My students are tired. They’ve been working hard, most notably on their writing, which has grown markedly. But with college applications, the stress of senior year, and other APs competing for my students’ attention, I’m finding that it’s hard to keep the flow going in my class.
It all started last week when we began Beloved.
My friends and colleagues warned me: It’s a tough book to teach. But what could go wrong? After all, my students had blazed through the first three titles, happy as clams (grammar alert: misplaced modifier!).
No more. Despite my efforts, my students gave up on the book on the first day. Toni Morrison’s non-linear style confused them, and they didn’t know how to deal.
Since then, I’ve been trying to get my students motivated again, but my efforts have failed. It’s tough to find a re-entry point; for my students, it’s overwhelming to catch up.
I’m frustrated, and I’m nervous, but I’ve learned a lot. Here are some tidbits:
1. Reading is always the first thing to drop off. Reading takes a long time. It’s hard work and takes daily dedication. It’s done by yourself, privately and silently. Reading for school is usually not fun. While it makes you feel proud when you read, there’s no huge reward for doing it and no huge penalty for skipping it.
2. My students need much more scaffolding on their reading, particularly at the beginning of a book. Although it’s true that their introductory college English class will assign large chunks of reading, it’s not true that my students are there yet. We need to build, step by step, to that standard.
3. It’s a long year, a long haul, there will be failure, and it’s OK to fail. It’s important to build academic character, to show to my students that part of succeeding is failing. That’s why they write 18 AP practice essays this year. And that’s why they’ll read 12 books this year. My students have been so used to succeeding, but the only way to grow is to struggle.
(I need to tell myself the same thing sometimes.)
“…there’s no huge reward for doing it and no huge penalty for skipping it.”
This is such a great point! Often times it seems like the only people who read are the chumps who haven’t figured out that you can just say one general thing, get your participation points, and then sit back and revel in the fact that you never read a page.
What do you do about this?
Thanks, John, for your comments. One way that teachers get students to read is by doing lots of reading checks, pop quizzes, and other punitive things. That doesn’t help to promote reading, either. I’m going to try to figure this out. Thanks again.
Good point. Those are good ways to get students to read, but it’s hard to make someone WANT to read if they don’t enjoy it.
Perhaps work on showing how linked reading is to being a good writer? I know it’s a vague and general idea…