Student Engagement, Motivation to Read May be Easier Than You Think

Reading.  This is one simple word that so many people dread to hear.  It’s a summer assignment no one wants, the reason you’re kids are still up at 2AM on a Sunday night, and for a school district it’s half of a PSSA score.  When I first got elected to the school board I was told to be prepared to read at least 100 pages each weekend.  In my professional life I read every day through countless pages of insurance documents and manuals.  In my limited free time I am enjoying a 950 page digital book on my iPad about Steve Jobs.  At night I read to my kids before bedtime and I am simply amazed at how my 4 year old and 18 month old love to hear these stories.  How do we go from being those wide eyed toddlers reading a bedtime story to bored teenagers who “Google it” rather than read it?  Why do some young adults return to enjoying a book and some never do? 

The easy and popular answer in today’s world is that technology is killing reading.  Kids, and adults for that matter, have so many options for entertainment in our instant gratification world that taking the time to read a book is becoming a thing of the past.  I frankly don’t buy that excuse but it got me thinking a lot about reading lately.  As adults we choose to read what we want and we pick topics that interest us.  If you had to read a book about something you have no interest in how motivated would you be to finish? 

Recently my wife sent me an article on The Seven Rules of Engagement when it comes to motivating kids to read.  If you have the time you can click here to read the entire article.  The author got my attention in the first paragraph when it quotes a recent study that claims 37% of kids do not read for enjoyment at all.  Think about that.  Over 2/3 of all kids do not enjoy reading and/or do not read for fun.  This is an alarming number of students from my perspective.  It’s also alarming that it takes a well respected educator and researcher to help us realize that kids perform better if they have a hand in choosing what and when to read.  Students will read if they are interested in the subject matter.  Schools must provide relevant and interesting material for students to choose from.  If we can give them a choice and show that they are free to explore a variety of subject matter it will motivate students to not only read but to absorb and process what they are reading.  In these tough times of shrinking school budgets and cut programs is part of the solution to improved student achievement a simple choice in reading material rather than an assigned classic novel?  In my opinion I am not a better or more rounded person for having read The Canterbury Tales, and in fact it probably discouraged additional reading that semester.  Now if I was given a choice of subject material that I was interested in I would have read the same few hundred pages and possibly a few hundred more.  I am by no means an expert in reading or student achievement, but my wife is becoming one in her professional life.  As she studies for her second masters degree with a focus on a reading specialist certification we have talked a lot about this topic.   The fact that it appears in an article in an educational journal The Reading Teacher shows that our students may be finally close to tossing those copies of Jane Eyre for something they chose themselves.  I realize my former English teachers will hunt me down for writing this, but can we at least give it a try?  What’s the worst that will happen, scores will improve? 

So for those of you hunting for that last minute Christmas gift may I suggest an iTunes gift card for an e-book rather than copies of next semester’s Cliffs Notes.