Celebrating Readers

Blaming readers is in vogue these days. Boys don’t read. Reluctant readers resist reading. Struggling readers give up because the task is just too hard for them. When we label readers in these ways, are we perhaps communicating our own frustration more than the actual situations?

Consider what happens on NEA’s Read Across America Day (official site - ReadWriteThink Calendar Entry). Read Across America Day, celebrated on March 3, 2008, celebrates reading and encourages every person, young and old, to read on the March 3rd and every day of the year. As the site’s FAQ explains

In cities and towns across the nation, teachers, teenagers, librarians, politicians, actors, athletes, parents, grandparents, and others develop NEA’s Read Across America activities to bring reading excitement to children of all ages. Governors, mayors, and other elected officials recognize the role reading plays in their communities with proclamations and floor statements. Athletes and actors issue reading challenges to young readers. And teachers and principals seem to be more than happy to dye their hair green or be duct-taped to a wall if it boosts their students’ reading.

With all this support and encouragement, why do we still have readers who don’t or won’t read regularly? What makes an event like Read Across America Day different? Why can it be difficult for all students to celebrate reading every day?

It has a lot to do with how we treat readers. The January 2008 English Journal article “Speaking My Mind: Don’t Blame the Boys: We’re Giving Them Girly Books” by Kevin R. St. Jarre argues that “it may not be that girls naturally love to read more than boys do. It may be the reading lists”(15). The reading curriculum, according to the article, favors emotional and reflective readings (texts for girls) like Go Ask Alice and Speak over action and adventure (texts for boys) like the latest Tom Clancy novel. The article concludes that when “we allow students to select what they will read . . . we can encourage reading where there is currently none” (16).

In her recent NCTE webinar “When Kids Won't Read, What Teachers Can Do” (access to the archive is free), Teri Lesesne (blog, school page) explored how the covers on books appeal to different kinds of readers. Her presentation considered how the cover images on the books encouraged or discouraged readers to pick up the book and read. Naturally we have stereotypes about what makes a cover for boys or a cover for girls, and our thoughts may ignore things like readers’ gender identity and personal interests. The point still stands though: readers have strong preferences that guide their reading and lead them to engage with a text.

When reading centers on student choice, students are more likely to read. Events like Read Across America Day work because they highlight everything that is fun about reading. Readers are encouraged to share and read the texts they love. If every day in the classroom were like Read Across America Day, my hunch is that reading would improve. But in a world of compulsory readings and curriculums decided by textbook publishers, teachers face many challenges. What seems like the most obvious challenge however, readers themselves, is probably the least of our worries. We need to stop blaming the readers and let students help us find“the right book for the right reader at the right time,” as Teri Lesesne says. Maybe then classrooms will be filled with celebrating readers every day—and the reluctant and struggling readers will be a thing of the past.

My Relationship with Literature

I remember gleefully giggling when my mother read my sister and I Hop on Pop, as we considered the possibility of jumping on our father who sat innocently in the living room. I recall devouring The Cat in the Hat, One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish, Blue Fish and Green Eggs and Ham when I began to read on my own. Reared a Christian, I didn’t think it was Christmas until I saw The Grinch Who Stole Christmas on TV.

When I began teaching college students, I brought The Sneetches and The Butter Battle Book into the classroom to talk about symbolism and satire. When Dr. Seuss passed away in September 1991, I was devastated, but my despair broke that weekend when Jesse Jackson read Green Eggs and Ham on Saturday Night Live (the video is low quality and out of sync, but still a great memory. It may be best to listen rather than watching).



Of the many books that I’ve read, the books by Dr. Seuss have given me some of my most memorable experiences as a reader, a writer, and a teacher. Tom Romano describes an assignment in his English Education article “Relationships with Literature” that asks students to recall their own unforgettable experiences with texts. The end of the activity is to encourage students to “remind themselves what has really mattered to them about reading literature” (9). As teachers everywhere begin planning for Read Across America, perhaps that kind of reminder is the most important thing we can give students. If we can remind them of the joys of reading, every day can be Read Across America day.

What would I do in the classroom to encourage students to connect with literature? Here are some possibilities. Feel free to suggest your own in the comments.

• Discuss the wide range of ways that text can be defined, and then ask students to share their earliest memories of texts.
• Have students respond to the questions about best and worst experiences with literature included in Romano’s article.
• Ask students to listen to Jesse Jackson’s reading of Green Eggs and Ham for students, and then ask them how they might take a favorite book and read it in their own favorite style.
• Encourage students to create inventories of favorite texts that they own and wish lists for texts that they’d like to own or reading plans for books that they want to read soon.
• Have students share a favorite text with someone else, reading it aloud together. Students can share with younger readers, family members, or others in their classes. Encourage students to discuss why the text is a favorite.
• Ask students to review the texts they read, and then rate them just as they might rank favorite tunes on their iPods. After choosing a number of stars for the texts, ask students to talk about why they choose the ratings they did.
• Allow class time for students to read and talk about reading with one another. You might try a DEAR program or Daily Book Boost to get everyone into reading and sharing favorite texts.