As an English teacher, I often hear the same four words… “but I HATE reading”. This makes my inner bookworm want to scream, “but how can you not LOVE reading?!” before I take a deep breath and remember that reading is a challenge.
Beyond the temptations of Netflix and Fortnite, our students are exposed to a multitude of cognitive challenges when it comes to reading and comprehending. And to top this off, teachers can often get caught up in the expectation that students should walk into the classroom excited to work through set texts that have been haunting the curriculum for years.
At these times it is very easy to forget that the motivation and desire to read is not something that comes naturally. In fact, recent studies by The National Literacy Trust have found that the motivation to read decreases with age, especially if students’ attitudes towards reading become less positive.
The big challenge for the English teacher is then, how do we get students to enjoy reading?
When it comes to reading, it is next to impossible to enjoy a text when the words on the page don’t make sense. For Term 2 I have constructed programs for both Stage 4 and 5 that aim to lower the pressure of, and resistance to, reading. These programs will therefore focus on breaking down the biggest barrier students have with reading… text comprehension.
Both stages will be working through a reading program which breaks down the text into achievable stages, in conjunction with a series of tasks to build knowledge and understanding.
Throughout this program, all students will spend the term alternating between reading and non-reading weeks. Each week will offer a diverse range of tasks and will explore a new stage in the text. This stems from my understanding that everyone reacts to a stimulus differently. When reading, students will react negatively or positively depending on how they perceive the difficulty of the task or the challenge involved and the interests they have.
As such, reading weeks will see students structured into individualised reading groups. These groups will be determined by behavioural, emotional, and cognitive engagement, and will work through each stage of the text according to the individual needs of the students in each group.
While reading weeks will focus on building comprehension skills, which are based around a variety of reading, listening and writing tasks, non-reading weeks will support this.
Students will focus on projects aiming to draw out the major themes, concepts and characteristics of the text at hand. Each non-reading week then aims to uncover the hidden meaning behind each stage of the text, building student anticipation and curiosity as they complete a series of tasks culminating in their overall grade for the term.
Leave a Reply