Encouraging Reading in the Early Teen Years

I currently live in board book land.  I rarely venture to the other side of the children's room at the library to where the novels live, unless its to hold William up to see the big dinosaur statue.  Between my literacy course work and my life experience, I've developed a lot of advice for helping parents introduce children zero to four years to reading.  But, as soon as my kids are out of this stage, what use is that information to me and my profession?  Unless I decide to become a district literacy coach, I'll be putting all that hard earned knowledge away.  (Its similar to my wealth of knowledge on breastfeeding that will be useless until I have a grandchild in twenty something years!)  It makes me a little sad to think of my new areas of expertise becoming personally obsolete.

So, I got to thinking, what do I know about reading in the age span I do teach.  And there is a fair amount to share. 

• Any type of text is reading, so give value to all texts.  A book doesn't have to be a classic novel to "count" as reading.  We read all day long in various fashions.  While it is true that most teachers want to see students reading books because the long term commitment engages different thinking skills, reading comics, manuals, blogs, and magazines are still reading and should not be disregarded.   A teen who reads Sports Illustrated cover to cover or has read every Manga title available at the library should not consider his or herself a non-reader. 

• Don't be fooled by classics. I grumble to myself when I see The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or To Kill a Mockingbird placed on a "children's" book list.  Even an advanced child reader who can decipher the text will miss much of these books have to offer because of their age appropriate deficiencies in maturity and life experience.  Are children really intellectually ready for the huge topics presented in these classics?  Do you want your ten year old reading a book centered around a rape trail?  Because that is what To Kill a Mockingbird does.  Or, do you trust your ten year old to understand Huck's role as a bias and unreliable narrator?  I wouldn't trust mine, or my fourteen year students.  Just because a story is narrated by a child doesn't mean it should be read by children.  Save the classics for a time when the child can make the most meaning of the full text, which I suggest is much closer to 14 than to 9.  And another word about classics.  Excluding maybe Hemingway and Fitzgerald, most of our cannon is not easy to read on just a surface level.  Have you visited Hawthorne or Dickens recently?  Long, drawn out sentences with confusing structures.  Dated and pretentious vocabulary.  References to historical data unknown to the average "child," and often to adults.  Don't make your child suffer a classic until she has the reading strategies to manage these pitfalls comfortably.  

• Don't expect a book to be a silverbullet because it won an award, or is popular, or is recommended by a librarian.  Even your own favorite texts as a child or teen might not be the right fit for your child.  Help your child figure out who he is as a reader, starting with where he is right now.  If that is Goosebumps, so be it. 

• Let them read "junk" or other annoying texts.  After learning how to decode words in the first years of school, from around third grade on your child works on fluently reading increasingly challenging texts.  How does this occur?  Practice, practice, practice.  For this reason, starting around second or third grade, there are many series.  To adults, these books can be shallow and repetitive, but kids can't get enough.  Let them devour a series.  The practice is just when they need it.  Even older kids in middle school still need this practice; they are just trading Flat Stanley and Junie B Jones for Cirque de Freak or The Clique.  When something works, run with it for as long as you can.  Even if you think its junk, go with it and milk it dry.  You might be shaking your head at another vampire love story or eating disorder drama or survival adventure, but your child loves it and it feeds the need for practice through an inviting text.  When it is time to branch out, use the knowledge of what your child likes to find the next step.  Librarians are wonderful at taking this information and turning it into concrete recommendations. 

• Consider your own reading habits.  What do you like to read?  How do you like to read?  Do you consider it work?  Model and discuss these topics with your child.  Help your child compare and contrast different types of reading.  Teens need to see the huge difference between reading a best seller for fun at the beach and reading a textbook and reading a classic novel to write an essay.  Help your child to see the differences between pleasure reading and various types of academic reading.  Not a big reader?  That's okay, too.  Just don't say, "I hated English, too," and leave it at that.  Explain to your child your struggles or frustrations with reading, especially how you overcame them if you did. 

• Encourage variety in genres.  If a child is engaged in a topic, you can help her try various genres.  Sometimes the pairings are obvious.  Your child loves a particular author, then offer his biography.  A teen can't get enough non-fiction about a topic, then find a novel surrounding the topic.  But don't be afraid to try graphic novels, short stories, poetry, or plays.  (Again, librarians are wonder resources!)

• Help provide books.  Let's admit it, young teens are distracted often resulting academic irresponsibility.  Don't let the lack of a books be the reason your child struggles.  If he can't get his act together to get to the school library, then make some books he'll like accessible at home.  Take him to the library.  Get him the next book in his series.  Have a couple books on his favorite topics mix in with the birthday presents.  Pick up a few used paperbacks at a yard sale.  Swap books with another family.

• Help provide time and space for reading.  You can help your child fit reading time into their day by setting limits to other activities, creating a family reading time, or helping your child schedule a time for reading.  Make sure that there is a time in your home when your child can read.  A time where your child will be undisturbed by siblings or chores.  Consider providing a reading lamp or even a cozy reading chair. 

• Don't enable cheating, but instead teach your child to use all sources available to create meaning.  Go ahead and rent the movie of the assigned book, but help your child use it to understand a challenging text or explore larger themes.  Don't banish SparkNotes or other such sites.  Help your child use these summaries for review or clarification.  Why not sometimes let your child use an audio book, or read aloud to your child?  Teach your child that research and finding help are respectable academic qualities, as long as they do not replace the originally assigned work.