Encouraging Reading Above All Else

Elementary Scenario A grade two student comes into the library, on his own, to choose books. He is usually an enthusiastic science book fan (insects, tigers, sharks). He looks sad and defeated and says: “My Mom says that from now on I have to have take out chapter books to help my reading and they have to be a 2.4”. What do you do/say? How do you help this student? How do you turn this dilemma into an opportunity?

     Asking (or implying) a student to stop reading what they enjoy reading and read something else instead doesn’t help them want to read. According to Krashen’s YouTube video, “The Power of Reading”, reading for pleasure helps advance reading skills more than force-fed reading, which can also deter a student from enjoying to read. A motto I intend on telling parents and teachers when I start a teacher-librarian (TL) position is that I won’t prevent a student from reading what they want to read and will actually do the reverse: I’ll encourage it. I will also help them to expand their horizons, but I will not tell them what to read. I don’t want to “erode [a] student’s interest in reading [, as] children must receive constant encouragement for reading” (Kelley, p90).

     I would imagine the student’s mother in the scenario worries that her child is not developing their reading skills and is looking at the pictures in the science book and, maybe, skimming some of the written details. As a TL, I would be interested in discovering how much the student is reading from these books. This can be done with a friendly question denoting interest. In relation to a book they are returning, the question could be: “Oh, this book looks interesting. Was it interesting?” If this doesn’t prompt details beyond yes or no, a TL could follow with, “What sort of interesting things were in it?” or “Why wasn’t it interesting?”, then proceed by opening the book to encourage the student to flip through it and tell the TL their findings and analyses. This form of questioning feeds into what Kelley points out: that “the only thing readers enjoy almost as much as reading is talking about books with other readers” (p98). Perhaps the student was reading more than the mother realized or perhaps the TL has now encouraged the student to read more from science books so that they can share this information with the TL.

     As a TL, I might not want to completely disregard what a student’s parents or teachers wish that they read; I wouldn’t ask or encourage them to replace what they want to read with what others wish them to read, but I would likely want to help the student foster the skills it is that their teacher or parent wish them to acquire. In this scenario, I would encourage (but not insist) the student find a chapter book to accompany their choice of science book. A natural in would be to find a book related to the avenue of science the student is interested in: if it’s biomes, they can decide to pick a science book on a biome they’re interested in and pair it with a chapter book set in that biome – the student could even have both books side-by-side to better envision what they’re reading from the chapter book. I would also encourage them to read with their parents. But, I wouldn’t steer them to a specific reading level (such as 2.4). Parrot quotes the Library Bill of Rights, “a library should not use such labels as a classification system, or to promote any restrictive or prejudicial practice.’” I am reminded of something I personally noticed some years ago: I am bilingual (English and French), but in my academic studies I read predominantly French academic books and papers, which are technically a “high reading level”, but when it came to reading chapter books, even those at a “middle school” level, I encountered a fair amount of words I hadn’t seen before. Reading level does not necessarily match up with one’s specific vocabulary. I’m quite adept at reading Shakespeare, but I wouldn’t be as adept at reading a topic I wasn’t as familiar with. Parrot supports my discovery when he notes that “[kids] are capable of learning to match themselves to ‘just right’ books—without the teacher directing them to a labeled bin.” And, if a book is over their “reading level” and they’re motivated to read it because it interests them, they may well succeed in at least adequately reading it. Parrot continues, “When [students] come into the library the next time, talk about their choices: what worked; what didn’t. They have to learn their own processes for selecting books, and if we keep narrowing the choices by artificial constraints, we aren’t giving them that chance.”

References

Kelley, S., & Miller, D. (2013) Reading in the wild: The book whisper’s keys to cultivating lifelong reading habits. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. p.88-128   (Book Excerpt)

Krashen, S. (2012, April 5). “The power of reading. The COE lecture series. University of Georgia.” Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSW7gmvDLag

Parrott, Kiera.  (August 28, 2017).  Thinking outside the bin: why labeling books by reading level disempowers young readers. Retrieved from: http://www.slj.com/2017/08/feature-articles/thinking-outside-the-bin-why-labeling-books-by-reading-level-disempowers-young-readers/#_