鈥業t doesn鈥檛 have to be scary.鈥� How to get students to love reading.
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Jackie Valley Staff writer
Alden Jones reached a point this summer when she needed to share her thoughts with the world.聽
She brought her observations to X. Her went viral, likely due to her eye-catching first line: 鈥淵es, college students have lost their ability to read.鈥�
Ms. Jones, an assistant professor of writing, literature, and publishing at Emerson College in Boston, says reading hesitancy among her young adult students started in the late 2000s and accelerated during the pandemic. During that period, she even noticed her own attention span for books diminishing.
Why We Wrote This
A professor鈥檚 lament on social media about her college students got us thinking about the best way to encourage the joys of reading. To find out more, we asked the experts: teachers.
The difficult part, she says, is simply engaging students in reading 鈥� whether it be of short stories, essays, poems, or novels.
鈥淚t鈥檚 not that they can鈥檛 analyze a sentence,鈥� Ms. Jones says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 that they can鈥檛 turn their minds fully to the material in the way that [people] used to.鈥�
So what鈥檚 the trick to getting young people 鈥� and teens and 10-year-olds 鈥� to enjoy the act of reading? To stay in the moment long enough to appreciate the feel of paper pages and a cliff-hanger chapter? What can parents and teachers do?
Educators the Monitor reached out to as the school year gears up have lots of advice: Set aside dedicated time for reading. Find materials that resonate with students. Offer a welcoming setting. Give students the chance to talk about what they鈥檝e read.聽
鈥淲hat are they liking about it? What are they not liking about it? What surprised them?鈥� says Patricia Durham, a literacy professor at Sam Houston State University, suggesting questions to spark discussion.
Many of these strategies largely revolve around building joy rather than drudgery. The depth of students鈥� reading challenges have supercharged debate and policy decisions about how best to teach the subject. But some educators and experts are also raising concern that pleasure reading shouldn鈥檛 fall at the sword of rigorous phonics, vocabulary, and comprehension instruction. In other words, both matter.
Antoine Edwards, a seventh grade English language arts teacher at Sutton Middle School in Atlanta, views confidence-building as an important first step. He starts the school year with shorter stories 鈥� or as he puts it, 鈥渢exts that aren鈥檛 intimidating鈥� 鈥� and develops a respectful classroom culture. The presence of a big, comfy couch helps, too.
鈥淭he classroom is inviting,鈥� he says. 鈥淪o they鈥檒l feel comfortable, and it doesn鈥檛 have to be scary.鈥�
Mr. Edwards also devotes time to First Chapter Fridays. Each week, he reads aloud the first chapter of a new book, hoping to spark interest among his middle schoolers. A recent title in that rotation: 鈥淥n the Come Up鈥� by Angie Thomas.
Where teens got to choose new books for their library
Halfway across the United States, leaders at Roosevelt High School in Des Moines, Iowa, recently took a slightly different approach: They invited a group of 20-plus students to help select new books as part of a $1.2 million library renovation project.聽
Comfort Toluwalase, a junior, says she took the opportunity seriously and wanted to find books that would have a 鈥渓asting impact鈥� on her classmates. She recalls reading 鈥淭he House on Mango Street,鈥� by Sandra Cisneros, in eighth grade and feeling kinship with the main character, who grew up in a lower-income neighborhood.
Now an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy books, Comfort once hated reading. 鈥淚 think reading books was kind of like a way to escape from some things that were stressful,鈥� she says.
Comfort and Sha鈥檔ye Kinchelow, a sophomore on the selection committee, also say they prioritized books featuring diverse authors and characters.聽
鈥淲e鈥檙e all different in our ways, but we just need to learn to accept it,鈥� says Sha鈥檔ye, who was particularly excited about books examining African American and Latino history. 鈥淪o I feel like the books will actually help us understand that.鈥�
Principal Steve Schappaugh says motivation is key, especially in an era defined by lack of reading stamina. Social media has programmed students to digest short, concise blurbs, he says. And though that鈥檚 valuable, educators are constantly trying to build students鈥� reading muscles for longer forms of writing.
Will the expanded library collection and refreshed vibe 鈥� complete with artwork, conference rooms, and cozy nooks 鈥� help?
鈥淚 saw students today looking at books that I have not seen looking at books in the previous years they were at our school,鈥� he says by phone earlier this month.
What do parents think their children should read?
In Temple, Texas, kindergarten teacher JoMeka Gray starts each year by surveying parents. She wants to learn her students鈥� interests so she can find reading materials about dinosaurs, plants, baseball, or any other topic that fires their imagination.聽
Ms. Gray, who teaches at Kennedy-Powell STEM Academy, has also been leaning into what she describes as 鈥減redictive texts.鈥� She points to 鈥淲hose Teeth Are These?鈥� 鈥� written by Kris Hirschmann and illustrated by Daniel Howarth 鈥撀燼s an example of a children鈥檚 book that is interactive and educational.
鈥淚t seems like it鈥檚 fiction, but it鈥檚 really teaching them,鈥� she says.
Like a gym, a dedicated reading space offers motivation聽
Back in Boston, Ms. Jones鈥� strategies to overcome college student roadblocks include balancing shorter and longer stories, strongly encouraging paper texts, reading aloud in class, keeping reading assignments reasonable, and giving comprehension quizzes. If students enjoy 鈥撀燼nd complete 鈥� the reading, she says, the quality of class discussions inevitably improves.聽
But Ms. Jones doesn鈥檛 want that engagement to end at her classroom door. She may launch 鈥渞eading hours鈥� on campus, in which students can cozy up to a good book, poem, or other form of the written word. Her rationale: Some people can鈥檛 muster the motivation to exercise at home. Maybe a dedicated reading space would renew their interest, away from distractions, much like a gym or workout class.
The concept, she suspects, may even lend itself to camaraderie and friendly discussions.
鈥淚t鈥檚 enjoyable and interesting to talk about what鈥檚 in the book,鈥� she says. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 not about the stress of a class.鈥�
Editor's Note: This story has been updated to correct the name of Emerson College in Boston.
