CAN YOU TURN A KID INTO A REAL READER?

 

From Rafe Esquith’s book “Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire” (Viking /Penguin Group).

What keeps children from learning to love reading? “Powerful forces of mediocrity,” he writes. “These forces include television, video games, poor teaching, poverty, the breakup of the family, and a general lack of adult guidance.” I would add ipods, videophones and instant messaging.

One of the misconceptions young people have is that reading is a “subject” that you study in English class, not a foundation of life. Esquith wants his students to love reading, to associate the words “passion” and “excitement” with the activity.

Can You turn a kid into a real reader?

 He believes guidance is one key element, and leads them to wonderful books.

“I am not smarter than my students. But I know more than they do because I am older than they are. I know about fabulous books that they might not yet have come across. Because the kids trust me, they are more likely to try a book I suggest.” Books like “The Phantom Tollbooth” or “Alice in Wonderland”; any of the many years’ worth of volumes that have won Newbery or Caldecott Awards.

Trips to the library can be experiential wonderlands. Unlike searching for books online, shelves of real books offer the opportunity to browse and make discoveries. But carefully prepare for and supervise these trips. Explain the geography of the space and “how it works”. Help children think about what they might want to look for before they go. Once they’re inside, review what they know about the layout and the procedures: assist them in their searches: make suggestions.

Occasionally, Esquith uses books on CD. Two books that are particularly successful, he says, are “The Autobiography of Malcolm X” (read by actor Joe Morton) and “The Diary of Anne Frank” (read by Winona Ryder). But he cautions teachers never to take the CD readings as a time to skip out of the classroom. It takes a master teacher to use an audio book or a film effectively. A good teacher stops the CD or the film at intervals, to make sure the students understand a point, or to lead a discussion on a crucial issue. (This takes practice, though; it’s important to plan these interruptions ahead of time.) He monitors the students meticulously, to make sure they understand what they’re hearing.

Films and plays are excellent ways to bring a piece of literature to life. The movie of a book, or a play based on a book, offer opportunities to compare the two. Staging plays or performing radio plays helps students begin to really breathe with the language and actually consider what it might mean to walk in someone’s shoes.

After reading the final lines of Lorraine Hansberry’s “A Raisin in the Sun”, one of his students, fourteen-year-old Luis, sat with tears streaming down his face. “I’m crying,” he offered, “because this is my family.”

Esquith’s ten-year-old’s have occasionally enacted both parts of Shakespeare’s Henry IV (in one evening!). Far from seeming meaningless and inaccessible, he says, the play inaugurates heated discussions of classroom and playground behaviour.

He prepares students who have difficulty reading. He constantly explains material in order to help struggling students keep up with the flow of the story. If students are reading aloud, he prepares easy passages for students who are beginning readers, creating their success before the lesson even begins. (When he assigns written work, he provides the scaffolding they need.) Students gain confidence daily.

There are many study guides on the market that can help assess comprehension. Esquith recommends teachers (parents, too) go online to www.learninglinks.com . This company offers graded study guides called Novel-ties, which he finds are excellent supplements to reading, in addition to being a great help for busy teachers.

Young (new) teachers: if you’re discouraged by school administrators, decision makers and “reading coaches” who don’t believe kids will ever read “literature” and insist on canned reading from commercially developed textbooks, Esquith has this to say.

Don’t fight them. They’ll just be in your classroom interfering with your worthy efforts to get kids to read if you do.” Rather than waste energy on a fight that cannot be won, play the game and follow the school plan. Work around it. Find other times in the day to read fantastic books. For example, start a book club during your lunch hour or after school.

Esquith says, “I’ve even seen any number of marvelous science, history, and physical education teachers run book clubs. They select a good book and give all the kids in their various classes the option of reading it. Most of these clubs have scheduled meetings, often during lunch or after school. After completing a chapter, the group meets to discuss it.”

Students participate voluntarily, so the teacher is working with enthusiastic young people. The kids get to meet like-minded peers from other classes whom they might not have gotten to meet otherwise. Friendships are formed. The teacher bonds with young scholars in a different environment, so the teacher student relationship in the classroom is strengthened. It’s a superb way for everyone involved to spend a couple of hours a week.

Everyone wins: it’s reading for all the right reasons.

Esquith’s fifth graders have come up with their own three question test

1. Have you ever secretly read under your desk in school because the teacher was

boring and you were dying to finish the book you were reading?

2. Have you ever been scolded for reading at the dinner table?

3. Have you ever read secretly under the covers after being told to go to sleep?

Answering yes to all three questions means you pass the test, and are destined to be a reader for life.

Source: Rafe Esquith, “Teach Like Your Hair’s on Fire”, Viking/Penguin