Few teenagers read for fun regularly, and many don't read for school either, writes Natalie Wexler on Minding the Gap. We're "becoming a nation of non-readers."
Some didn't learn to decipher words in the early grades, or lack the background knowledge and vocabulary to make sense of complex text, she writes.
States are trying to train teachers to teach phonics effectively to early readers, Wexler writes. Some schools recognize that older readers may "need support in reading multisyllabic words."
Wexler has been pushing for schools "to build knowledge and vocabulary — along with familiarity with complex syntax — to enable reading comprehension." She writes that "more schools are adopting content-rich elementary curricula, generally alongside systematic phonics instruction."
All that is helpful. But many students are reluctant readers: They read unchallenging Young Adult books, but "struggle to understand text that is lengthy, complex, and/or uses archaic language and sentence structure."
It's worth the effort to introduce high school students to Shakespeare and 19th-century novels, writes Wexler. Reading fiction "enables readers to inhabit other worlds and identify with characters very different from themselves." It builds empathy.
In addition, reading classics expands students' vocabularies, cognitive abilities and knowledge of our culture, she writes. What's a Romeo-and-Juliet story? Is it really true that "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet?"
To get kids hooked on reading, Wexler suggests less time teaching abstract skills, such as "making inferences," and more time reading great stories aloud. "Especially when kids are still learning the basics of reading, the experience of listening to an adult who reads fluently and with lively expression can demonstrate how transporting — and fun — reading can be."
The Faster Read is showing success with all grade levels in Britain, she writes. "Teachers pair one classic and one contemporary novel — perhaps Jane Eyre and The Hate U Give — and read them back-to-back in class at a fairly rapid pace, spending three to four weeks on each one, following by an additional two or three weeks deepening students’ understanding."
"The teacher reads aloud for 30 minutes or so a day," asking questions at the beginning or end, and students read aloud, discuss the book in groups and, eventually, write about the novel, Wexler writes.
I'd have hated this as a student. It sounds very slow. But, of course, I could read very well and very quickly. I do remember my fifth-grade teacher reading aloud from Nicholas Nickleby. It was better than our normal lessons. (I actually did much of my reading during our normal lessons.)
Wexler says The Faster Read has increased enthusiasm for reading and helped struggling readers make 16 months of progress on a standardized reading comprehension test in 12 weeks.
She also has advice on how to get students to take notes, ask questions and write about what they've read.
Even in the 1980's, some in the entertainment industry knew that English literature educators did not know what they were talking about.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tQnAhSzb4gY
If one wants to ensure that boys develop a hatred of reading, have them read Jane Eyre and The Hate U Give back to back. I used to joke with by daughter that the only books allowed in high school have teen agers talking about their feelings.
Also, I always remember an actual English teacher who described teaching literature as doing an autopsy on a novel. The story as a whole is ignored while bits and parts are cut out and examined out separately.
Nothing ruins reading for most student more than the English literature class. It has long been lamented, but then what to do with all the literary theorists other than inflict them on unsuspecting high school students.