Trying to find a booklist for talks I'm giving this weekend and found this. It builds on (and repeats) some of the information from the How to Get Your Child to Hate Reading post. I just moderated a panel this past week and one of the questions we got was how to get our children to read. Since I pointed out my 'negative' post to the attendees, I figured I might as well post this more positive one.
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As a children’s literature
reviewer who gives talks to parent or professional groups, I often get asked,
“My child/student is not reading, how do I get her/him to like reading?
Most everyone knows the basic advice, read aloud to your
child, have a variety of reading material, etc. Let’s go on to factors that are often not considered in
raising a child who find pleasure in reading.
We know a love of reading is
often a good indicator of academic success. So, what does it take to raise a reader and what are some of
the common mistakes that both parents and teachers make?
My first question to parents
and teachers is “Do you read for pleasure?” A majority of the time the answer is “Oh no, I’m too
busy.” Well, as long as the
message is that reading is not fun, not an activity we CHOOSE to do and make
the time for, then no amount of lip service will convince a child
otherwise. Likewise, most
classrooms have an SSR (Sustained Silent Reading) or DEAR (Drop Everything and
Read) time and it breaks my heart when I see that the teacher not following her
own rules. “It’s a good time to
get some work done.” is what I often hear. I understand, I completely sympathize that there are not
enough hours in a teacher’s day.
However, there is a huge impact for a child in seeing her teacher prioritizing
and enjoying reading time.
Reading aloud in the
classroom is always a great choice.
Ignore test prep, reading aloud IS test prep. Go for something funny. I have read The Giggler Treatment to classes from first through six grade and it’s a HUGE
hit every year (have ‘poo’, um chocolate pudding at the end, you’ll see why
when you read the book).
It’s never too early to start
reading aloud to children. When they’re young, go for rhythm. Sun Song (by Jean Marzollo, Harper/Trophy, 1997) has beautiful
language and a luminescent portrayal of the Woodside Hills by local
illustrator, Laura Regan. Possum
Come A-Knockin’ by Nancy Van Laan
(Dragonfly Books, 1992) is a fun, lively read aloud.
Remember, not all books are
good or interesting to everyone.
Just because a child doesn’t like a particular book or books, does not
mean that they don’t like to read, they just haven’t found the right book
yet. Shannon Hale (Princess
Academy) talks about this in her
school presentations. She asks the
self-identified non-readers to raise their hands and then they find books that
the kids have enjoyed and she says, “See, it’s not that you don’t like
to read, we just have to find the right books for you.” She then has them take an oath to PUT
DOWN a book they are not enjoying (unless it is a school assignment) and go in
search of one they like better.
We have higher standards for
children than we do for ourselves.
We don’t just want them to read, we want them to read GOOD stuff. Books that will teach lessons, stretch
their minds, build their vocabularies, CHALLENGE them (ah yes, one of the most
overused words in education).
Think about this for a
minute. Have you ever had a friend
recommend a book to you because it would teach you a good lesson and expand your
vocabulary or do they simply tell you it’s a good, enjoyable read?
Why do we think that
literature for children needs to be edifying, can’t it simply be
entertaining? If a child reads for
pleasure, your battle is won. They
WILL read hard books, sigh, challenging books, as well – but first, they have
to actually want to pick them up.
If they hesitate to pick up
books, get them storytelling or books on CD. They get the story and a sense of narrative. There are
various ways to approach literature
What else do we put on them
that we don’t put on ourselves?
Reading levels. It has to
be at or above their level for it to be ‘worthy’. Well, first of all, reading levels are hooey (this is not
the normal term I use, but this is a family website). On Lexile scores, a score evaluated by vocabulary alone,
Byron Barton’s BOARD BOOK The Wee Little Woman (Harper/Collins, 1995) evaluates at a college
sophomore level (the word ‘wee’ is considered unfamiliar and shows up multiple
times). On the other hand, The
Old Man and the Sea comes up as third
grade, because Hemingway never used three syllables when he could use two.
We can turn off children from
reading by denigrating their reading choices. I’ve seen readers turned into non-readers by well-meaning
teachers who have forbidden ‘too easy’ books from entering their classrooms.
As I always tell kids when
doing presentations, if anyone tries to take away my People magazine because
it’s not at my reading level, things are going to get ugly.
And, most of all, don’t give
up hope. Even multi-award winning author Katherine Paterson had a daughter
who did not understand the big deal about reading until she was fourteen and read Catcher
in the Rye. Just make sure they have a lot of reading (and listening)
choices and they will eventually discover the joys of literature.
