Like many people, summer break is my favorite time of year. The sun shining down on my face, the ocean breeze caressing my hair, and the melted cherry popsicles simply cannot be beaten. Personally, what makes summer break special for me is the ample time I can dedicate to reading my favorite novels. This may sound odd, considering that throughout the school year I could allocate as much time as I wanted to reading my favored books. However, the truth is that from August through June, my love for reading wanes. In the midst of constant book assignments from English teachers, heavy workloads, and extracurricular activities, I, like many students, feel less of a desire to read. Of course, this stems from a myriad of reasons, such as wanting to spend the little free time we have with friends and family. Yet, there seems to be another external force causing this wretched phenomenon: English teachers assigning novels to students, ultimately causing us to associate reading with annotations, essays, and all sorts of things that leave bad tastes in our mouths. As this school year is taking off, I pose a question: how can we make sure to enforce a love of reading during the hustle and bustle of the next two semesters?
Reading should not be an activity correlated with burden.
So, one thing that may help break that association is reframing the way reading is presented to kids. Oftentimes parents and teachers will encourage children to read on the basis that it will increase their intellectual capacity, or will enhance their educational goals. While this is true, it may deter students from discovering the joy and adventure of reading. Rather, we should introduce reading with an emphasis on all of its mystical and beautiful qualities, such as its ability to take you anywhere you wish to go, or the escape from reality. Children want a distraction from school, not an addition to their schoolwork. Posing reading as an escape will help garner greater excitement from kids as they refer to new books and reading opportunities.
Another effective strategy to increase the joy surrounding reading is to help kids become familiar with the kinds of books they like. From years of getting to know myself, I have learned that I really enjoy romance novels, and historical fiction. However, it took me a lot of trial and error reading mystery novels, non-fiction books, science-fiction, etc., to come to that conclusion. Oftentimes, if a kid claims that they don’t enjoy reading, they’re probably not reading the right books. For instance, they may be only reading fantasy stories when, in reality, action/adventure books are right up their alley. By exposing children to a multitude of book genres and then feeding their interests, we can enhance their joy of reading.
Of course, it’s not enough to simply tell a child to read more. They need to see that behavior modeled by the adults in their lives. Children are observant creatures that emulate the actions of their loved ones. If a young girl sees that her dad reads part of a book every night before he goes to sleep, she may feel a desire to do so as well. Then it is not so much of a chore, but rather something the child wants to do because they see their role models doing so as well.
Reading is a beautiful activity that does not have to be tainted by the light that is shed on it so often in school settings. We can re-enforce the power and magic of literacy, one step at a time.
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