Volume XXXIV, No. 23 | October 19, 2012

I Hate to Read

Research confirms that a central component of breaking through the remedial wall is to get students to read. Without the ability to read, students have no pathway to progress and success. Language is at the core of academic study, and it is not surprising that many poor readers disappear. So when without a trace of guilt or with an odd sense of pride, a student announces distaste for reading, I know I have my work cut out for me.

But I relish this instructional challenge. I want to get dedicated non-readers to pick up a book and develop a long-lasting enthusiasm about language and reading. In my basic communications class, I use a multi-layer program to achieve this objective.

Layer l—Reading Seminar
One class period per week is devoted to the Reading Seminar. In preparation, students must select and read an article, prepare a synopsis, identify three vocabulary words, and be prepared to make a short oral presentation. At first, students are able to select any article from any source. The only requirement is that they cannot be bored by what they have chosen.

On Reading Seminar days, I select three students to give short oral presentations and discuss their selected vocabulary. I assign two students to be special listeners and develop two questions to ask the presenter. Students cooperatively learn the process of interacting and engaging in communication. Predictably, there are always People and Sports Illustrated stories; but sometimes students start exploring other publications on their own. After a few weeks, I ask them to read an article from a periodical that is unfamiliar to them, but again they must be interested in the material. This is a gradual way of introducing students to the world of ideas in print, building on students’ self-motivation and sense of discovery.

Then, I bring students to the Learning Resource Center to investigate journals and periodicals. Students discover periodicals devoted to career interests, recreation, or—mirabile dictu—ideas. Sometimes the most reluctant and “anti-academic” students find their way to the library and even get a library card.

Layer II—The Novel I
I believe that students who find themselves in remedial courses have been shortchanged in their imaginative lives, particularly by their lack of experience with fiction. So, I have my students read three novels during the semester. They can choose the first novel without any judgment from me as to whether or not it is “good literature.”

I choose the second novel—something manageable with a clear plot line, and we read it as a group. The third novel must be chosen from a list of 40 titles that I supply. Here the choices reflect more challenging literature written by well-regarded authors. By this time, students have read and responded to reading in their writing and oral presentation. They are confident and more open to the reading experience, they feel a great sense of accomplishment, and they see themselves as “real” students rather than as academic castaways.

Layer III—Special Events
In addition to breaking the reading barrier, I want students to break free of the classroom. So three times during the semester I take my students to special events—off-campus experiences with Boston’s artistic or cultural events. For example, with support from a grant that underwrites students’ expenses, my students have attended the Museum of Science, The Museum of Fine Arts, and productions of Shear Madness, Bang the Drum Slowly, Dream Girls, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Students are required to attend and can invite friends, parents, partners, and children. It is interesting to meet students’ families, and students seem to enjoy introducing them to me and to their fellow students.

In preparation for the special event, students conduct research, find articles, and report their findings. They feel special participating in these events; they know from other courses that instructors and students do not customarily spend their after-class free time together. Special Events establish a powerful sense of community; the students and I enjoy sharing these culturally exciting experiences together.

Layer lV—Writing
One might ask: When do you teach writing? Actually, I teach it all the time. My emphasis is not on teaching writing in a new and different way; the suggestions incorporated in current practice and theory commonly referred to as the “writing process” seem to work. Rather, my energy and effort are directed at giving students something novel, unusual, and imaginative to write about. They write about the articles they read for the Reading Seminar, they write in response to the three novels, and they write in response to the Special Events.

When students are engaged in active learning, when they are making choices, and when they are having out-of-the-ordinary experiences, there can be explosive reactions. My students no longer find themselves sitting at the back of the educational bus. Rather, they see themselves as students—with the ability to enter educational doors that not only were shut to them before, but that they did not know were even there.

Philip Sbaratta, Instuctor, English

For further information contact the author at North Shore Community College, 1 Ferncroft Road, Danvers, MA 01923. Email: psbaratt@nscc.mass.edu

This article was originally published in April 1997.