Motivating the Unmotivated Reader

This is from my presentation at the UCTE/LA conference at Brigham Young University, Provo, UT and the UCIRA conference at Salt Lake City, UT.

Motivating the Unmotivated Reader-Jolene Jenkins, mj4toty@gmail.com

Three Reading Truths:

1. Everyone is a reader (some just don't know it yet).
2. Not everyone reads in the same way.
3. Teachers can make a difference!
How do you convince that unmotivated, I-hate-to-read-and-you-can't-change-me reader that reading is good?

You've got to hook them!

Your bait:

1. Establish a positive reading attitude in your classroom.
2. Know your students.
3. Exposure! Exposure! Exposure!

Positive Reading Attitude:

• What is your attitude? Are you enthusiastic and passionate about reading? You can't help a person learn to love reading if you don't love it yourself.
• Do your students see you reading often?
• Have your students ever seen you emotionally react to a book?
• Are there book displays, posters, lists, etc. posted through out your classroom?
• Do you have a classroom library filled with GOOD books? When discouraged about kids losing/taking books, remember: a book on the shelf is safe, but that is not what books are made for.
• Do you ever 'talk book' with your students?

Know Your Students

• Reader Interviews:

1. Do you like to read at school?
2. Do you like to read in your free time?
3. What do you like to do in your free time?
4. How do you generally feel about starting a new book?
5. What do you like to read?
6. What movies/T.V. shows do you like to watch?

• Do students have a VOICE when it comes to reading in your classroom? Do they have CHOICE when it comes to reading? (See Video: Why Students Don't Read What's Assigned in Class).

Exposure! Exposure! Exposure!
You never know what will hook a student, so you expose them to as many reading possibilities as possible!
How do you know what's hot in YA lit?

• Be a book spy! Watch students, neighborhood kids, etc. What are they reading? Ask your avid readers what they are reading. Check out the YA section of the library and of book stores often. Look in Scholastic book orders. Join a book club or on-line book group such as www.goodreads.com.
  *My claim to fame: I read The Hunger Games before it was cool! In fact, I may have started the craze! I ran across it in a Scholastic book order and thought it looked interesting. It was fairly obsolete at the time, but I thoroughly enjoyed it and recommended it to my students and friends. (You're welcome, Suzanne Collins!)
• Consume/devour YA books. One summer I made a goal to read 100 YA books. I didn't make my goal, but I did read close to 40 books! Expand your horizons too. I discovered that I read a lot of books in the fantasy genre but little else. I pushed myself to read from other genres (I was specifically trying to find more books my male students would like) and discovered a plethora of books that I loved and could recommend to my students.

Some ways to expose your students to books:

• Read aloud--read aloud to your students often. Be dramatic. I'm not the most dramatic person but my students tended to prefer when I read aloud to them rather than listening to a book on tape. It creates this personal atmosphere and makes it easier to get into the book. I would do special treats for my students--one year I read Skeleton Creek (Patrick Carman) to them. For a few years, I've read Searching for David's Heart (Cherie Bennett) as a winter treat for them. You can just read excerpts to students or you can read entire books. Students love story time, even in middle and high school! Sidenote: don't make students do any assignments or tests with the read-aloud, just let them listen and enjoy!)
  
• Five-minute Book Talk--choose a genre. I liked to do one genre a month. Get as many books as you can for that genre and have them on display in the classroom. Have a student time you and talk about as many books as you can in five minutes. I usually liked to do a book talk before independent reading time. I would let the students read from the books on display as long as they put them back so that I could present for the next class. I would tell the students that they can check out the books at the end of the day or the next day. I like the five-minute format because it is quick and painless for the students. Sometimes the students will keep track of how many books you present and challenge you to do more for the next book talk! To talk about the books, I prepare some book previews (see below), read from the back, read excerpts, or just give a quick plot summary.
  Click here to go to my book lists.
• Book Previews/Book Trailers--book previews are like movie trailers but for books and in written form. I would often have my students do book previews rather than book reports because they are short and relatively painless AND I can use them to promote books. Book trailers--You can create your own, have students create videos, or you can find book trailers on the Internet. I found the following book trailers at www.youtube.com (search under 'book trailers', 'book trailers ya', or 'book trailers middle school') and at http://www.scholastic.com/kids/stacks/videos/?lnkid=stacks/nav/videos/main.

•The Hollow by Jessica Verday

•Fallen by Lauren Kate

•The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman

•Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray

•Skullduggery Pleasant series by Derek Landy

•Ninth Grade Slays: The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod by Heather Brewer

•Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

•Fever Crumb by Philip Reeve

• Book Pass--I use this to introduce my students to my classroom library, to introduce a topic (the Holocaust, Civil Rights Movement, etc.), or to introduce a genre. Before the students arrive, I put a book on every desk. You can either give students a list of the books or have them write titles and authors down (I think I will switch to giving the students a list so they don't spend so much time copying information). I then give the students one minute to check out the book: look at the cover, read the back/inside cover, check how many pages, start reading the beginning, etc. At the end of the minute I have them mark a =) if it looks like something they would want to read, a =1 if it's a maybe, or a =( if it is definitely not something they would want to read. Then they pass the book to their neighbor and start again with a different book for one minute. You can do this for 10 minutes or for a whole class period, however long you would like to do the activity.

Books I used in my presentation:
The Hollow-Jessica Verday
Fallen-Lauren Kate
The Graveyard Book-Neil Gaiman
Sweet Far Thing-Libba Bray (This is the third book of a series).
Skullduggery Pleasant series-Derek Landy
Ninth Grade Slays: The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod-Heather Brewer
Shiver-Maggie Stiefvater
Fever Crumbs-Philip Reeve
Ghost Huntress: The Awakening-Marley Gibson
Down a Dark Hall-Lois Duncan
Darkness Creeping-Neal Shusterman (short stories)
The Unseen: It Begins-Richie Tankersley Cusick
Secrets of Dripping Fang: The Onts-Dan Greenburg
The Haunting-Joan Lowery Nixon
The Face on the Milk Carton-Caroline B. Cooney
The Secret of Laurel Oaks-Lois Ruby
Creepers-Joanne Dahme
The Last Apprentice: The Spook’s Tale and Other Horrors-Joseph Delaney
Daeman Hall-Andrew Nance
The Haunting of Hill House-Shirley Jackson
Skeleton Creek-Patrick Carman
The Ghost in the Machine-Patrick Carman

Documents that you can download:
Reading Interview
Reading Motivation Powerpoint
How to Write a Book Preview
Reading Rap