Overview:
Twitch star Kai Cenat started his reading journey so he could articulate himself better. Experts say this is a great way to model reading for students, namely those who struggle with literacy.
For the past few years, Kai Cenat has been one of the biggest names on the internet, a Twitch streamer who has evolved from playing video games online into creating outlandish comedy that often goes viral. With more than 20 million followers, Cenat, 24, has rubbed shoulders with fellow internet star Druski, NBA star Lebron James and rapper Nicki Minaj.
But lately, experts say, his most important audience might be Black schoolchildren struggling to read. That’s because Cenat has traded his gaming console for actual books
Recently, the gamer-turned-content creator-turned-fashion designer set a goal for himself: read, out loud, every day, from 10 minutes to an hour, on camera. He often stops to look up words he struggles to pronounce or doesn’t quite understand. Cenat then uploads the video to one of his smaller channels for everyone to see.
Why Did Kai Cenat Start His Reading Journey?
“Honestly, the reason why I started reading was because I didn’t like the way I spoke,” Cenat, 24, said in a separate video explaining himself. “To be honest, I wanted to articulate myself better. I noticed that when I got into arguments, and I had to get a point across, people were not taking me seriously at all.”
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But education experts say that, in an era when Black literacy rates are at historic lows, and children are more likely to pick up an iPad than a book, Cenat’s latest venture should be taken very seriously: he is setting a powerful example for K-12 students.
Indeed, Centat’s videos have garnered mass praise online. Teachers specifically have been quick to point out that videos like these can inspire children to read more books.
Why Should Students Watch Kai Cenat Read?
“The best thing Kai Cenat did for reading — it’s not even just the reading,” says Christopher Emdin, professor of science education at Columbia University. “It actually begins with a recognition of his own deficiencies, and then he took it one step further by modeling the process in real time, so that other folks now have their own entry points. So that’s really powerful.”
K-12 reading scores have been gradually declining for the nation’s students for years, according to data from the National Assessment of Educational Progress or NAEP. The most recent data show that only 30% of all fourth graders and 29% of all eighth graders nationwide scored at or above proficient in reading.
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But the numbers are far worse for 4th- and 8th-grade Black students: 17% and 14% of them scored proficiently on the exam, respectively.
Why Are Reading Scores So Low?
There isn’t a single answer for why we are seeing a decline in reading proficiency nationwide. Experts point to a combination of factors that can explain the nation’s reading crisis, including social media.
An entire generation of schoolchildren has grown up with either a smartphone in their hands or an adult glued to their phone, scrolling endlessly. As a result, the children have learned to get information from screens rather than from traditional, ink-on-paper books.
So far, Cenat’s book choices have leaned more towards self-improvement, including “The Four Agreements” by Don Miguel Ruiz, “Don’t Believe Everything You Think” by Joseph Nguyen, and “Atomic Habits” by James Clear. While it’s not standard fare for most elementary or high school students, what he’s reading is beside the point.
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Why Is It Important to Model Reading To Kids?
Literacy experts have said that modeling reading is an important first step in getting grade-school children interested in reading. When adults read in front of children, they are modeling the skills needed to be literate: pacing, researching, and concentration — all of which kids can use while reading their own books.
But because Cenat is not always a fluent reader, Emdin says, he is also helping remove a hurdle that young readers often struggle with: what to do when they come across an unfamiliar word.
Oftentimes, children can become uncomfortable with sharing their reading struggles out of fear of embarrassment, he says. That’s why moments where Cenat has to look up an unfamiliar word in the dictionary or stumbles to pronounce a word are especially important.
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“He’s knighting our young folks as readers,” he adds. “He’s crowning them as readers. And so the same mechanism that has disengaged them through this work and other work that other folks could be doing, we can get them to be re-engaged in reading.”