Kate Coombs

Education with Imagination

Reading

At least in my state (California), reading instruction has become a political hot-button topic and the baby of big-bucks textbook companies, not to mention the domain of standardized testing. Sensible teachers find themselves wondering why the best strategies of the phonics folks can't be allied with the best strategies of the whole-language movement, but the latter is currently in disgrace. Just what is it we should take from whole language? Why, the simple idea that kids must read books in order to become better readers! I know, this seems obvious, but researchers have found that most kids spend so much time on strategy lessons and worksheets at school that they spend very little time individually applying these lessons to real text. So yes, phonics instruction is very important, but then kids need to engage in what is commonly known as "reading for pleasure" and what grown-ups might refer to as "reading practice."

Maybe your child (or student) is a reluctant reader. How exactly do you turn a reluctant reader into a real reader? It's a little like trying to turn Pinocchio into a real boy! The following are a few suggestions that have worked for me:

With very young or beginning readers, I build up a comfort level reading with them, and then ask them to play Word Spy—I tell them, for example, that I bet they can find the word "dog" elsewhere in the book as we read Go, Dog. Go! But I don't push this hard, or it becomes obnoxious and boring. I might only cue the child 2-4 times during the book, building a beginning awareness of words.
When necessary, I help students read books that are a bit too hard for them—e.g., their school books. If their reading ability is just a little below grade level, I take turns reading with them, a paragraph or a page each, whichever best suits the text and the student. Most kids find it a very cozy experience to read stories with a parent or teacher, so reluctant readers who will never touch a book on their own may warm up to reading with an adult. Resist the urge to correct or cue your reader. Make a deal with him that you won't chime in if he will agree to ask for help when he needs it. If he's really struggling, the book is probably too hard. Find a different book!
The official talk in schools is that students must work on grade-level materials. This is understandable, but remember: if a fourth grader is reading on a second grade level, she literally cannot access the fourth grade material on her own. You simply have to start where she's at and bring her along. (Note that she's likely to be embarrassed, frustrated, and even angry about the situation—all of which makes it harder to remediate!)
Find out what interests your child or student and hunt down books on those subjects. Keep in mind that kids may not know what kinds of books they like. In that case, I start by thinking about the movies and TV shows that appeal to them. Boys are often interested in adventurous fiction or in nonfiction. Popular nonfiction topics include sports, cars, humor, and science, especially animals.
I always offer kids choices and "market" those choices. For example, I'll bring a student six books and we'll read the jacket copy together. Then we may start the chosen book together if that's what the student prefers. But what I'm really looking for is a book that hooks my unwilling reader into reading on his own.
I usually assign reluctant readers five pages per day as "pleasure reading" or "fun reading." My secret weapon is follow-up—the next day, I ask the student to tell me about what he has read! This is very informal: what I want is to hear about the plot and the characters, the way you ask a friend about the storyline of a movie you're thinking of seeing. (In official educational circles, the skill being practiced is summarizing.) I don't quiz students or critique their summaries; I just listen and ask questions like "And then what happened?" or "So wait; did she find the key?" In this way, I do elicit enough specificity so that the story is communicated clearly (and yes, I can tell if my student actually did the reading).
It's okay if kids want to read easier books than you think they should. We tend to push struggling readers to read text which is completely beyond their abilities. Our goal is not to torture kids with failure; we want children to grow in confidence as well as skill. The trick is to slowly introduce harder books—not a lot harder, just a little bit more. For example, a girl who likes to read picture book fairy tales can eventually graduate to reading fairy tale collections—but be careful, since some of these collections are written in very dense or archaic language. So are some of the picture books, actually. You should start with a more simply written collection.
It's been said before, but I'll say it again: read aloud to kids. I remember teaching one particular first grade class, and I read those kids the best books, day after day, one or two books right after lunch. By the end of the school year, most of my students were crazy in love with books—I had introduced them to a huge range of wonderful possibilities, and they were thoroughly sold on the idea of reading! (My mother used to read aloud even when her kids were older. James Herriot's books were a hit.)
Don't forget nonfiction! The difficult textbooks your kids will encounter in the upper grades, secondary school, and even college will often be nonfiction, and nonfiction is structured very differently than fiction. Most students are starved for science, so bringing them books about animals and earthquakes and so on is a good bet. Just be sure the reading level isn't too hard for them, especially if they're reluctant readers.

A Few Books for Reluctant Readers

For little kids, I like to start with Dr. Seuss's Hop on Pop and P.D. Eastman's Go, Dog. Go! (Go, Dog. Go! is very intriguing visually, but should be read in portions, with help.) Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham is a step up in terms of challenge, but is a wonderful early reader.

Jonathan London's Froggy books are very popular read-alouds with K-1 students—be sure to dramatize the sounds, especially the call-and-response between Froggy and his mother! Your lap reader will be happy to start looking at the pages to find the flop, flop, flop of Froggy's feet. For slightly older, independent readers, Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad books are a good choice. Edward and James Marshall's Fox books are also good, and a little more rowdy.

I highly recommend the Captain Underpants books for reluctant readers, especially boys, from about second grade on up to fifth and even middle school in some cases. The vocabulary is harder than you might expect, however, so some support may be needed.

Sideways Stories from Wayside School and the other books of stories about Wayside School by Louis Sachar are another good pick. The stories are funny and weird, and they're also short, which is a relief for struggling readers. (One story per day is a comfortable task.) The books work for girls and boys in grades 2-3 in general, and for reluctant readers in grades 4-5, as well.

Girls are often willing to read fairy tales. As mentioned above, however, watch out for the reading level—many fairy tales are rather intricately written! One easy-to-read story many of my students have loved, including the boys, is Bony-Legs, by Joanna Cole.

A good book of scary stories for young readers is In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories, by Alvin Schwartz. (Schwartz's scary story collections for older readers are popular, but highly gruesome!)

And for upper grades, try Gordon Korman's reader-friendly, action-packed books. I especially like the Island trilogy, about a group of kids who are shipwrecked, and the six short books in the On the Run series, which is basically The Fugitive with kids. (See also the follow-up trilogy, Kidnapped.)

In nonfiction, I like the Eyewitness series for older readers, though some find them a little too cluttered. Seymour Simon's nonfiction books are almost uniformly wonderful, and he's done some easy readers.

Comprehension and Book Selection

I am working on developing more specific strategies for helping young readers with comprehension, but in the meantime, I encourage you to start with the basics listed above. The summarizing follow-up activity I mentioned will help improve comprehension. In general, remember that reading is an activity that improves with practice, like playing baseball or the clarinet. The nice thing is that kids can improve their reading while actually reading the kinds of stories (and nonfiction) they enjoy. In fact, that's when real improvement happens.

Still, they often need the help of parents and teachers in finding just the right books. I've listed some favorites on this site. If you'd like further help with book selection, try asking a knowledgeable children's librarian or the old pros at your local independent children's bookstore. There are also some very good books out there listing books recommended for child readers. My favorites are How to Get Your Child to Love Reading: For Ravenous and Reluctant Readers Alike, by Esme Raji Codell, and The Read-aloud Handbook, by Jim Trelease. You can also look up lists of award-winning and recommended books online—try the American Library Association (www.ala.org) and Parents' Choice Institute (www.parents-choice.org) for starters. (You may have to get the ALA lists indirectly, by googling Newbery Award winners or ALA Notable Books, for example.)

I will warn you, as a general rule, that books created as TV, movie, and theme park tie-ins, while they have instant child appeal, tend to be badly written (wordy and trite). You want to get the best books possible for your young reader, and these are not it! You're wa-a-a-a-y better off with the latest batch of Caldecotts and Newberys.