Some of us seem to be born readers. The love of a story is embedded within our DNA. We have gravitated to books from babyhood. Unfortunately, this is not true for everyone. Many of the students I work with will avoid reading at any cost.
It is my firm belief that everyone can find enjoyment in reading. They just need to find the right book for them. I have spent my career trying to match kids to books. This is easier said than done, but I’ve made progress.
Here are some tips:
- Be open to less traditional reading- comics, graphic novels, video game manuals etc. lead to other reading
- Devote specific time to free choice reading
- Do not react when they tell you they hate reading, you’ll drive them further away
- Get recommendations from other kids, they’ll take it more seriously
- Give them easy access to a variety of books
- Pay attention to which books are being made into movies, and get them interested in reading the book first
- Read aloud the first in a series, so that they will be motivated to go to book two
- Talk about your own reading interests
- Topics almost every kid loves reading about: animals, humor, adventure stories