ADVANCED ENGLISH QUESTION

[Mr.Daley]

Well, Advanced English students, I have been thinking and thinking about how to improve student's abilities to read, write and speak all summer - night and day (no joke). It dawned on me that at some point in your life you probably enjoyed the magic of books. Then, somewhere along the line students (maybe not you or maybe you - doesnt matter) stopped enjoying reading. Reading is not like other subjects, because it IS one of the first skills learned in school and books are, most likely, one thing parents did use as a teaching tool at home when you were very young. Parents and teachers teach a child to read before he learns math or science. Then I was thinking that students who are 15 or 16 years old (your age) have to socialize and hang out with friends. Also, there  are easier things to do that require much less work - video games, talking on the phone, television, texting. However, none of those activities you would call academic or "thinking" activities. You could shut off your brain (to an extent) and do any of those activities. They require less work than reading a book - Can we all agree on that statement, anyway? I have also been pondering summer reading and how badly I want you to succeed in the Advanced program. It seems the summer reading is getting a bad rap and is causing students to drop the class and go to General English - which is a VERY VERY bad move for a student who is talented in English. So...what to do? What to do? I want you to read over the summer and, most importantly, THINK! However, I do not want to dominate your summer. So, I decided I will offer questions on this forum to allow students the opportunity to think and reply to an intelligent conversation that actually matters. To reward you for your participation in our discussions, I will make these questions extra credit. This extra credit will allow you to OPT OUT of either the WRITING or RESEARCH assignment for Module 3 - which opens July 19th. That means, by answering my question that will follow in this post, you can choose not to do either the WRITING or RESEARCH sections of the module. I didnt want you to OPT out of the Reading or Grammar, because those are SO important to have as background knowledge for the class. This will also free up some of your time.

All I ask is that you provide an answer that raises more questions and is thought-provoking and intelligent. Also, it would be nice to respond to one of your classmates comments in some intelligent way.

So, I want you to answer my question and respond to one other person in the class.

So, after all that...here is my question, which is in TWO parts.

Why do students hate (or dislike) reading and if you were in charge of getting students to enjoy reading again, what would you do?

[12dawsons]

I think that students hate reading because it can be challenging. Some books have hard words that we may not know. So we could look up the definition, but that would be out of our way. I don't think people don't like reading I think that they don't like the subject they are reading. If you think about it, it makes sense would you want to read something you are not interested in and didn't understand. Or would you rather read about something you like,is new and fresh to you. I don't think that reading is the only subject that we are lazy in. I don't like math and I don't try to do any extra problems if i am struggling. Even if those extra problems could make me a little bit better it takes patients and time. During the school year I don't like to read for fun because I don't have enough time. With all my homework, studying,keeping up with all my classes and still do good in sports it can be tough. Writers only write the genre they like. They are not going to do research on a topic that bores them. Think about it would you want to read and write and research and analyze something that you don't care for. We do it thought for school so that's fine to a certain extent. I think that there is a time in everyone's life when they like to read. It may not be until we are out of high school or college. Reading is a very important skill to have I mean it's not going away. In college you will have to read soooo much if you get a head start than it will be a piece of cake.If I like a book and it is a series I want to read the whole series. If I was in charge of getting kids to read again I would let them pick a topic they like once in awhile. I might try a series of books just to keep them interested. If they read one of the books and they like it they will probably read the others in the series. Which might spark an interest in books. When we were young we loved reading cause it was something new to us and it was fun. Well that is how I would get a kid to read
                                                      from: Savanna Dawson

[Mr.Daley]

Good answer. I agree. I am in grad classes and many of the books can be very boring, but if I dont read them I will have no clue what I am doing in my job (or future job). It would be nice if we could all buy books that were of use to us later in life. I think we can read some things everyone likes or people can pick and choose what they want to read. I do like to give choices in my class and I have a lot of books in my closet. We'll see what we can do.  ---- I hope other people respond!  

[Matt Potts]

Students hate reading because there are more enjoyable things to do such as playing video games, watching television, and hanging out with their friends.  Reading is a lot like school work and they think it is a chore to read.  Some kids don't like reading because they are not skillful at reading.  They are not able to comprehend and envision the story in their minds. They also hate reading because they can't pick the story books they would enjoy reading.  Under most circumstances the teacher picks what they have to read and they are made to read the story of the teachers choice. 
    If I were in charge I would have them read a story that was also in video that they picked.  I would then have them read the story and have them watch the video so they could see the story in their minds.  I would also have them watch the video as a reward for reading the book.  Matthew Potts

[Matt Potts]

I agree with Savanna.  Just like the stories we just had to read I had a very hard time getting interested in those stories because they were confusing and a lot of the words made it that much harder to understand.  I also agree with her on the issues of having so much to do during the school year that there just isn't enough time in the day to get everything in.  Matthew Potts

[Mr.Daley]

Good comments Matt. I agree with watching the movie after reading the book - I do like to do that in my classes.

I believe that to evolve as a reader, one must read books beyond one's current reading level. I also believe that the best way to learn vocabulary is through context and not through those vocabulary books where you memorize 20 words a week and then you never see them again. That is why I push vocab from things we read so much. The PSSA, SAT and in college, you will see those words. In addition, it is a good habit to look up words you dont know in anything you read.

I guess I think of reading in school as doing math in school or completing a science project in school - it is supposed to be work! I think most people expect it not to be work and that is should be a passive activity.

I like to know who my students are before class and I defintiely love your suggestions. Choose your books (well, at least I have around 15 to choose from) - make them interesting - watch the movies afterwards.

Oh yeah, in the past I have allowed the students to choose a book and we all went out and bought a copy and then read that. We had bought Dracula as a class one year and The Bell Jar another year. Then, the following year I bought  30 copies for the whole class. So, if we didnt like the books I have, we could always go get new ones.

I commend you for your honesty in your posts! 

[Sarah:)]

  Why do students hate (or dislike) reading and if you were in charge of getting students to enjoy reading again, what would you do?
       I think most students dislike reading do to the fact it is not an active thing. As compared to video games, texting, and things along those lines. Most people probably think they have better more productive things to do, or maybe reading is not the type of entertainment for them. It is cruel to say that people do not wish to read because they have to think, but when books are challenging to a person it ruins the minor joy of the plot. After reading one hard book...isn't it beleivable that all books are that challenging? One of the MAJOR reasons for most disliking reading is; all through elementary through middle school we were to read a specifyed number of books, a certain amount of each genre. Teachers used to make students read like crazy to meet what I think the state requirements. For myself the most agrivating was the PSSA cramming. Reading silly pointless story after story, and writting the essays on the anoying stories untill they were perfect, completely sucked every ounce of fun out of it. 
      If I were to get get students to enjoy reading, it would depend on the age group. For middle school and under I would find what they are interested in and what they find fun, and continue from that. When it comes to high school reading, I personally enjoy reading a book before seeing the movie (but that's just me). As for other high school students, I would just try to talk about it and make it fun. In my opinion for an entire class, I would try to find novels that suit both genders. A way to make reading fun for high school is maybe finding the hot topic of the moment and try to find a book or novel that relates wll to it.
                                                           *Sarah Wiggers*
                                                               

[Sarah:)]

Book+Movie suggestions!!!!
   my sisters keeper
                               I have heard memoirs of  a geisha is okay but long...

***just saying*** (lol)
Sarah

[Mr.Daley]

Im glad you put"Sarah" on that post, because I wasnt sure who it was from. 

Anyway, good points! I think reading does need to evolve as you progress through high school.

So, you don't agree that "thinking" is becoming less and less "cool" in our society? I guess I am basing my opinion on having students in my room every year and listening to them discuss my class and other classes and the fact that they have any homework at all and they didnt get to socialize that night or go on a date...blaaa blaaaa blaaaa. Don't I sound old now!? 

I have read Memiors of a Geisha and my wife is reading My Sister's Keepers now, but that is exactly what I am talking about. We need to read books, as a group (preferrably), that we all agree on and then establish our goals for the book.

[colelewis1]

I believe that teenagers dislike reading because like you said it is a lot easier to socialize with friends and play video games.  They choose not to because they think it is a waste of time and they could have better things to do then read a book.  In my opinion i think it is hard to pick up a book and start reading, it is a lot easier just to hang out with my friends and play video games.   So if i was in charge of making kids enjoy reading better i would first ask the kids "what would you like to read about?  You could read about adventure, horror, thriller, comedy... and so on.  Then i would brake the class up into groups according to genre and have them pick a book to read for class.  So then you might have five kids reading a book about a thriller story, seven kids reading about a comedy novel and four kids reading about a horror novel.  That is how i would get kids to read more in a class room, but in the world in general it would be a lot harder to accomplish because kids just don't want to read on their free time.  Once technology came around the books just went to the garbadge and were ignored.

                                                                    From: Cole Lewis

[colelewis1]

I agree with you Sarah.  I belive that kids just think that reading is not important anymore and that kids have better things to do on their free time.  I also agree that the PSSA was pretty dumb that you have to read a bunch of pointless stories and write a response to profection.  when the state makes kids take those tests i think it is pushing kids away from wanting read anymore.  When they have to read four stories in a hour, plus answer questions and write an essay it just gets real boring.  I also liked the point you made saying that when someone picks up a hard story kids just give up on it instead of trying to finish it through the end.  It can be intimidating to read a five hundred page novel, but if you brake it down and think about what you just read each chapter it can be a lot easier to read and comprehend.
                                          From: Cole Lewis

[Mr.Daley]

Good responses Cole!

Last night I went to Barnes and Nobles in Erie and was walking around and it was pretty packed. People were sitting in chairs reading and some people had little shopping carts with a pile of books. I looked around and didnt see anyone under the age of 18 or 20 and no one older than 8 or 9. So, I didnt see anyone between 10 and 17 years old in there. I started to think of reasons why that age group was missing. It could be that those students who were missing were bombarded with state reading tests and classes that didnt make reading all that fun. Perhaps when people get older that begin to read for enjoyment again. I know I read more now for enjoyment (a lot more) than I did in high school.

[Sarah:)]

Okay better late than never!!! In my opinion everyone had the same p.o.v it is either thought to be to hard and/or boring. I like Savanna's thoughts, looking hard words up is a pain. As for Cole's comments, if my teachers had let me read what i wanted to, maybe i would enjoy reading a bit more. Matt is right in my opinion reading in most of my classes was a chore, due to it being homework.
                      *Sarah*

[Mr.Daley]

Maybe its boring because teachers are only making you read to test you on it and not make it interactive in any way.

Although this may sound harsh, I do not think students in high school really know what is beneficial or harmful to them all the time. I think if you allowed students to choose their own books, most of them would choose books that are easy or in the same genre over and over again and never develop as critical readers - which is what you need to be in college or if you intend on becoming a successful individual in your chosen field.

I am thinking of ways to make everyone love to read, because reading can actually be one of the best experiences ever.