As someone who loves literature and plans to major in English, I have often wondered if people’s love of reading was hindered in school instead of nurtured. With social media and Netflix available at the fingertips, it can be difficult to get a teenager to sit and appreciate the written word.
This is made exponentially more difficult when the books teenagers are required to read were written decades — if not centuries — ago, making them difficult to connect with. More contemporary books should be chosen, and the selection should include novels, graphic novels and comics.
While it is important to read and discuss the classics, they do not always create a sense of enjoyment that a student should feel when opening the pages. Students should not be discouraged from reading on their own time.
A study conducted in 2008 by Barbara Marinak and Linda Gambrell titled “Intrinsic Motivation and Rewards: What Sustains Young Children’s Engagement with Text?” showed that giving students a choice in their task is a way of enhancing their intrinsic motivation and self-determination.
In other words, giving students a choice in what they read can make them more interested in actually doing the reading rather than looking up plot summaries on SparkNotes.
Students should feel that they have agency over their education. By offering a wide variety of choices in English classes, teenagers would gain more power and foster more positive emotions when picking up a book.
The issue is not only the books themselves, but the manner in which teachers present the material. Typically, if a student does not like or agree with the content of a book, they are told to “read more closely” because, surely, they are missing the point. However, different viewpoints should be encouraged because they produce better analysis.
Students should not be spoon-fed opinions because this is not conducive to informative discussion or analysis of literature. Students will steer their thoughts toward something they think their teachers want instead of forming their own ideas.
A study conducted in 2009 by Jeff Whittingham and Stephanie Huffman titled “The Effects of Book Clubs on the Reading Attitudes of Middle School Students” demonstrated that introducing book clubs was beneficial to a student’s motivation and attitudes toward reading.
Therefore, a teacher’s approach to discussing books should be similar to that of a book club — a conversation among peers as opposed to just lectures, essays and standardized tests. According to the study, students view book clubs as more of a social gathering instead of the conventional demands of a classroom, which is extremely appealing to them.
While I have been very critical of traditional English classes and required readings, I can see the positives. Being forced to read improves students’ writing and comprehension skills regardless of whether they enjoyed the assignment or not. Also, there are students who won’t read unless they are told to. This allows reluctant students to be exposed to important literature.
Required readings are not bad in and of themselves. In fact, the series that made me discover my love of reading was one I had to read for class. However, the further along I got in my education, the less enjoyable the required reading became.
English class plays an important role in shaping one’s reading habits. I believe vast improvement can be made to nurture future readers.
Very interesting piece, leaves much to question about the current English school curriculum :))))))