Nov. 30, 2007 - Reluctant Reader Remedies & Bookworm Brainstorms

Although I have six children, no two have the same aptitude for reading. So, after twenty-one years of trial and error and try again, I have some tidbits of reading wisdom I will gladly share. 

 

For the struggling early reader: No big surprise here. Read aloud to the child daily, multiple times a day, if possible. Choose books that interest him and have him follow along with his eyes on the books that are appropriate for his level.   Be sure to also read aloud books that are above his reading level but not beyond his comprehension level.  

 

For the child that skims the tough words: Continue reading aloud as above. Also take time to have the child read to you everyday. Choose books that are at his reading level, but still offer plenty of new vocabulary. If the child tends to skim over difficult words without sounding them out, try this strategy: Use an index-card to reveal each line as he is reading aloud. If he skims a word, don’t say anything, but tap your finger under the word to remind him to go back and sound it out. Often, a new form of a familiar word will stump him, such as “reward” now becomes “rewarded.” If he still struggles sounding the word out, try covering up part of the word with your finger to break it down into smaller pieces. Be careful not to just say the word and keep going. If the child can’t get it, pronounce it for him, but have him say it and read it himself afterwards and then continue on. Be sure to discuss the meaning of new vocabulary words as they are encountered. I have used this strategy with great success, but it takes time and patience.

 

For the child that struggles with comprehension: Choose high-interest chapter books that are at the right reading level.   Have him read aloud to you and pause after each page at the end of the sentence. Have him look up from the book and retell the gist of the story from that page. If he struggles, you can have him stop more frequently or you can have him reread the page while he focuses on the material and then retell it to you again. You can ask questions, but the goal here is to get him to think without your prompting, so limit your questions to a minimum.   I highly recommend using a notebook to jot brief notes from each page onto. Usually, the notes for an entire chapter end up taking about one page. Don’t ask the child to take the notes though, since this is reading, not writing. You want him to want to enjoy reading, so don’t make it a “task.” Ideally, read one or two chapters a day this way. Then, on the next day, reread the notes from the previous chapter aloud to help him recall exactly where he left off in the story. For my learning disabled child this has made an amazing difference. He loves to read this way!   He recently wrote a little list of his life goals which included “Read like David” who is my novel-a-day reader.

 

For the older reader that is interested but can’t make it past the first chapter: When my eighth-grader came to me and told me he just didn’t get “Treasure Island” and wanted to give up I suggested that I read a chapter aloud to him and then we’d make a decision. After I read a chapter to him he said he completely understood everything and the book was exciting and he really wanted to read it but he couldn’t understand why he didn’t get it on his own.   I know you’ll be thankful that I am NOT going to tell you to read aloud to him! Instead, I checked out the audio book on CD and told him to read every word visually as he listened to the audio. Oh my goodness. The rest is history. Just this week when he was too sick to get out of bed, he laid in there with Paolini’s book “Eldest” and read half of it in one day while he listened to the audio. Audio books have turned my reluctant, slow reader into a voracious reader. When he finished the book he immediately picked his next read and asked for me to check out Brian Jacques “Redwall” in book and audio form and he began it today. I asked him just the other day, “Do you believe that listening to the audio while you read along has made you a better reader?” 

 

His answer, “Absolutely!”

 

For now, I am content for him to continue with this method. In fact, audio books are so plentiful; I will just let him keep going as long as he wants. I will let him decide when he wants to try a challenging book on his own, without the audio. I am just thrilled that he has finally discovered reading!

 

For the Girl who doesn’t want to read anything but Nancy Drew: I have a tried and true idea for your single-minded child also. Let her continue to read her Nancy Drew books, but, insist that you pick every other book to broaden her horizon. So, she reads one of her favorite mysteries, and then you pick a book from another genre, such as historical fiction, a biography, a classic, poetry, etc…. She’ll get used to the idea quick enough and she’s always got the next Nancy whodunit waiting in the wings. Gradually, she’ll pick some new titles herself when she recognizes some of the great reads you keep finding for her. I’ve got my little Hayley diligently reading and analyzing Robert Frost poems now, and though she hasn’t truly come to love them yet, I know she will, it is only a matter of time. 

 

For the kid that only wants to read and doesn’t want to do other subjects: Mothers all over the world wish they had this kid. Easy-peasy, lemon-squeezy. With math being one of the few exceptions, you can create a literature-based approach to almost any subject. When I wanted David to study history I provided great books written by passionate authors (notice I didn’t say “textbooks”). He welcomed my suggestions for his next great read since I had hit it out of the park so many times with prior suggestions. These were biographies, historical fiction, compelling stories, and classic literature, whatever I could find on the topic. He devoured them.  For science, I gave him Apologia texts that were extraordinarily well written by, here’s that word again, passionate, authors. He didn’t mess around with the experiments and I was fine with that. He read and retained the books. For Constitutional Law, I gave him Michael Farris’s Constitutional Law course. Again, he devoured it.   Because he was such a voracious reader, writing came naturally and effortlessly though we did spend a year learning stylistic techniques and structure models using the “Institute for Excellence in Writing” curriculum. He told me today that he has gotten an “A” on every written paper so far in college. 

The best reading teacher of all.  Read a lot yourself.  Let them see you reading to learn, reading to be entertained, and reading to grow. 

 

I hope you found some useful ideas here. Let me know how it goes!

 

© Sallie H., 2007. All rights reserved.

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