In working with struggling ninth graders, it has become apparent that they read very little in all their subjects. Somehow they have lost the desire to read and many of them have reading levels probably two levels below their grade level.
The central office is very proud of the new curriculum which offers rigorous books and rigorous writing assignments. The only problem with this curriculum is that hardly anyone of the lower level students are reading these books. So while we have best intentions, these books are turning our lower level kids off from reading.
I am at no means a reading expert, but I do realize that you can not improve your reading skills unless you read the material.
Watch this clip
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gokm9RUr4ME
Then answer the questions should we give students choice in what they read? Can we build a library of choices which all address the same central theme that might inspire or light a spark for these struggling readers?
I think the best way to get students to actually read is to encourage it from a very young age. Personally speaking, I loved to read when I was a kid and when I moved to Zambia in first grade I read even more, trying to understand as many words as possible (as I was new to English then). Yet when we went to the library once a week during our elementary school English class most kids took out a book or two, just enough to get the teacher off their back, while very few of us took countless. I remember I had a habit of picking books I really loved. Some magical books, adventure books, etc but I also made myself pick books related to units we were currently learning. For example, if we were currently learning about natural disasters I would find a book related to natural disasters. Although these were definitely not as exciting as the fiction novels, with time and maturity I saw that they were fascinating in their own way. The hard part about reading, I’m assuming because I was too young then, is starting to read. Once you read a few great books you fall in love with it and it’s almost unhealthy how much you would give up to sit down and read. I remember I would order a giant box of books every year from London because the ones at the library just didn’t fulfill my curiosity at times.
ReplyDelete> Developing this fascination with books and the topics we learned in school while building the habit of continuing to read no matter how dry the books get is definitely what has kept me reading throughout high school. The reason why we don’t like the classics is because we are often introduced to them at a very young age, in around 6th grade. I can clearly remember how distant, old, and boring some of the novels like Old Yeller were and being extremely frustrated with A Midsummer Night’s Dream because I couldn’t understand more than a few words of Shakespearean gibberish. I think the big difference between me and a lot of my friends who chose not to read those books though was I persevered and that skill is what kept me going until the moment I could finally learn to appreciate the value of the classics. Until the moment I saw that underneath those dusty covers were morals deeply engrained in our society today.
> Getting more adolescents to read doesn’t have a simple answer, but a combination of possible solutions. Teacher encouragement throughout elementary, middle, and high school would make a huge difference. Even the teacher' acknowledgement that the novels may not be the funnest things to read in the world, could get more students on the “I should read it” side because at least the students see that their frustration or boredom isn’t unnatural but a challenge they should be willing to take on for their own intellectual development.
Thank you,
Lyra Morina
First let me qualify by saying I'm not talking about GT/AP students. I'm talking about kids who are reading below grade level. Kids who aren't where they need to be. I think the first step in closing the gap between what teachers assign and what students read is by showing kids that reading can be interesting and that it doesn't have to be a chore. That involves giving them books that they can relate too, not necessarily world class literature. Just books that are on topics they feel a connection with, whether it's biographies of sports and pop stars or science and tech. Many kids don't have someone pushing them to read and if they don't have that positive force, adding a novel written 200 years before they were born isn't going to help anything at all.
ReplyDeleteOnce you've gotten kids to a point where reading isn't a chore and they are reading on grade level, introducing literature which I believe enriches lives is easier. Asking a kid who has never read much to tackle literature is an unreasonable expectation, but if you build the students up--they will get there
MH
Honestly, as a high school student I rarely did all of my readings, something I really regret now. It was very easy to just coast through making up stuff for essays and to rely on my writing capabilities rather than my knowledge of the text. Even though all teachers love to complain about senioritis, not caring about grades for any exterior reason during that time was a great lesson to me in integrity oddly enough. At least when I didn't do my readings I would be honest about them instead of lying my way through. This was actually an important step to forming where I am now in college. I have a class that requires a lot of reading, and usually quite dense reading too, but now I always do the readings. At first I was naive enough to think that this was just because I was now in college, but I quickly realized that even at Hopkins there were a decent amount of kids not doing the readings for the class.
ReplyDeleteI just realize now how much value there is in reading works in their original form that you cannot get by reading watered down versions. While plot summaries can help you pass reading checks, they are just that: plot summaries. Being able to read difficult texts like this is also a great skill to have, but one that is challenging to develop.
However, I think that how we teach reading depends obviously on the audience of that teaching. I also am doing a mentoring program where we work with inner city kids who are at risk of dropping out of high school, many of whom are reading at the level that I was reading in fourth grade. For them, getting them to develop a love for reading is the most important thing whether that be magazine articles or comedic young adult chapter books. However, I think we are doing a great disservice to our AP students at Dulaney by not having them read more primary sources or academic papers/scientific reports.
While reading things like this is difficult and often not engaging right from the start, the challenge of reading something outside of most students' comfort zones also provides a great opportunity for growth in not just reading ability but also grit. This skill has been essential for my success both in my coursework and work outside class in the lab. Also with time and practice, it will become easier and possibly very enjoyable!