Raising Kids Who Read

by Daniel T Willingham

  I think a lot of students have similar attitudes about reading. “Reading” means books written by dead people who have nothing to say that would be relevant to your life. Nevertheless, you are expected to pore over their words, study them, summarize them, analyze them for hidden meaning, and then write a five-page paper about them. That’s reading. It’s not contemporary. It doesn’t have characters you can identify with. It’s not nonfiction. It’s not magazines or graphic novels.

  What would your child find interesting? In chapter 9 I suggested you look for content with which your child is already familiar as a way of getting around a dearth of background knowledge. That makes sense from a motivational standpoint too, but if you are less worried about the knowledge angle, you might branch out by seeking a book with less familiar content but related to her interests. For example, my niece (along with millions of other teens) got interested in forensic science through the television show CSI.

  When it comes to fiction, seek books that look fun. Remember that one factor that goes into the choices we make is an assessment of how likely we are to actually get the pleasure that the choice might afford. A thick book with small print looks intimidating to less-than-confident readers. Go for books that have short chapters or go for graphic novels, which look easy because of the pictures. (But be advised, many are challenging.) Kids in mid- to late-elementary school might appreciate a collection of a comic strip they enjoy. And older kids may be interested in manga (pronounced mayn-ga), a variety of comic from Japan. Manga are published in just about every genre you can think of: adventure, mystery, horror, fantasy, and comedy, but note, mature themes (sexuality, violence) are not rare (figure 10.8).

  Figure 10.8. Jeff Kinney, author of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. Kinney didn’t intentionally write his books for reluctant readers, but the response from kids who previously disliked reading has been overwhelming. Kinney’s books are wonderfully written and wonderfully funny, but the graphics are doubtless an important part of what makes them inviting.

  Source: Picture of Jeff Kinney reprinted with permission of the author.

  Another source to consider are websites like Wattpad and Inkpop. These operate a bit like social networking sites in that users “follow” people who post content. Users can also upvote content they like and comment on it. On these sites, the content is fiction. Amateur writers post stories, hoping to gain an audience. Much of the content is aimed at teens and preteens, and people often serialize their content; they don’t post an entire novel, but rather post a chapter at a time. These bite-size portions might appeal to a reluctant reader—three thousand words is short enough to read on your phone during a bus ride.

  It may be that none of this is to your taste. In fact, this sort of reading material may strike you as poorly written and as glorifying aspects of popular culture that you find objectionable. That’s a judgment call, of course. I would not let my kids read material that is misogynistic, racist, or the like. But if my teen avoided all reading, I would be fine with him reading “junk.” Before he can develop taste, he must experience hunger. The first step is to open his mind to the idea that printed material is worth his time. I believe parents will get further toward their own goals by showing curiosity about their children’s interests rather than disdain for them. Taking your child seriously as a reader—by, for example, taking a reading recommendation from him—might make him take himself more seriously as a reader.

  Get Help

  Let’s be realistic. Each time you hand your child a book and he ends up hating it, he confirms to himself that reading is not for him. Your efforts to persuade him to give reading a try (again) are taxing for both of you, and it’s not the kind of thing you’re going to do every day. So when you do try, you want it to be your best shot. Search “best books for reluctant teen readers” on the web and you’ll find lots of lists. But you need something more fine-tuned to your child. You need someone with deep experience in the process of listening to a child’s interests and tastes (his hobbies, the sort of music he likes, his personality, the subjects he likes and hates at school, the movies he enjoys), and then using that information to find a book maximally likely to intrigue him. Naturally, such a person must have an extensive knowledge of children’s books.

  There are two places you might find that sort of person: your school system and your public library. Librarians are a vastly underappreciated resource. They have wide knowledge of and passion for books, and are eager to help. You likely have an expert resource at your public library. Use it!

  Finding the most knowledgeable person in your school or district may take a bit of tact. Your child’s teacher is the obvious person to ask about your child’s reading, and certainly you should. But there may be another teacher or reading coach who has made a real specialty of tempting reluctant readers. A suitable compromise might be to start with your child’s teacher. If your gut tells you that her advice may not be enough, thank her and affirm that she’s been helpful but also say that you’re trying to gather as much information as you can, and you wonder whether there’s anyone else she thinks is equally knowledgeable who might have some complementary ideas.

  Use Social Connections

  How does your child learn about movies he wants to see or video games he wants to play? Advertising. These media have huge budgets to make their product known. Kids also learn about the latest movie from friends—friends who learned about it from omnipresent advertising. Save a few highly successful series, there is no advertising for print material. It’s all word of mouth, and most kids don’t read.

  You can try to correct this knowledge deficit directly by telling your teen about content you think she’d like. It probably won’t produce an immediate turnaround, but it may plant a seed in her mind. More effective, though, would be for your child to hear these things from peers. For adults, reading is often social. Part of the success of Oprah’s book club is the feeling of being part of a group—maybe I wouldn’t tackle A Tale of Two Cities on my own, but we’re all in this together. Teens are hypersocial, so reading ought to be social for them as well.

  If your child has friends who are readers, great. They are your best allies. More likely she doesn’t, and it’s possible that she is afraid (rightly or wrongly) that her nonreading friends think that reading is nerdy.b This is where technology can help. There are countless book groups on the web—boards where kids discuss books, trade recommendations, post fan fiction, and the like. (You can find examples in the “Suggestions for Further Reading” section at the end of this book.) Your child is not going to dive into one of these communities. The most likely entry point would be through that rare book that does capture her imagination; make sure she knows that there are websites where other enthusiasts discuss the book.

  Make It Easy to Access Books

  Will an electronic reader help motivation? There are a few scattered studies on this question, showing mixed results. Honestly, I’d be pretty surprised if an e-reader made books sexy to a child who hates reading. As we’ve noted, pleasure reading is not that different on an e-reader. Like their college counterparts, kids (ages nine to seventeen) prefer paper; 80 percent who have experience with e-books say they still read print more often.

  Yet these same kids say they think they would read more if they had access to e-books, and I tend to believe them. I don’t think e-readers make reading more fun, once the device has lost its gee-whiz luster. But an e-reader improves access. Being able to download virtually any book you want as soon as you want it (barring cost considerations) is a great advantage. If your child has just finished book two of a trilogy or he’s just heard from a friend about a fantastic new title, that’s when he’s most excited about getting it. But if he has to wait a few days to get to a bookstore or library, his interest may have moved on to something new. Older kids can download an e-reader for their phone. It’s free, and that way they can always have a book with them.

  Help Your Child with Scheduling

  Some teens like the
idea of reading but simply cannot find the time. Activities today do seem much more intense than they were a generation ago; something as seemingly simple as playing soccer or singing in the choir calls for many hours each week. Add in homework, and kids feel that their week is overflowing. How can you help a child who likes the idea of reading find time to do so?

  It may not be that your child has no time, but rather that she doesn’t have large blocks of it. She may believe that reading must occur in silence and for some minimum duration. If her teacher says, “Try to read for thirty minutes each night,” it’s easy to see why a student would assume that means thirty consecutive minutes. But adult readers find crumbs of time throughout the day to feed their reading hunger. Your child may simply need to get used to keeping a book with her, to be read in snippets: on the school bus, waiting for a parent to pick her up from her piano lesson, in a long line at McDonald’s. How about an audiobook for her iPod on the ride to school? I like to ask students if they have been bored at any time in the last month. If so, that’s a time they could have been reading.

  You might also introduce students to a common strategy we adults use when we’re short of time: we schedule it. You can’t simply hope to find time to do important things—you must make time to do them, and that’s done by consciously selecting a specific time and place that you’ll read. Equally important, your child should anticipate why he wouldn’t read at that planned time. If he plans to read for fifteen minutes at 5:00 p.m. each evening, what might make him decide at that time that he ought to skip reading that day? Or what might interrupt him once he starts? He needs to plan strategies to deal with those interruptions. If he skips reading because he feels panicky about his homework, maybe reading time needs to be rescheduled. If he’s frequently interrupted by his little brother, maybe he needs to choose a more private place to read.

  Keeping It Simple Summary

  At School

  A distinction drawn between academic reading and pleasure reading

  Rewards and coercion used as a last resort

  Pleasure reading in classrooms, coupled with instruction during these sessions

  At Home

  Don’t nag, praise, criticize content, or otherwise control your child’s reading.

  Seek ways to involve your child in a peer network of readers.

  Make it easy to access books.

  Help your child find a good time and place to read.

  Notes

  “The classic experiment on this phenomenon was conducted in a preschool.”: Lepper, Greene, and Nisbett (1973).

  “There have been many studies of rewards in school contexts, and they often backfire in this way”: For a review, see Deci, Koestner, and Ryan (1999).

  “What about praise instead of a reward?”: For a review of praise, see Willingham (2005).

  “The research literature on Accelerated Reader in particular is, in fact, mixed.”: Hansen, Collins, and Warschauer (2009).

  “My concern is that kids might confuse academic reading with reading for pleasure.”: For a thorough treatment, see Gallagher (2009).

  “just fifteen minutes each day out of a reading block that averaged ninety minutes”: Brenner, Hiebert, and Tompkins (2009).

  “As researcher Nell Duke ruefully noted”: Miller and Moss (2013).

  “as kids advance through the grades”: Fractor, Woodruff, Martinez, and Teale (1993).

  “Some of the most careful experiments indicate that without this feature, students don’t benefit from silent reading time in class.”: Kamil (2008).

  “I’d say the latest data indicate that it probably improves attitudes, vocabulary, and comprehension”: Manning and Lewis (2010); Yoon (2002).

  “A lot of teachers think that kids today are easily bored, and they blame digital devices for making them that way.”: Richtel (2012).

  “prominent reading researcher MaryAnn Wolf”: Rosenwald (2014).

  “‘Is Google Making Us Stoopid?’”: Carr (2008).

  “follow-up book, The Shallows”: Carr (2011).

  “I suspect most cognitive psychologists are in my camp”: Steven Pinker and Roger Schank have both written in this vein: http://edge.org/q2010/q10_10.html#pinker;%20http://www.edge.org/q2010/q10_13.html. See also Mills (2014).

  “say they still read print more often”: Robinson (2014).

  aAccelerated Reader is software that allows for the tracking of individual students’ reading. Books have different point values depending on length and difficulty, and students take brief quizzes to show that they’ve understood books they have read.

  bI once saw a boy who looked to be about eleven years old reading by a swimming pool. Another kid popped out of the water and said, “What are you reading for? That’s so boring!” The first boy looked up and said with cool disdain, “It’s good for your brain.” I wanted to hug him but restrained myself.

  Conclusion

  As I neared the completion of this book I asked some friends to read what I had written. Several made the same comment, saying something like, “This is all interesting, but one thing you haven’t said is that some kids are just destined not to be readers. And you don’t want those kids to feel bad, to feel like they are out of step with the family value of reading. So if you had a child like that, you’d back off, right?”

  No, I wouldn’t.

  Why might a child feel pressured about reading? An obvious answer is that reading does not come easily to him. He’d rather opt out, especially if he compares himself to siblings who seem to read effortlessly. But reading can still bring pleasure, even if it’s a little tougher to obtain. Every child should be met where he is and get the pleasures available from what he can do. My family doesn’t refrain from taking walks because one of us is confined to a wheelchair. My daughter can’t hike a mountain trail or walk a sandy beach, but she “walks” as she can and enjoys what’s available. I think backing off is exactly the wrong message. Doing so says, “I indicated before that reading is important, but now that I see you’re having trouble, let’s pretend it’s not.” The child won’t be fooled. The child will conclude that the problem is too terrible to be openly discussed.

  Rather than deny, I prefer to normalize. It’s normal that some things come more easily to one child than to her sibling. Why not be frank and say, “Yes, this is difficult for you, I can see. I’m impressed by how hard you’re working at it”? The thing is, every child has a turn learning something that comes easily and learning something else that doesn’t. Maybe it’s math, or it’s being brave enough to take a bus downtown alone, or it’s learning to ride a bike, or it’s telling a friend that she’s let you down. I want my children to be gracious when things come easily and determined when they don’t. I’m not going to implicitly suggest they abandon things I believe are important when the going gets tough.

  But for other kids, the issue is not that they have trouble reading; it’s that they just don’t seem very interested. I realize that what I’ve written in these chapters could easily be taken as a setup for your child to feel pressured to enjoy reading because this book has offered a whole lot of “do this, do that, for heaven’s sake don’t do this other thing.” The reason I’ve been so directive is that stating the objectives is not enough. I can’t just say, “The goal is for your child to love reading. Now go forth and do good.” I had to discuss the specifics of how that goal plays out day to day and what to do about the obstacles that are likely to arise. But too great a focus on the detailed instructions can lead to nearsightedness and, ultimately, mistakes (figure C.1).

  Figure C.1. Taking instructions too literally. This may be an urban myth, but the story is that a woman ordered a birthday cake and told the clerk she wanted these words on it: “Happy Birthday, and under that, All the best wishes.” The decorator dutifully wrote exactly what was described. You have to keep the overall goal of a project in mind, not just faithfully comply with the instructions.

  You avoid myopia by reminding yourself to look up from the details
every now and then to gain perspective—in other words, remind yourself of your ultimate goal. In the Introduction, I noted that I wasn’t much interested in getting my kids to read because leisure reading is associated with success in school or earning more money. My desire for my children to read is simply a gut instinct. Here at the book’s close, I think I can amplify on that. What I really want is for my children to experience reading pleasure.

  What sort of reading pleasure? For me, reading affords a pleasure of understanding. Food writer Ruth Reichl can snare in words the elusive subtleties in the flavor of toro. Other writers make me understand things about myself, not always appealing things. After reading the memoir Clear Pictures, I remember reflecting on how lucky Reynolds Price was to have grown up among such wise and interesting people, only to realize that it was Price’s acumen and sensitivity that made them so; had I known them, I would likely have missed their finest qualities. As an adult, I get great satisfaction from at long last coming to a better understanding of ideas that I’ve long encountered but only dimly comprehended; most recently, it’s been the tensions among the founders of the United States.

  An altogether different sort of pleasure comes from being carried to distant times and places when I read. How better to see the French Riviera during the 1920s than through the debauched, exhausted eyes of Dick Diver in Tender Is the Night? How could I enter the alternately solemn and boisterous world of New York’s Hasidim if Chaim Potok did not take me there? And then too, sometimes the pleasure lies not in the charms of a new world but in escape from my own. During graduate school, I read Herman Wouk’s two-volume World War II epic, Winds of War and War and Remembrance, nearly daily at lunch; I used it like worry beads to manage the anxiety consequent to my demanding academic program.