Lets get our students excited to read!

 The Education Quality and Accountability Office (EQAO) offered third and sixth graders a questionnaire to asses their relationship with reading.  Only 43% of students like to read, and 65% see themselves as good readers...How can we change these responses? 

Observe more Literacy Trends 

 
How can we make students enjoy reading?


I recall being in elementary school and when it came time to read, I absolutely dreaded it and evidently, I was not alone. It is interesting to see that years later, I am now a student teacher in a grade four classroom, and students are not jumping up and down when it is time to read. How can we change this as educators? How can we elicit an excited response from our students, similar to the excitement I see when it is time for gym. 

In this blog post I will be discussing various ways we can get students excited to read! 

The following Ontario Curriculum Topics will be addressed:

1. Comprehension Strategies
2. Variety of Texts
3. Demonstrating Understanding 

How to make expository texts less daunting .... 

I thought it would be suitable to start with the most challenging reading material, expository text. We have all been there, you have just read an entire page and ask yourself “what did I just read?” Imagine how many times our students do the same exact thing…what a waste of time! How can we avoid this? My thought is through the use of graphic organizers. 

Some examples of graphic organizers are:
- Topic Net

- Compare and Contrast Matrix
- Cause and Effect Organizer 
- Problem/Solution organizer 
- Concept/ Story/ Mind Map  

If a grade 4 student where to read an article on Jupiter, they could then use a Topic Net (similar to the one from the article Text Structure Strategies for improving Expository Reading Comprehension). Hopefully this will encourage students to organize their big ideas from the reading with ease.  This method will allow them to use comprehension strategies after reading, in order to understand the text. (Comprehension strategies 1.3)

A comic book in school?!  

Yes, why not? Graphic novels are just as useful as any other text, not to mention they are a great way to engage students in reading. For example, a graphic version of Romeo and Juliet sounds a lot more pleasing than the original (for some readers - sorry...not sorry). The use of graphic novels should not be seen as a less legitimate delivery of text.  The Ontario Curriculum asks for teachers to expose students to a variety of texts, including graphic texts. (Variety of Texts 1.1)

Some examples of graphic texts that can be utilized in the classroom are:
- Graphic novels
- Diagrams
- Brochures
- Graphic organizers
- Maps 

Collaboration and Reading

I have noticed two things that really excite students, technology and each other. So, lets apply this to reading. An activity we can complete with our students would be to pick a partner,  have them read any type of text that they decide upon and then create quizzes regarding the chosen text. 

A user friendly platform that students could use is Quizlet. 

 Not only would this build communication skills but it would get students excited to read! This would truly demonstrate their understanding by taking important ideas and details from the text and turn their understandings into questions. Once they take each others quizzes they can further discuss their answers and understandings. (Demonstrate Understanding 1.4 )

There are multiple ways to get students excited about reading. It is our responsibility as educators to understand our students, and there their interest lie. This way, we will be able to create activities that best engage them! 

  

IMAGES

http://www.eqao.com/en/about_eqao/media_room/communication-docs/infographic-literacy-trends-ontario.pdf

https://www.123rf.com/photo_90011251_stock-vector-a-vector-illustration-of-pink-color-brain-character-with-glasses-reading-a-book-on-white-background-.html  

https://www.commonsense.org/education/website/quizlet