How to Get Kids to Not Hate Reading (as told by a former student)

Trust me when I say, I know. I'm not a teacher, but I was a student and book blogger, and there are right ways and wrong ways to get kids to love reading. This isn't your grandmother's English class anymore.

Here are some of my own thoughts. Disclaimer: I am not a teacher. But if you've been in school for twelve plus years, I think your opinion should be considered valid.

Don't assign summer reading for the sake of giving summer reading.
This is really annoying, just like giving homework so the kids are busy at night. Unlike math or history facts, reading skills aren't as likely to leak out of your brain out of the summer. It's like riding a bike; you can't forget.

I once read an embarrassing moment section in the magazine where the girl in question had to read a big pile of books over the summer. On the first day of school, they were given a test on the books. And the reason for this assignment was...what? 

One summer, I was asked to read a book over spring break. When we came back, we had to do a project where we pretended to be the characters over social media. It might have made more sense if  it had anything to do with the class material, but neither the book nor project had anything to do with what we were learning in class. In fact, it actually took time away from what we were doing. So why did I have to spend time doing all that work? Another time I read a book over the summer only to find out that whoops, the teacher forgot it was on the reading list. Yet another time, when I was in high school, "book groups" were an orientation activity. We had to read an extra book over the summer just to talk about it for 15 minutes as an orientation "bonding" activity. Confession time: I skimmed my book. And that's coming from a book blogger who likes to read!

Seriously. If there's no reason for a summer assignment, don't give them. This is probably the #1 reason that I see reading hate, and that includes me. I really feel like teachers should know better. (But if you are a teacher and there is a reason for this I'm missing, please feel free to share in the comments.)

If you do give summer reading, have it connect to something important, like a history concept you want to drive home for the upcoming year. There should be a practical reason for doing it. Giving kids homework is not a reason.

Host fun reading events.

In school, we had lots of independent reading time. We once had an afternoon blocked out where we could bring blankets, pillows, hot cocoa mugs, and a book of our choice for an afternoon of reading.  We were also big proponents of the book fair and better yet, the book order. I look back fondly on that day, when I brought "Super Diaper Baby" along with a pillow and had to try super-hard to keep myself from cracking up in front of the class. 

Don't censor your child's reading.

Hearing about helicopter parents hand-picking every book their child reads saddens me. Junie B. Jones using "too much bad grammar" is a big one. Oh, no! Characters are making mistakes, making totally understandable errors for their age, and aren't perfect! Isn't the point of reading to watch characters develop? What kind of message are you sending when you explain that you don't want them reading a book because the character makes mistakes? Also, I have rarely seen a book influence a child's behavior. It's really unlikely that they're going to squeeze ketchup packs under the toilet seats at school because they saw Captain Underpants do it. A shy girl probably won't start shouting in class because she saw Junie B. Jones do it once or twice.

And if, for some reason, they do act out because of a character? You just explain to them why it's not a good idea and hopefully they won't do it again.

Also, when you pick your child's books, reading becomes a chore. If you force your kids to read certain books, they're not going to love reading as much. If they get to read about things they love, they'll find themselves wanting to read more and maybe even explore other reading realms. Sounds like a no-brainer. Which leads to my next point...



Let kids pick their own books, to an extent.

You can apply many reading practices to just about anything you read. However, that doesn't mean you should eradicate the classics entirely. You don't want to create the impression that all fun reading is work, either.

ADDENDUM: I get that if people want an English education, they should read some classics once in a while. Even so, use ways to make it more fun. I heard of one local teacher who once showed Psycho in class and then they compared it to Oedipus Rex. This isn't your grandma's English class; find ways to have some fun.



Get engaged!

Many modern books talk about relevant issues that make reading fun. Have debates. Have book club chats with activities and "conversation starters" that actually make it feel like a book club. Make board games instead of book reports...though again, I understand that sometimes essays are unavoidable. 

You can do this with classic novels too. Make the issues at hand relevant to your students (admit it, I bet even you weren't thrilled by all your English books). Stage dramatic Shakespeare readings and spend some time looking up Shakespearean insults. Yes, those exist.

Say nay to heavy annotating.

At least partially. It's a ton of work, you guys, and it's probably the #2 reason why school kids get turned off by reading. It took me at least twice as long to read a book because teachers wanted to see lots of annotating on every page. I didn't have that many thoughts and would have to spend time making stuff up, or force myself to create questions. Why not have kids jot down 2-3 interesting discussion topics or observations instead? Things that they REALLY want to discuss instead of just doodling random remarks and questions so there is evidence they did the work. Quality work should be more important than evidence of doing it. 



Reading should be fun and enjoyable. The goal of many people is to get kids to love reading, but some of the ways that it's being done don't do much to achieve that goal. 

So have fun with it! Get involved! Read cool things! Take chances! Make mistakes! Oh, wait, that's Ms. Frizzle's saying. (Hey, there's an idea...watch the book's movie in class! That's another thing you could do.)