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I read this a week ago, so I won’t get it exactly right, but it basically says that kids don’t like reading because we force too much close reading and ridiculous analysis of small passages and don’t allow kids the freedom to just enjoy the story.
What does it say is the reason? I can’t see the whole thing.
Something that has helped my kids this year is doing pre-reading chapter questions and then followup after-reading questions. The pre-reading questions are more personal/high relation questions, while the after-reading are more traditional. I’m on my third book using this approach.
Example: for chapter 3 in Night, the pre-reading questions are:
1. Explain what is an anaphora.
2. Write an anaphora of at least four lines about any topic you wish.
3. Describe what you would do if someone were to beat a family member.
4. Explain why or why not you should lie to protect someone else’s feelings.
5. Why do people get tattoos? Would you ever consider getting one?
What I have found is that the kids tell me they are better prepared for what they’re going to read, and they say they can relate more to the book. It’s a bear in adding more grading, but their answers on the more traditional questions have been much more in-depth and thoughtful. I’ve also had many more read the books than before.
Next, I am doing To Kill a Mockingbird, and instead of chapter by chapter, I will wean them off to chunk by chunk instead. Crossing my fingers!
We teach reading (and writing, and math, and that's usually all we teach anymore) with the goal of improving test scores. That's not an approach designed to make anybody love ANYTHING.
Kids still fall in love with reading. But it's usually because their parents read to them at home. If it's because of anything that happens in school, it's likely to be the result of something a teacher did in spite of, not as a result of, state and local education policy.