excellent reader is a confident child, has a high level of self-esteem and is able to easily make the transition from learning to read to reading to learn."  


Each night, students are asked to have their agenda signed by a parent. In the morning, the child checks in with their seat-partner and if they both got their's signed, they add five points to their weekly score.  However, if the homework was not completed or nightly reading was not done by the child, please don't sign it.  

When a parent signs the agenda, we're having a conversation.  I see that signature and figure all is well and the tasks are getting completed at home.  When the agenda is not signed, the child and I will speak about why it wasn't signed. Sometimes it's simply a matter of forgetting to ask Mom or Dad to do so. Other times, like the ones I am describing, it's a matter of not fulfilling responsibilities.  

Each night the students write, "Read for 30 minutes." In January, this moves to 40 minutes. Sometimes, because we write it everyday, it's easy to overlook nightly reading as a priority and instead zero in on the paper/pencil work that needs to be done.  

Nightly reading is essential. Reading is the most important task a child can do each night. In fact, it's the single most important skill I teach. If it's not being done at night, I need to know about this and the quickest way for you to let me know there's a problem, is to not sign the agenda.  

A child will learn a great life lesson (and they'll learn it quickly too) when the parent doesn't sign the agenda and what follows is this: the child and I have a talk about responsibility and how reading is essential for life-long success and happiness. It might be a little uncomfortable for the child for a moment or two, but is usually just what's needed for the child to re-set and get back on track.