Despite the efforts of LeVar Burton on Reading Rainbow, I did perceive reading as something "nerdy" so, I wanted nothing to do with that. Also in elementary school I had some learning difficulties with reading out loud and I had trouble pronouncing my Rs. Another factor is that I saw reading as a punishment. Reading was always an assignment or if you were misbehaving you had to stay quiet and read a book. So, as anyone can see, there are a number of factors that prevented me from wanting to read.
When I was 19 years old I left to serve a two year religious mission for my church. During this time I of course did much studying and reading. I see this as the turning point in my life as far as reading goes. Ever since, I have been interested in reading, however, my preferences are narrowed. I only read non-fiction. I don't have much of an imagination, but I do love history and politics. So, I do read a lot of historical books and biographies. Additionally I often read religious texts. In the last few years I have not done a lot of reading for myself. I often find it hard to find the time when I am required to read for so many classes.
As I am about to switch my hat from being that of a student to that of a teacher, I often think of how I can create an environment in which students will have a natural desire to read. I have come up with a few ideas. Primarily, I have vowed never to make students read as a form of punishment. This will create a negative stigma around reading. Also, I think it would be important for students to choose. Obviously, there are occasions when there is no way around it, but for the most part, I think students should be given the choice of what they want to read. The few exceptions that I actually read when I was a wee one was when I was given the choice of what to read. As I will be teaching social studies, there is often a lot of reading involved. A key would be to let students choose the subject or topic of which they are most interested and read a text about that. I feel this will eliminate the feeling of "having to do it" and replacing it with "wanting to do it". Additionally, I see it important to cater to the individual student needs. I was embarrassed to read out loud, so if I find there is a student that feels anxious in the same way, I wouldn't require him/her to do it unless they felt comfortable.
I now see how reading is such an important tool in the educational process. It is essential. It is going to be my responsibility as a future teacher to remove the negative stigmas that surround reading and foster an environment that makes students want to read.
You reminded me about how in one of my high school English classes all of our readings for our twice-monthly reports had to come from a 15 page typed list on the wall. Type-writer print font was smaller, so there were plenty to choose from. I remember when one kid in the class noticed and pointed out that the Bible was on the list. 32 high school seniors all rushed over to the wall to see for themselves. Everybody confirmed, that yes, The Holy Bible was there. Most joked that they would do it but only one actually did. It was the only one he ended up reading and reporting on all trimester, but he did it!
ReplyDeleteYou hit the nail right on the head with many factors that discourage students from reading: embarrassing reading experiences, including when you have to read aloud and you are unprepared for it, and being required to read texts that you did not choose, which are about subjects that are not interesting to you.
ReplyDeleteThere have been several studies done about how religions can support young people's literacy. The Bible (or the Book of Mormon)is actually a very difficult text to read in terms of its lexile score, and students who are used to reading it everyday can be more prepared to tackle other challenging texts.
Thanks for a thoughtful posting!
Here I wanted to comment on Brian's comment about reading the Bible. I had an undergraduate history teacher (who was not affiliated with any religion) who told our class that everyone should read the Bible, regardless of his/her religious affiliation, because it has been one of the most influential texts throughout history. In other words, in order to understand the cultural history of the U.S., Latin America, or Europe especially--you would really need a grasp on the values present in this text.
ReplyDeleteI guess if you were studying Middle Eastern history it would be a good idea to be familiar with the Koran as well.