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Paying it Forward—Renewing a Love of Reading in HS Seniors by Amy Pine

Posted by on August 3, 2012 in Pay It Forward | 30 Comments

I’ve always been a Nerdy Book Club member, but my passion for young adult literature really ignited last summer. On one of my many, many, MANY trips to Target, I popped in to the book section and bought The Hunger Games. I do that. I buy my books.

Of course I quickly plowed through the entire trilogy. Then one of my colleagues told me I had to read this new book by a young, first-time, local novelist. Her name? Veronica Roth. The novel? Divergent. School had just ended for the summer, and I was thrilled to have time with my beautiful son and daughter. They had to share my attention with Roth for a couple of days while I devoured Divergent. Kids, Mommy loves you, but she had to find out what happened with Tris and Four.

When school started, I was bursting share the book with my students and that I was working on booking Veronica Roth for our annual Writers Week. The response I got was lackluster at best.  Near the end of first semester, I had all but confirmed Roth’s visit and wanted to be sure plenty of her audience had read Divergent, not that she needs my marketing help. I hear the book is selling pretty well. Then, something that happened after winter break gave me insight as to why my students were not jumping on the Divergent train.

 I wanted to share the YA books that I read over break with my students, and I wanted them to share with me what they read. I invited willing participants to the white board to share their winter reading. After listing the six books I read, I was saddened to see barely double that added to the board from my twenty-six students. It was like that in all three of my classes. Did I mention that these were senior A.P. Literature students?

I extended this to a discussion on reading for sheer enjoyment. Many students used time as an excuse. Others flat out said they didn’t like reading. I thought about my part in all of this. I teach books that I enjoy, that my district and The College Board label as having AP literary merit, but what was I doing to pay forward my love of reading?

I thought about Kelly Gallagher’s Readicide and one of the main reasons he lists on how schools are killing reading: My students, at least in my class, were reading only academic texts. I had to put an end to that. I went to a couple of great resources in my department. Collectively, they are the Andersons. Individually, Gary and Russ. Both of them had already incorporated independent reading into their classrooms, and their students were posting book reviews on our department’s Ning (created by Mr. Russ Anderson). My second semester was about to explode with reading love, but I needed to jump start student interest in books beyond those that would earn a desired score on the AP test.

I started with advice from The Book Whisperer, Nerdy’s very own Donalyn Miller. The plan was to read aloud to my students from, you guessed it, Divergent. I get it. I’m old (to them). Why would they trust me? All it took was the first 100 pages. After that, I didn’t see my copy of Divergent again until the end of the school year. It passed from one student to the next, and I was happy to see it travel. When Insurgent hit stands, I had to have a three class lottery to see who would win the opportunity to read my copy! The proof is in the Ning. Check out my student’s review of Divergent. Her first paragraph says it all.

I joined a small but growing group of teachers in my department, giving students ten minutes of independent reading daily, letting them choose their books. I wasn’t sure how it would resonate with second semester seniors who had tunnel vision that led one place only, graduation. To get them to initially take advantage of what I considered a gift, I paired the independent reading with an assignment—posting reviews/commenting on other reviews on the Ning. Each day I sat down with them and read. I book talked the books I was reading to drum up interest.  When students posted a review, I commented on it.

Once things got going, the classroom environment shifted. Students would walk in excited to tell me what they were reading. They wanted to know what I was reading! They started asking for passes to the library, for book recommendations, for me to give them just five more minutes when our initial ten were up (and I often would)! I would bring in books from home if the library was out of a title. My copy of John Green’s The Fault in Our Starsalso did a lot of traveling.And when Veronica Roth visited our school in late February, many of the students storming the stage to buy a book and get an autograph were mine.

I didn’t abandon our AP texts. Instead, independent reading enhanced them by reminding students that, test or no test, one of the best ways to engage with a book is to simply enjoy it. By allowing them choice and time, I’m also allowing practice, which builds confidence. Finding confidence and enjoyment in reading means students will read more. Reading more means they will be better readers, academic texts included. Best of all, my students are now in on my little secret. Reading more is just plain old fun.

Amy Pine teaches high school English in the Chicago burbs. She’s also obtaining a master’s in school library science. She may not be a YA, but she loves to read YA and pays that love forward on her blog, which is aptly titled AmyLovesYA.com. You can find her on Twitter as @Amy_LovesYA.