How am I supposed to make my students read?

Question

When they actually do take the time to pick up the book, 9 times out of 10 they will find that they like the books I assign. It's the getting them to pick up the book. And then open it. And then look at the words and make sense of it all. Daily.

I teach high school English, typically sophomores, and I read aloud to them regularly. I read aloud to them, and they enjoy that, but they seem to be dependent on being read to, resisting reading to themselves.

Answer 1

My husband is a high school English teacher.

He always starts a new reading assignment with the students by reading the opening (and sometimes other sections) aloud, and leading a class discussion about what the story is about, what the students anticipate will happen next, etc.

He also does his own type of movie-preview hype presentation. "How would you like to read a story about teenagers sneaking around behind their parents' backs to have sex, not to mention gang violence, lots of cursing, and suicide? Sound cool? OK, open your textbooks to "Romeo and Juliet."

Answer 2

A method I used for many years worked quite well in Honors and College Prep. classes. I would divide the class into groups of no more than 5. Three would be ideal. The groups were selected by lottery, so I could not be accused of favoritism. Each group was assigned THREE or MORE questions which required careful reading, discussion among themselves, and research in the library. They were given one month to accomplish the task which included reading the book. Then they had to make an oral presentation to the class responding to the questions assigned to the group. They were required to use visuals, to follow the standards of good oral presentation (reviewed with them well in advance), and to answer the questions in a scholarly manner. This was NOT play time. After the group completed its presentation, the class and I critiqued the content AND the delivery. Each student was required to participate in the delivery. (That precluded one doing all the visuals while the others presented.) The group received a written critique and a grade from me. I reserved the right to lower the grade of any student who did not carry his/her share of the load or who goofed off during the presentation.

This IS time consuming, for sure, but most of the time, all came well prepared and did a good job. We had some very lively discussions after each presentation. I served as a consultant to each group if they needed help, and I reserved the library at times so they could work on their projects and consult with me during class time. I reserved the right to take this time away from them if they were not using it wisely. A gentle warning usually sufficed. Using this methiod, we were able to read and discuss 6-7 books a year.

I hope this idea is suitable for you and helps.

Good luck.

Answer 3

The only way I've ever found to coax kids (high school English) into getting interested is to make everything relevant to them (which takes extreme creativity and effort on your part). I worked in an urban setting, so I just made everything a working class issue, correlated pop culture and current events, asked a lot what-ifs, and made everything deeply personal. I mean, we read short stories from Fitzgerald that took place in the twenties, and I just asked them to see the themes from where they were at first, then read the story and draw parallels, talk about similarities and differences.

Someone above suggested asking students what they want to read, but I'd caution against that as it rarely works. I tried it and ended up with "Every Thug Needs a Lady," which is total smut. Kids don't know what's up with literary merit on their own, that's where teachers come in.

But good luck.

Answer 4

A lot depends on what grade you are teaching. ;)

As an elementary school teacher, I like to have at least 15-20 minutes set aside every day [though sometimes we can't fit it in every day] for silent independent reading. Students can either read a book from the library of their choosing or choose a book from the class library [ones I have chosen to have in the library either all the time or about a theme]. I encourage the students to "review" the books for me- whether they liked it or not, and to recommend books to their friends. I try to have a large genre of books to choose from [though no comics], and include information books [non-fiction] as well as picture books and novels.

I also like to read in the classroom, either a picture book or a novel appropriate for the class. I leave the book in the class library when I am done so students can look at it themselves [they really like that].

In your question, you asked how you are supposed to make them read- and in a way you are making them read by giving them a book. I like to do literature circles [where groups of students study a book] and I do choose class novels every once and awhile. This is the time where students have to read in order to get a good grade, and most times they do enjoy the books I have given them. The key is to get good books and to approach them in interesting ways, not just forcing the book into their hands, and throwing worksheets filled with comprehension questions at them to finish before the bell rings. ;)

I also encourage home reading- where the students keep a log of books they are reading at home and bring it in every day to be checked. The students can choose what to read, and they are to list the name of the book, author, pages they read, and one of the following three comments: 5 new words and ideas they found in the reading or 2 sentence review of the book [It was funny because... etc.] or 2 sentence this is useful for. I've had students look at shopping flyers and newspapers when they don't have any books around- to me these are valid things to read, and everyone should have practice getting meaning from them. I've even had reviews of Wikipedia articles!

I guess the main thing I can suggest is to be enthusiastic about reading yourself- if they see you enjoying reading and finding it useful, they will be more likely to give it a try. Suggest books that might interest them and get them to suggest books to each other. I do give away sticker awards for homereaders, and if the class all home reads a certain number of days in a month, they get a treat [such as a movie- ie. of a novel we just read]- so incentives don't hurt.

If your students aren't picking up books, perhaps they are not seeing books as interesting places to get information and a source of entertainment. I hope you can find some fun books
that interest them and balance them out with the boring textbooks. All the students I have ever had will happily look at a DK Eyewitness or Kingfisher information book, and devour practically every page even if they didn't really like the topic that much. For them, reading is fun and necessary, and as long as they get some free reading time during the day, they will put up with the assigned textbook for a little while ;)

Hope that helps!

Answer 5

How old are your students? I have taught grades 3-5 and I find that if a class is reluctant to read a book, all I have to do is read two to three chapters out loud with lots of acting and animation involved. I have crawled on the floor, hid under my desk, walked on my desk and even dressed as book characters before (my personal favorite to dress like was Pippi Longstocking) I also use different voices when books have lots of dialogue. I suspect that even in Jr. High/High School, the students would get a kick out of the "show" if you feel up to it. One thing I remember from high school was that one of my teachers had us make movie versions of one of the Canturbury Tales. Maybe you could try that with a book they seem reluctant to read... they have to read it to get the script for the movie and it serves as informal assessment on their understanding of the plot. Good luck

Answer 6

You cannot MAKE a student do anything.
Your job is to make them WANT to do something. You said that when they do pick up a book, they enjoy it. Modeling by reading to them works really well. Having books available to be "checked out" is essential. Build in time at the end of class for students to return or check out books. In this day of video games, TV and internet, it's essential that we as teachers help guide our students into the realm of reading and the pleasures it holds.

Answer 7

I agree with Bobbie, you can not make them do anything, nor will they respond if you try to make them. One thing that I had done in the past with my students is sit myself in the middle of the room and ask 3 of them to "Make me read". They quickly learned that they could not make me read no matter what they tried. This made for an excellent opening into discussion on internal motivation and personal wants. I teach 4th-6th grade Emotionally Disturbed and Conduct Disorder children and it worked well, perhaps you too would have luck with this technique.

Jason

Answer 8

try to tell them something about the subject of the book...maybe like this u`ll make them wanna pick up,open the book and then read the words.....daily... :)

Answer 9

Execute one by handing in front of the class as an example to the others.

Answer 10

Have you asked them what they want to read?I know for my son,he has difficulty reading due to dyslexia and instead of saying,you are reading......, what would you like to read.This way he'll read and you'd be surprised what hes reading with help.