During the time of my teaching in China, I saw a lot of Chinese ESL students got frustrated with reading in English, no matter content area reading or literature reading. Some of them might started with interest, but their interests faded quickly. Some of them even started with the lack of interest. There were also many of them start with interest and tried very hard to continue, but couldn't make to the end. They felt stressful, depressed and even just gave up. As teachers of Chinese ESL students or even native English speakers, we all had experiences of trying to push or even force students to read because that was what the curriculum required or that was important for students to prepare for the exams. With all these confusions and problems, one of my purposes of pursuing the Master's Degree is to solve them. Through the studying at NLGL program and the reading for my courses, I learned the reasons why adolescent turns to be reluctant readers--some of them even turn to be struggling readers and quit reading. In the 21st century, the world is getting globalized and developing rapidly. Students need to acquire the skills to be successful in this new age. They also need to learn, get information about, convey information to and communicate with the world around them. Reading is one of the ways to achieve these goals. Common Core State Standards improve the time percentage for informational text for high school students to 70% and drop the time allocation for literature reading for high school students to 30%, from which we can see that it is important to read the informational texts and learn to extract information from it. However, we should not stop promoting literature reading because there are some information about lives and this world that can only be conveyed by literature works. CCSS also emphasizes the collaborative learning and collaborative teaching. I think inter-disciplinary collaboration would be helpful to motivate and engage students in reading. In content area readings, there are also many interactive and collaborative strategies and skills that can help to motivate and engage students in reading. As educators in a globalized world, one of our duties is to foster cosmopolitan citizens with open minds and essential digital literacy to meet the needs of this world. To achieve these goals, reading, including in-class reading and independent reading is an effective way. Therefore, to motivate and engage students in reading, help struggling readers and turn reluctant readers into independent reader and even lifelong independent readers are very critical chain in the whole process of education.
- Home
- Abstract
- Courses & Standards
- Findings
- Supporting Theory
- Suggestions
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Resources
- Reader Diagnosis
- 5 Super Resources for Reluctant Readers
- Tips on Engaging Reluctant Readers
- Wacky Books for Reluctant Readers
- Easy Ideas for Getting Kids to Read More
- How to Turn a Reluctant Reader into a Lifelong Literature Lover
- 8 Ways to Help Your Reluctant Reader
- 5 Fun Ideas for Reluctant Readers
- Guerrilla Tactics for Struggling Readers
- Reference