Little-Discussed Reasons Why Students Might Not Like to Read
Students don’t like to read. It’s painfully obvious. Many theories have been published, usually tied to some commercial remedy. Author Nancy Bailey hints at some of what she sees as the problems. But, I think she misses the point. Ed Week’s Alyson Klein blames devices and apps. The Atlantic’s Katherine Marsh gets us a bit closer, but ignores the elephant in the room.
The elephant in the room, in this case, are the kids who aren’t reading. In most cases, these are the kids who can’t read … or can’t read effectively. They can’t read, so they don’t. If you can’t read, it’s no fun. Kids, when given an option, won’t engage in things that aren’t enjoyable. It’s really that simple.
If you’ve been following me for a while, you’ll know where this is going. The so-called “science of reading” is fine leaving about 40% of kids behind. Kids are quite sharp. If a child is sitting in a class and the teacher is pontificating, and it’s not connecting with the student(s), they’ll tune out. When they tune out, and the teacher doesn’t notice, the child forms opinions. “I’m not able to read, and you don’t seem to care much about it,” combines with, “all you seem to care about is the bloody test results.” I know, I was one of those kids.
I’m deep into the writing process on an actual solution. It is possible to teach all learner types to read within the same classroom. Teachers have been hoodwinked with the “science of reading.” Holistic Language Instruction aims to change the current situation by changing how teachers are trained to teach reading. It will come out next year.
In the mean time, we can continue to discuss how to work with your learners until such time as we can correct the system.