8th grade reading in the digital age-Getting off the device and into a book.

[Ms Brooks]

My youngest of four (13) has grown up fully digital. She does not choose to read a book, rather she jumps onto a screen and the hours drain away. Reading for recreation is not happening, and pushing books only makes this teen turn away reading altogether. 

 

Thinking out loud: For reading this year (8th grade) I wanted to get her reading without the onerous task of dissection and comprehension. I've looked through numerous guided reading resources and none of them make reading seem enjoyable. Instead of guided reading, I was going to have her keep a response journal of sorts where she would annotate her reading in an effort to get her involved in the act of reading. This is easier to do with non fiction, but I am going to give it a go with fiction too. I am not going to ask that she write many formal papers on her reading.

 

One of the problems I've encountered with my fully digital girl is she will read Wikipedia or Spark Notes and never read the book. She can talk with friends about the book without having ever read the book. This irks me! I know this girl can read at a high level and is very insightful when writing, but I am weary of how easy it is to borrow ideas gleaned online and incorporate them into you thinking and call it your own. The temptation to plagiarize for this digital generation is great.  

 

I am also going to read the same books with DD and keep a journal too. We would exchange journals and comment on each other's writing and observations. The idea being that my journal keeping would influence her journal keeping, and her journal would give me a window into her thoughts on what she reads. We spend long hours in the car so we will also discuss on our drives.

 

Limiting screen time with a teen is not a battle I want to engage. Screen time for everyone is a challenge. I'd rather she learn to control the amount of time she spends online. Screen time is an an ongoing school topic and discussed frequently.

 

Thanks for listening :) :tongue_smilie:

 

[J&JMom]

OT, but I made it through high school in the early 80s without reading a single assigned novel with the exclusive help of Cliff notes and passed easily my classes. I HATED to read.  I am raising boys who love to listen to me aloud, but are loathe to pick up a book themselves.  I assign pretty much everything they read:  daily group read aloud (even during breaks and summer), daily literature class, quarterly one-on-one novel study of a book I assign, and finally, self-selected free read quarterly quotas. So they do read, but I have to force the issue. Output is being able to discuss plot points in the read alouds, pass the quizzes/tests in literature class with an occasional lit analysis paper or project, pass the comprehension test of the novel study book, and give me a quick oral book review of your independent reading recommending the book or not. I tried 'response journals' and 'book reports', etc.  More trouble than they were worth. Good luck.

Edited July 17, 2016 by J&JMom

[Farrar]

The thing that has helped my digital boys is simply requiring that they read for an hour a day before bedtime every night. If reading on a screen is a temptation, I'd say take it away for whatever time period. My boys aren't huge readers, they don't choose reading as a free time activity often, but they have learned to enjoy it. And I'm okay with that being enough.

 

I'd keep the response elements light. There's plenty of ways to do it with fiction too. One thing we do that has been good is a short story a month and then we have a special tea (with pastry, of course) to sit and talk about it in depth. Reading a short story isn't onerous. It's allowed me to have them read some more classic authors they might not be ready to tackle longer works by like Jack London as well as to read about themes that better in small doses. And then the specialness of sitting and discussing is a good thing.