Rekindling Students' Love for Reading: Strategies for Lifelong Literacy

Navigation Links: Emma Durfee's Portfolio Page

Overview and Purpose

Reading is a skill that everyone engages in every single day of their lives. In the classroom, reading is often stressed as a critical foundational skill to ensure students are successful in their future endeavors. However, as children make their way through middle and high school, students’ often are not apt to read as frequently as they used to (Iuga et al., 2023). Some even refuse to read unless it is required by their teacher. This mini-course focuses on analyzing the reasons behind student’s general lack of interest with reading, and identifies different strategies that educators can implement into their classrooms to re-spark the joy of reading. By examining the causes behind student’s lack of reading, how we can support students with different hindering forces, and how to make reading a pleasurable experience, educators will have the tools needed to foster a positive view of reading, which therefore inspires lifelong literacy. This course is tailored for middle and high school English Language Arts teachers, however, I argue that elementary and other subject areas can benefit in participating as well. As educators, we are always aiming for our students to be successful individuals, and promoting literacy is a great starting point! Through participating in dynamic modules, participants will analyze a variety of situational factors that may inhibit student’s reading access, and will explore different instructional approaches to better support their students. Twenty-first century learners are those who need advanced literacy skills, and this course will engage in some of the foundational and motivational aspects to cultivate strong readers.

Needs Assessment

I found that many students groan whenever reading is mentioned within my middle and high school ELA classes. Whether it is reading a whole class novel, reading articles about current events, or even their independent reading/choice book. I have struggled endlessly to have my students actually pick up a book and read rather than skimming for answers. Similarly, many of my fellow ELA teachers have shared they also have noticed this in their classroom. To get to the root of the problem, we conducted a “Student Reading Survey” in December of 2024 to identify how students truly feel about reading. This survey was conducted throughout grades 6-12, and all students responded to the same set of questions. Students shared anonymously to ensure that the results were as honest as possible.

The results of the survey highlight the lack of enjoyment students find with reading. Out of all of the students surveyed: 6.6% rated their enjoyment of reading as a 5/5, 18.3% rated their enjoyment of reading as a 4/5, 38.9% of students rated their enjoyment of reading as a 3/5, 25.9% of students rated their enjoyment of reading as a 2/5, and 10.3% of students rated their enjoyment of reading as a 1/5. These percentages demonstrate the lack of engagement with texts, which correlates with some of the top reasons students dislike reading. Students were prompted the following question to answer: What don't you enjoy about reading? (Choose all that apply). The options are as followed: Too busy; I’d rather do other things; I often don't understand what I'm reading; I can't find any books that are interesting to me; Reading isn't cool / I don't want to get picked on; I don't have books at home; I like reading, so this question doesn't apply to me. The most chosen responses are: I’d rather do other things; too busy; can’t find interesting books; I often don’t understand what I am reading. Due to the lack of enjoyment with reading, as well as some of the key reasons students choose not to engage in reading, it is evident that there are underlying factors preventing students from becoming strong readers. As teachers, there are many approaches that we can take to combat these outside barriers. This mini-course will guide us to uncovering the inner reader within all of our students.

Performance Objectives

After completing this mini-course, learners will be able to:

Identify different factors that cause students to dislike reading (psychological, social, lack of proficiency, attention spans, lack of time, etc.)
Evaluate how the different factors in students' lives contribute to apathetic attitudes towards reading.
Foster a classroom culture that values reading and promotes lifelong literacy skills through reading for pleasure.
Create opportunities for students who struggle with different aspects of reading (such as a lack of proficiency, time, or short attention spans.)
Design opportunities for reading that promote student autonomy and choice.
Expose students to a diverse range of texts and text formats.
Critically reflect on their own approach to independent reading practices and make informed adjustments to promote positive attitudes towards reading.

Course Units

This mini-course includes the following units. Click the title of a unit to go to its page.

Prerequisites:

Before taking this course the learner should:

Have an understanding of literacy instruction (specifically in secondary ELA classrooms).
Have an understanding of differentiated instruction and how to accommodate a wide array of learners.
Be open minded and willing to adapt their current teaching practices.

Unit 1: Understanding the Why

This unit will serve as an opportunity to analyze some of the factors that currently prohibit your students from being active readers. This unit will include multiple perspectives of access to reading, why individuals do not like reading, and some of the systematic barriers that are prevalent among different communities in the United States. Through multimedia resources, reflective activities, and conducting your own needs assessment, you will be able to identify the current challenges your students are facing.

Unit 1 - Lesson 1: Why Aren’t Students Reading?

Unit 1 - Lesson 2: Distractions & Commitments

Unit 1- Lesson 3: Accessibility of Texts

Unit 1- Lesson 4: Current Independent Reading Practices

Unit 1- Assessment: Conducting Your Own Needs Assessment

Unit 2: Strategies to Support Readers

This unit will look at some of the instructional problems that educators need to address before expecting students to be confident, independent readers. Although we want students to be able to jump into a book simply because it is a topic they enjoy, there are multifaceted problems that must be addressed first. By ensuring our students are being provided high quality, explicit reading instruction, (even in the secondary classroom!) students will be more apt to engage in reading independently.

Unit 2 - Lesson 1: Why Reading Instruction is Important in Secondary Classrooms

Unit 2 - Lesson 2: Teaching Comprehension Tools

Unit 2 - Lesson 3: Vocabulary in the Secondary Classroom

Unit 2 - Lesson 4: Building and Activating Background Knowledge

Unit 3: Shifting Student Mindset About Reading

Throughout this unit, participants will become familiar with the different ways literacy is intertwined in our daily lives. In order to encourage students to read, there must be a broader purpose. By studying the different benefits and needs of reading in day-to-day life, participants will be equipped to communicate the importance of reading beyond the classroom to their students.

Unit 3 - Lesson 1: Students Are Already Readers

Unit 3 - Lesson 2: Reading Beyond the Classroom

Unit 3 - Lesson 3: The Health Benefits of Reading

Unit 3 - Lesson 4: Reading to Build Connections

Unit 4: Making Changes in the Classroom

This unit is designed to put all of the previous units into action. After studying some of the key components of reading engagement, looking at implementation approaches will allow the learner to identify where they would like to make changes in their classroom, and how exactly they will go about doing so. While focusing on motivation, agency, and appropriate assessment strategies, participants will move into developing their own plan of attack for encouraging their students to read for enjoyment.

Unit 4 - Lesson 1: Student Choice and Intrinsic Motivation

Unit 4 - Lesson 2: Creating the Time and Space to Read

Unit 4 - Lesson 3: Assessments & Accountability

Extended Resources

Fisher, N. T., & Schneider, L. C. (2007). Literacy Education and the Workforce Bridging a Critical Gap. Journal of Jewish Communal Service, 82(3).
Iuga, I., David, O., & Danet, M. (2023, August 24). Student Burnout in Children and Adolescents: The Role of Attachment and Emotion Regulation. National Library of Medicine. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10527975/
Larson, M. B., & Lockee, B. B. (2019). Streamlined ID: A Practical Guide to Instructional Design. Routledge.