Recently an author friend who was scheduled to speak at a school asked for my input on how to connect with both struggling and reluctant teen readers—the student population I worked with for fifteen years. (Currently I am a Special Education Teacher for grades K to 3).
I realize that different teachers will have different styles and also may be somewhat limited in what their school will allow them to do. Given that, here are some things that worked for me in my classroom full of 13 to 19 year-old struggling and reluctant readers.
1. Read out loud to your students w/out requiring them to follow along. Just require that they listen. Make sure it is a good book or short story with a lot of action. Make sure you know how to read out loud. Nothing kills a story easier than a reader who hasn’t taken the time to hone up on their read aloud skills.
2. Have quiet reading time every day at the same time where the students can choose what they want to read. Do not require them to keep a reading journal. No strings attached, just read a book, the newspaper, a magazine, whatever. (My goal is to eventually get them to read books but forcing that up front creates the opposite result. They need to choose it.)
3. Have a wide variety of books available and be an expert on what those books are by having read many of them yourself. You want your students to have confidence in you as someone who knows what they are talking about when it comes to books.
4. Do frequent book talks/teasers where you read a snippet and talk a little about the author or story and then make the book available.
5. Bring the books in that you are reading and share them.
6. As the teacher or person in charge, you also need to read during the silent reading time. This shows your students that you value reading. And, if other adults happen to be in your classroom during silent reading time, they need to read too.
7. Let kids stop reading a book if they want to, just like us adults do when we want to.
8. If you have a book in a series, make sure you have the rest of them. (I once had a student eat up 13 books in a series he started.)
9. If a student is having trouble connecting with a book, hand-pick a few based on what you know about him and set them on their desk. This personal touch goes a long way.
10. If you see a student is really engrossed in a certain book you might mention another book that is related or similar when they are almost finished.
11. If a student actually wants to read a book that they’ve already read, let them.
12. Bottom line—you have to meet the kids where they are and not try to impose some program on them and expect them to fit into it.
13. Allow your students the time to develop into readers. Every time you get into a power struggle with a kid about reading you are potentially driving them away from reading because of that negative experience.
Thanks for stopping by. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Paul Greci is the author of The Wild Lands (Macmillan 2019) and Surviving Bear Island (Move Books 2015), a 2015 Junior Library Guild Selection and a 2016 Scholastic Reading Club Selection, Hostile Territory (Macmillan Jan. 28, 2020), and Follow the River (Move Books Summer 2021), a 2021 Junior Library Guild Selection . You can order all of Paul’s books here.
What a great advice Paul. I’d say this would work for parents who have kids that are reluctant readers! Love it.
Paul, this is an important post. Do you know the podcast Guys Can Read? They are starting an initiative called Boys Can Read, with (I think) the aim of finding books that reluctant readers will genuinely enjoy. I know you’re dealing with a slightly different group here – not just boys – but I’m going to pass your post on to them.
Almost anyone can respond to a story if it’s the right story. The trick is to find it.
Thanks Roz,
Incidently, 95 % of my students were boys.
Thank you for this, Paul.
I am using some of these thoughts in an essay I am currently writing.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Deb Rexon, Paul Greci. Paul Greci said: 13 Ways to connect with struggling and reluctant teen readers: http://tinyurl.com/4nmmbsa […]
Great post, Paul. Love number seven.
I don’t know if you’ve seen my posts on reluctant readers. I had some boys that were. It’s very important for writers to understand the problem and write books accordingly. Boys need books. Reluctant readers (which there are more male than female, I think) need books.
Again, great post. Happy V Day, Paul.
This is a great post, Paul. I love the emphasis on letting the kids be in charge of their reading experience – it’s so important that they not feel pressured. And no hypocrisy – when they read, you read. YES! Thanks for sharing these tips.
Great tips! I especially like #6. At my son’s school, they have 15 minutes a day for reading. It takes place in the core classes on an alternating schedule. My son gets frustrated with one of his teachers because he doesn’t read during that time. Not setting a very good example if you ask me.
Paul, I think these tips are great, and I only hope lots of other teachers follow them. As a kid I was the opposite of a reluctant reader, but I still hated reading class in school because I always felt like I was being forced to read stuff I didn’t want to read. Reading should be fun, not work!
Way to go, Paul! This is such a comprehensive, useful list. It should be posted at every school.
Love what you’ve got here. Learning is such a personal process, each child will respond at their own rate to the right stimuli. To think that every kids is going to learn to love reading just by reading a closed set of ten or twenty books is just not going to work. I’m a life long reader because I was lucky enough to have teachers (and a mom) that put the right books in front of me. This Wednesday as part of the Guys Can Read show, I will be hosting a conversation with 28 10-14 year old boys. My main goal is to show them that the stories they love matter (even if they are not in book form). From there my hope is to lead them to books that will engage them where they already are.
I think that one of the reason I became such an avid reader was because my third grade teacher read to us every afternoon. All we had to do was lose ourselves in the story and enjoy it.
I totally agree with your other suggestions too. I hope your friend benefitted from your experience.
Wow, these are some great tips. I can see how too much pressure would push kids away, instead of making them curious about books. I wish my boys gobbled up Harry Potter books, but those don’t interest them. Instead, they love the Wimpy Kid books. My opinion? They’re reading, so I don’t bug them about it. Thanks, Paul.
Brilliant. I think this also works from a parent/child perspective. My son likes to read (at the moment)and I think it’s because I’m flexible with whether he wants to read a Pokemon guidebook or Harry Potter. He sees me reading all the time and, as you mentioned, that example sets the precedence. However, when he has to log his reading time for homework, etc. he really drags his feet.
This is a super post, Paul! And I feel GREAT knowing that I do every single thing on your list!! 😀 Many cheers for getting our kids to read!
Thanks for the great suggestions. I try every day and every year to put the right book in the hands of my students. My main homework is for my students to read–books, newspapers, magazines, anything. I love it the first week a student doubles the required reading time because “I found this book….” I am inspired to work to find time to read aloud more.
Great post. I make sure I have a variety of books for my students and they have class time to go the library to choose their own books. I also do read-alouds of short, high-interest novels that capture their attention.
I believe in quiet reading time, no strings attached, but unfortunately in the past I had some administrators and certain programs insist on activities while reading, which I believe can ruin the experience.
“Allow your students the time to develop into readers.” So much wisdom in that. Not just about reading, but about so much. “Allow your students the time…”
Allow our characters the time to develop. Allow ourselves the time to hone our craft. Allow ourselves the time to build a career.
Allow time.
This is a struggle for me since none of my kids like to read. It’s easier to watch TV or be on the internet. I finally got my older son to read a book because I bribed him. I told him I’d make cookies if he read the first chapter of this book. He did then went on to finish it without the offering of more cookies. It’s just getting them started that’s the hard part, or at least one of the many hard parts.
Great advice.
I was always a slow reader in school and so I didn’t like books at all until a teacher decided to read The Hobbit aloud to the class. I fell in love with the story and everything reading could ever offer.
Cool post! I love the tips! I’ve been meaning to do a post on helping younger kids with reading, but I haven’t yet.
#13 applies at any age. When parents push kids too hard, I believe it takes the joy out of reading.
Great post, Paul! I worked with quite a few reluctant readers in my time too. I worked with third and fourth graders for most of my career. I used a lot of the same techniques you mentioned. We did journal. When they read and had some sort of real life connection to what they were reading they would write on sticky notes and then we would discuss it. Sometimes I would have the kids write me letters about the connections they were making with their books and characters to their lives. I had 4 to 6 greading groups based on levels and each group read a different trade book and did activities based on their skill levels. We also did free reading (which I did too) and on Fridays we had book talk (which I did too). One of the biggest compliments I ever got as a teacher was from a 5th grade teacher, she said she could tell my students when they came up to 5th grade, they loved to read and were good readers. 🙂
I came back because I have a blog award for you.
Like Medeia, I’m back to pass a blog award. 🙂
I LOVE this thoughtful post, Paul. Too often teachers stop reading aloud to the kids in early elementary, but even the teens respond well to it.
I think these are wonderful tips for parents as well.
Thank you for sharing your brilliant tips.
Hugs,
Lola
Wonderful tips. Sounds like you were a great teacher. It saddens me when a student doesn’t love reading because it means nobody was able to reach that person.
My son rarely picks up fiction. But when he’s been into a first book in a series, I buy them all. And when I know he’s got an interest, I get him plenty of nonfiction books on that topic. I wish he read more fiction, but I’m just glad he reads.
My daughter is the opposite – big fiction reader. But for balance, I get her dog and horse nonfiction books because she loves animals.
This is a great list of tips!!
Such good tips, Paul! These apply well to parents as well as educators, I think. Why, even last night I was reading to my daughter, and her mind started to wander, and I kept having to remind her to pay attention. I wonder now if it just wasn’t a story she was interested in, (especially since I knew she loves to read together). It was late, though, since I’d just gotten home from a trip, so she only just stayed up to see me, so she could’ve just been tired. Either way, it doesn’t make sense to force kids to read books they’re not up to reading yet.
I’m about to teach a writing workshop to underserved teens who are in a career program, so this is really helpful information, thank you.
I missed this post & it’s a bit late to weigh in, but you make great points. Nowthat I’ve signed up, I’ll get an email when you post so I won’t miss out in the future.
My favorite was #9 – appealing to the individual is always a great start.
Good topic
Dave
I’m so glad I stumbled upon this post while ‘blog hopping’ tonight. A former educator myself, this list is perfection. I am a huge advocate for teachers reading to students in ALL grade levels. I’m also a fan of making reading enjoyable. I love number two. Unfortunately, I co-taught with a teacher once who thought if kids were reading, they needed to be doing something as well. They had these annoying templates to fill out (the same bloody thing – day after day after day) and it turned the kids away. TeacherTube has some great book trailers that can hook kids the same way movie previews do. And I LOVED LOVED LOVED book talking to my classes. Sometimes, you just have to bring yourself down to their level. Highlight the things that will interest them, and they will pick it up. Even if they don’t like it, I was happy if I could get them to give it a shot. Really, you nailed this, Paul. Great job!
Have you seen the Reader’s Rights? It’s in the Book Whisperer. I so agree that kids should have the right to stop a book. GREAT post!
[…] I did not require them to do any writing assignments in relation to their independent reading, or read a certain number of pages. I allowed them to stop reading a book if they wanted to just like us adults do. It was a no-strings-attached approach. For more details about my ideas regarding fostering reading in the classroom see this post. […]
[…] teen readers I worked with for much of my teaching career front and center. Here’s a link to a post on my thoughts about engaging struggling and reluctant […]