Getting high school students to read

In response to your overall question of how to get high school students to read I would ask you a few questions first. Are your students not reading at all? Are they reading the assignment and not understanding it? Do they indicate why they are not reading?

I have been taking many courses recently on learning how to teach reading skills. I teach high school English Language Arts and assumed, like many of my colleagues, that by the time a student reached high school that they would know how to read. But what I have discovered is that the art of teaching reading comprehension skills must be moved forward just like all the skills a child learns. Yet reading in the content area is the one area most often not taught in college and dropped after middle school unless it is a remedial reading course. I have many students who read the text for the words but when they finish they have no idea what they just read. Early American Literature is my favorite course to teach but the texts are very difficult because the language is archaic and the syntax is complicated. I have now changed my whole approach to the course and am finding that I love it even more.

A good reader knows instinctively how to read for comprehension but a struggling reader needs to be taught strategies for success. I begin with the unit texts, for instance Frederick Douglass' Narrative and Linda Brent's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl . I pull out essential vocabulary words from the text - words absolutely needed to comprehend the text. I put them into a 3 column chart - the word, what they think it means and what it really means. No dictionaries allowed yet. As a class the students go through the words and try to write their own definitions based on what they identify to be known words to them. Abolitionist, Emancipated - some of these words they know or recognize but do not know how to define them so we talk about it as a class. Only after we have played with the words do we confirm or prove our definitions with the dictionary. I also ask them to think about what an autobiography is - what might they be reading about? Next I create a word bubble "Slavery" and have students identify everything they know or think they know about slavery. We talk about these items and then I have students fill out a K-W-L chart based on specific points we have talked about prior to reading. Finally, I spend another day reading a children's book called "From Slave Ship to Freedom Road" by Julius Lester, with the author's permission, I have handed out his "Imagination Exercise #3" activity that is listed in the book. Essentially it asks people if what they would do if they knew they would not be caught for hurting someone, if it was in fact, promoted - because these are juniors and seniors they have some very strong opinions on this point and I ask them to write a response to the activity. These are all pre-reading strategies that help to promote interest in the book - by the time we actually are ready to begin the students are excited and they enter the book with their prior knowledge activated and ready to digest new material.

During reading I ask students to keep reading journals - sometimes double or triple entry journals. In these journals they jot down lines that seemed important to them as they were reading, vocabulary words they had trouble with, and I ask them to predict, question, infer,or respond to what is happening in the chapters. I have a bookmark that has all of these points on it as a reminder while they are reading.

While reading I also bring in outside materials for students to review. When Douglass talks about the slave auctions I have a copy of a slave auction receipt, a want ad from a woman searching for her missing family and an entry from a census record - students review the materials together and we act like detectives searching for clues in the lines. The auction receipt for instance contains the prices for slaves of differing values and there is a handwritten note on the bottom pertaining to a woman with child being of more value, the date of the receipt coincides with Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation. The census record details a man who entered his marriage with a woman who had been dead for over 9 years - but the importance of registering his marriage carries meaning when we read about the importance of marriage to a slave and how the slave owner tried to manipulate those ties. There are many other mini-activities that take place during the unit but all of the elements help to build confidence in the reading by building connections with real life examples.

Finally, you have to end with some closing ideas to reconnect with the opening lessons. I like to hand out the vocabulary sheet again to see how students would now answer the questions and what examples come to mind when they think of Abolitionist or Emancipation. I recreate the word bubble with the word slavery and review our previous answers and see what needs to be changed or added.

Bottom line reading is a challenging event for many students and we as educators have to help students become engaged. Reading is an activity that is not enjoyed by a lot of people in general - in fact I read a statistic somewhere that indicated that something like 10% of the population reads 80% of printed materials such as books, newspapers, magazines.

I teach American Lit. to four sections, three of which are honors, and one section of an AIMS prep course, which is essentially a reading class for juniors and seniors that are struggling.  I've taught American Lit. for several years now and love it, but I did not stumble upon the exact formula to engage the regular students until this year.  There are several aspects of this formula to employ to be effective.

My classes are only 55 minutes long, but I make my students know that I value reading and choice as a part of the course. Students spend the first 10-15 minutes reading silently any book of their choice that is NOT school relatend; they have a log to complete afterwards that consists of one sentence but reinforces reading strategies (i.e. one thing they liked about what they just read, what they predict will happen, why the character should or shouldn't do or say whatever, etc.).  Additionally, homework everynight is to read 15-30 minutes and 60 minutes during the weekend.  The log is completed after every reading, signed as verification by parents, and turned in once a week for a completion grade.

• Choice: Students thrive on having choice.  Kelly Gallagher had it right in his recent book, Readicide.  If all you eat is spaghetti throughout your life, then eventually you will rebel and decide you hate spaghetti - refusing to eat it ever again.  This same concept can be applied to reading.  If all students read is what teachers assign and require, then eventually they stop reading ---- personally, I think this happens around 9th grade.

Unfortunately, that is the extent of the their choice reading.  Everything else read in the class is a required/assigned choice.  For these required reads, I try to change up the way to engage them.  Sometimes I use anticipation guides but I've found that the guys really get into the books if I do something more engaging with them.  For instance, when I teach The Crucible, we run witch trial simulations in the class.  The older texts like this, we listen to the audio books and follow along in the books.  This eliminates the fear of cold reading aloud in a class of a bunch of other teens. 

My suggestion for the required texts - old or new - is find a kinesthetic interaction that will relate the text to the students' lives.  Remember to find real world current situations that the text may relate to and bring that to class for discussion.  Many times, the discussions we have in class account for the larger part of their grade on the assignments.  I hate the idea of wasting time, so students are not asked to complete meaningless packets of comprehension questions - instead we do this verbally where everyone can benefit from hearing the answers and questions at the same time. 

 Hope this helps some.

 I read an article recently about how making a boys vs. girls book reports competitions increased the number os boys who were reading at a local library. I don't know if it would apply to high school students, but it's an idea.