Why Students are Not Reading and Ways to Get them to Read More

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Why Students are Not Reading and Ways to Get them to Read More

"We shouldn't teach great books. We should teach a love of reading." B. F. Skinner

"What is a reader?" and "What makes a good reader?" Out of 100 eighth graders surveyed at a middle school in Pennsylvania, 73% of them said that you have to read a lot and practice reading. When the same one hundred eighth graders were asked how they feel about reading, 55% said they love it, 26% were indifferent to it, and 19% said that they disliked it.

As a teacher researcher, I decided to take a look at some reasons why my students were not reading and ways to get them to read more. I have split my readers into three groups; fluent readers, indifferent readers and reluctant readers. First, are the fluent readers, these are the students who enjoy reading and have no comprehension problems. Second is what I call indifferent readers. They, by their own choice, choose not to take part in reading in their spare time. They have no opinion on reading and have little‑or no comprehension problems. Third are the reluctant readers. The reluctant reader chooses not to read for different reasons than the indifferent reader. Often their reason is that they have difficulties in reading and don't know how to read. In other words, they struggle with comprehension. In fact, 80% of learning disabled children have problems with reading, therefore, part of the reluctancy may be due to the learning disability. (Tucker, 1)

When I first began doing my research, I thought maybe my indifferent readers were unsure of where to obtain books to read. However, I found that my students knew a range of places to get reading material from. Many suggested the library, teachers, friends, bookstores...

... middle of paper ...

...o reading. Teachers of literacy have only one goal and I would like to sum Patricia literacy who need Anders, "Educators have an program for all students: to broaden and deepen their students who appear to be alienated or including reading and writing; and to have developed adequate literacy." in having strength in reading it often leads reading. Once we teach this to our students with them one of the greatest gifts.

Works Cited

Anders, P.L. "The Literacy Council: People Are the Key to An Effective Program." NASSP Bulletin, October 1998.

Crowe, Chris. "Using YA Books to Teach Students to Love What We Love." English Journal, July 2000.

Hebb, Judith. "Reluctant Readers Reading." English Journal, March 2000.

Tucker, David, and Jeffrey P. Bakken. "How Do Your Kids Do at Reading? And How Do You Assess Them?" Teaching Exceptional Children, July/August 2000.

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