How To Engage Your Reluctant Readers
Every year, I have active readers in my classroom who are devouring books on their own without any encouragement from me. I also have always had several kiddos who never read. The reasons vary, but the big three are: they don’t believe they are good readers, so they never read; activities are more interesting than books (sports, video games, etc.); reading isn’t celebrated at home, so they don’t understand why you think it’s such a big deal.
I’m not at ALL saying that 100% of my kids leave my classroom with a deep love of reading, but that’s my goal every year. I would like to say that they each leave liking reading a little better than they did when
Choose High-Interest Texts
The fastest way to grab a reluctant reader’s attention is to give them texts about the things that interest them outside of school. Fashion and sports are two biggies for me almost every year. Connect a little with your students, figure out what makes them tick, and find books or articles about inspiring figures in that field, or just that industry in general. Work these texts into your instruction on occasion, so you’re not just encouraging the kids to pick up books on these topics when you’re not around…but you’re actually reaching them a little with your instruction by talking about a topic they love.
This is tricky if you have your small group texts mandated for you. The tips below should help if you can’t choose the books your kids are reading in small groups. Definitely use your whole group time to choose books that will appeal to different kinds of students, if nothing else!
Create Suspense
-Preview a text like it’s a movie trailer. Give away some details, describe the character’s personality a bit, and leave a big cliff hanger.
-Change the volume of your voice. Introduce a text normally, and then start whispering that the kids will not believe what is going to happen in this book. Make them lean in close. Get them excited.
-Talk about the thing about the book that you absolutely love, and ask them to look for it as you (or they) read. “This character learns such an important lesson. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy each time!”, or “This author compares and contrasts these two characters so well. She really helps you see how different these friends are, and how it causes their big problem. Be on the lookout for evidence of this!”. Clueing them in on why you chose this book, and what the author did well, gives them a focused thing to look for.
Be a Little Silly
I have been known to speak in a British accent, simply because the person we’re talking about is from England, or I’m pretending to be “fancy”. it’s completely ridiculous, but I can’t tell you how much it breaks down the walls of the kiddos who are lacking confidence. If you take off your serious teacher hat, and do something silly to make yourself vulnerable, you send this message that this small group table isn’t a place to be uptight all of the time. Should we do our work? Yes. Your rules and procedures need to be deeply established so your kids will recognize and respect that there is such a thing as taking silliness too far. But there’s something about listening to a teacher introduce a text in a funny voice or accent that alleviates some of the nerves and makes your reluctant readers more into it…especially if their reluctance was linked to a lack of confidence. Why worry that you’re going to look silly in front of the group when your teacher has already done it for you?
Connect Things Back to Their Lives
Sometimes kids just have to read things they wouldn’t have chosen for themselves. You can win them all with every text. I read things I wouldn’t have chosen for myself for work sometimes: an article assigned by my principal, a staff handbook, papers written by my students (ha!)
Working to connect this back to them can help. Really demonstrate what a struggle this character is going through, or how the details in this nonfiction article can help us be better citizens, etc. Sometime it’s a stretch, but the closer you can hit home, the more invested you reader will become.
Ask What They’re Thinking
I am convinced (and I know some research backs me up on this) that the stronger your metacognitive skills, the more you enjoy reading. If you have this constant dialogue in your head while you’re reading, you’re engaged with the text on a deep level, and you’re probably loving it. Have you ever done that thing where you’re reading, and then all of a sudden you’re five pages in from where you started, and you don’t remember a thing that’s happened? You totally zoned out, and you weren’t thinking about what you were reading, and therefore not comprehending it.
I imagine that’s what it’s like for our kiddos who are being asked to respond to pretty complex texts, but haven’t built up their metacognition. They’re sitting there, reading the words you’re asking them to read, maybe laboring over actually getting the words out, and then they’re asked to respond to it? That’s tough.
The best way to boost metacognition is to pause and ask the students what they’re thinking. (Along with ensuring that your students are reading texts they can read fluently to free up space to comprehend.) This doesn’t seem super “engaging” inherently, but in the long run it aids in comprehension, which makes reading a more enjoyable experience, all around.