Friday, April 13, 2007

Hypothetical #2: The Student Who "Cannot" Read

A ninth-grade class comes to the library for the first time to learn about what is available there. Most students seem to really enjoy the booktalks and the browsing time, and check out at least one book to read. Two students, though, are insistent that they can't/have never/will never read an entire book. This is supposed to be an enjoyable assignment for the students to promote a love of reading. What do you do?

10 comments:

debw said...

Just an added note: neither student has an IEP. They CAN read. They just don't.

Anonymous said...

I might start them with a collection of short stories by someone like Gary Soto, or a book like A Long Way from Chicago by Peck so they can finish in smaller "chunks" rather than having to wait for closure til the end of a book.

Lu Ann Brobst Staheli said...

I lead them to a great audio book. Time and time again I've had students tell me these very same messages, and once I've gotten them hooked on an audio version, they can't wait to read the real book and more on their own.

Anonymous said...

I tell students who say this to me that they just haven't found the right book yet. Someday they are going to find a book is so good it just grabs them and won't let go. It's kind of like telling a bachelor about the joys of marriage. The right book will come along to change this student's mind.

Anonymous said...

If they CAN read, they do read.... something. They have to read to use the internet, most likely read shorter items such as magazine articles and certain pages in non-fiction books.

It may be they lack the ability and or attention span and desire to stick with a novel. Find out if they have a passion for anything, music, sports, etc. Find out if they read graphic novels, manga, etc. These are kids you have to WO
RK to help if you have the time, engery, and interest.

Also, it seems to me that more and more ppl in general are losing their ability to visual and imagine for themselves what the written word is telling them. We are all depending more and more on visual stimulation to show us the stories.

debw said...

These are such great ideas. I don't know why none of them occurred to me when this situation happened. Well, at least I'll be ready next time it happens!

Anonymous said...

Did the teacher make an assigment that they had to find a book? If so, I would go with some of the Gary Paulson or Walter Dean Meyers books, maybe some of the other short stuff, or short stories. (If I could convince the teacher that short stories would be ok).

If there wasn't an assignment to check out a book, I would point them toward the magazines and newspapers and tell them to give those a chance even if they are just looking at pictures.

Then I would watch for them the next time and hope to build.

Joy said...

I would steer some of them toward really popular reluctant reader titles such as anything from Gail Giles-- specifically Shattering Glass as I've had the most success with that title and RR's.
If the students are girls, you might try introducing them to Sonia Sones's What My Mother Doesn't Know or One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mom Dies. Both of these are novels in verse. If the kids are a looking for something edgier there is a great non-fiction book called Body Type: Intimate messages etched in flesh. It is all about tattoos.
A great resource is also the YALSA Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers list. http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/quickpicks/06qp.htm This link will take you to the 2006 list. I would recommend many of these titles, just choose what's appropriate for your population. All of the titles on the list are kid-tested.

Anonymous said...

You may also want to try novels written in verse. There is far less text on the pages, and there are some terrific ones available, such as Street Love by Walter Dean Myers, or Stop Pretending: what happened when my big sister went crazy by Sonya Sones.

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