• Home
  • Login
  • Registration
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • RSS
ESLarticle.com
Tweet
  • Home
  • Articles
  • Blog
  • Members
  • Add Article

Top Categories

Teaching 509
Other 210
Classroom Management 138
Career Development 135
Learning Methodology 121
Study Skills 91
E-Learning/CALL 87
English Language Learning (ELL) 78
Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL) 77
Teaching Methodology 76
English Language Teaching (ELT) 74
English as a Second Language (ESL) 64
Teach in Shanghai
Home / Articles / Teaching / Reading / View Article

Publishing

  • Articles
  • Add Article
  • Articles Archive
  • Latest Articles
  • Popular Articles

Latest Articles

Jan 5, 2019

Metacognition in Reading Competency

As related to the reading process, metacognition can be defined as contemplation concerning one's own thinking processes or knowledge of one's own...

Jan 5, 2019

Mass Media Literacy Reflections for Language Instructions

"You cannot teach a man anything, you can only help him find it within himself." Galileo Galilei Mass media forms thrive today. As development...

Nov 30, 2018

Ideas for the First Class with New Learners

~~The first class with new learners can be an anxious one for all concerned – teacher as well as learners. Below are some tips to make that first...

Nov 19, 2018

10 Amazing Hacks for English Learners

10 Amazing Hacks for English Learners It is estimated that there are over a billion English speakers in the world, including native speakers,...

Nov 15, 2018

Building Reading and Writing Knowledge with Very Young Children at Hom

Education Today, December 2013 Building Reading and Writing Knowledge with Very Young Children at Home  Timothy G. Weih University of Northern...

Popular Articles

1105728 Views

5 Creative Ways to Decorate Your Classroom Bulletin Board This Winter

Back to school, fall leaves, Thanksgiving and Christmas all easily lend themselves to great decorating themes, but what to do when those are over...

346545 Views

Three Unique Ideas To Make Your Bulletin Board More Useful

Bulletin boards have long been existent in campuses. They have proven to be such versatile and useful aids in both the learning and teaching...

120029 Views

History of the Chalkboard

Walk into just about any classroom and you will find one: A dark green board on the wall, lined with pieces of chalk and felt erasers. Chalkboards,...

57547 Views

Report Card Comments

For a small minority, writing report cards isn't a big deal. But most teachers generally dread report card writing time. Completing the comment...

37314 Views

The Most Useful American Business Words

The Most Useful American Business Words: Here's a list that will come in handy for any student enrolled in an English as a Second Language (ESL)...


Reaching the Reluctant Reader

by Joseph Kehoe

Apr 28, 2010 Reading 2631 Views

_notregistered/art_5159_70ed0d63e7~.jpg

Reading opens doors. Not reading slams those doors shut. It's as simple - and sad - as that for far too many lives. More than 70 percent of inmates have limited literacy skills. So many nonreaders wind up in jail, in fact, that many states use 4th grade reading scores to help calculate future prison needs.

Reading in elementary school is really that important. There's nothing more important. Everything else is a distant second. Everything.

Yet schools remain full of reluctant readers - mostly boys and English language learners - and statistics show that the problem is getting worse. The National Center for Education Statistics reports that fewer than 30 percent of 4th graders nationwide read at a proficient level and nearly 40 percent cannot demonstrate basic reading skills. In an age of enormous advances, reading skills are actually declining.

Growing up, I was a typical reluctant reader. My family moved from Argentina to Los Angeles when I was four years old and I didn't know English when I started school.

I quickly fell behind. I fell behind across the board. But mostly I fell behind in reading.

I was soon caught in that familiar vicious cycle of not liking to read because it made me feel bad about myself. The more I didn't read, the more I fell behind and the more I didn't like to read.

But one day something magical happened. I found a book that did the impossible: it got me excited about reading. I started reading all the books in that genre I could find and at some point found myself in a very different cycle. Now the more I read, the better I became at it. The better I became, the more I read and the better I felt about myself. And the more I read.

That small book of scary stories literally changed the course of my life.

I made it through high school with decent grades and ended up at the University of California at Berkeley, where I graduated with honors. After a few years as a newspaper reporter, I went into teaching.

After almost 20 years in the classroom, I started writing children's books with the intent of making reading fun. I've been on tour for nearly two years and have read to almost 50,000 students in seven states and British Columbia. It's been a blast! Librarians, principals, teachers, and parents consistently thank me for reaching kids who don't like to read.

I can see the impact I'm having as I stand in front of an auditorium full of kids who share my love of scary stories or soccer stories or adventure stories. It's a great feeling.

And it's not rocket science. An excited reader is a better reader. The more enthusiasm a student feels toward books, the more he will read. The more he reads, the more he improves.

It has become my mission to reach these kids and help drive a stake through the heart of those scary literacy statistics.

Here are a few ideas on how to drive some stakes of your own:

Interesting Content: First and foremost, students need to be reading daily about things that interest them. Soccer, scary stories, skateboards, science fiction, cars - subjects that have meaning to students will help get students excited about reading.

Plenty of Time for Reading: Kids must have plenty of reading time with the content of their choice every day and this needs to be cultivated at a young age.

No Genre Hating: We all have personal preferences regarding genres. But it's critical that educators keep their eyes on the prize. Getting kids to read is the goal. Having students share our particular passion for this or that book is not. Don't judge the genre. Let students read what they want: scary stories, sports, science fiction. Many adults dismiss these forms of reading because of their own prejudice, but enthusiasm for reading is key to getting the reluctant reader to succeed.

Reading Comes in All Forms: It's important to remember that reading material comes in all forms. Comics, graphic novels, and web sites are just a few examples where kids can go for interesting reading material.

Read Aloud: Through read aloud, adults can transmit the excitement of reading to children. Subjects and books that may have seemed too daunting to the reluctant reader will become easier to understand with a read aloud.

Article source: http://eslarticle.com/pub/teaching/reading/5159-reaching-the-reluctant-reader.html

  • General Information
  • Pictures
Author Info

Author Name: Joseph Kehoe

About Author: Joseph Kehoe is the author of four children\\\'s books, including the recently released Goal Fever. He travels all over the country, specializing in electrifying school author visits and getting reluctant readers excited about reading and writing. Visit H

General

Pictures:

Most Recent Articles

  • Jan 5, 2019 Metacognition in Reading Competency by Joseph Kehoe
  • Oct 5, 2014 Pedagogical Practices For Early Readers by Joseph Kehoe
  • Mar 4, 2014 How Do I Teach My Child To Read? by Joseph Kehoe
  • Sep 4, 2013 5 Greatest The Books Of All Time For Every Generation by Joseph Kehoe
  • Aug 18, 2013 Providing Background Information When Teaching Literature by Joseph Kehoe

Actions

  • Print Page

Articles Archive

  • January 2019
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • August 2018
  • July 2018

Random Articles

Career Development

What Items Do I Need to Bring to My Teacher Interview?

Congratulations! You’ve landed that coveted teacher interview. Now it is extremely important that you impress in your interview and large part of...

Adults

How to Teach Critical Thinking to Faculty Who Teach Adult Learners

Good morning colleagues! The goal of this article is to teach you the top 5 steps in how to teach critical and refractive thinking to adult...

Teaching

Adult Vs. Student Learners: Is There a Difference?

Have you ever considered if there is a difference in how first graders, or fifth graders, or eleventh graders learn? Is there a difference in...

Grammar

The Importance of Being a Punctuation Mark

A dress, no mat­ter how sim­ple or drab, can always be enhanced by adding acces­sories. A sim­ple scarf, draped art­fully or an ornate broach -...

Career Development

Get to the Principal’s Office, Mister!

If you find yourself dreaming of an office of your very own instead of the one you currently share with your boisterous students, it may be time to...

About ESL Article

ESL Article is a private ESL/TEFL site designed and maintained by educators and educational administrators. It was launched in August 2008 with the aim of bringing ESL/TEFL students, parents, teachers and schools information and articles about the teaching profession and learning community.

Icon Group Member

ESL Article is a member of Icon Group Thailand (IGT), a group of ESL TEFL TESOL websites providing educational resources and information to teachers, schools and students around the world. The group was founded in 2003 and now includes 15+ websites covering educational information services, teaching resources and e-learning.

What is ESL?

English as a second language (ESL) is the use or study of English by speakers of different native languages. It is also known as English for speakers of other languages (ESOL), English as an additional language (EAL), and English as a foreign language (EFL).

  • Home
  • Registration
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Help
  • Partner
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
​

© 2019 ESLarticle.com.
Member of Icon Group Thailand - Educating the Future:
TESall All TESOL  Total ESL  ESL Job Feed
TEFL World  TEFL Jobs Overseas  Teach Overseas
Asia TEFL  ESL Powerpoint  Teacher Training