The Idea of an Essay, Volume 3

126 The Idea of an Essay: Volume 3 that kills the joy of reading in middle school. Without the joy of reading or at the very least an appreciation for it, the student easily develops a dread of reading and learns to read merely for facts alone. In his book Learning ‘schooled literacy’: The literate life histories of mainstream student readers and writers, Rick Evans tells the story of a composition student named Kelly. In her perception of literacy, specifically reading, from a very young age through college, Kelly reflects that she learned to only read for facts. She used this method to read for tests, essays, anything her teachers assigned. She read in order to glean the pertinent details from the text, rather than enjoying the experience as she gathered the information. Reading became a very robotic, impersonal, end-goal oriented task. Although this served her well in middle and senior high school, even college, it grew into a distain for reading. She no longer enjoyed reading or going to the library as she did when she was younger. Reading merely for facts without the experience destroyed her love of reading and even caused her to avoid it (Evans 317-340). This is a serious consequence of mere comprehension oriented reading. Any educational goal focused solely around comprehension will be effective for a time, but will ultimately lead to animosity for reading. There is a solution that will work however. Teachers can easily transfer students from children’s literature to adult literature by cultivating a love of reading through fun activities. If they do this by recapping past reads, exploring current reads, and developing a goal for future reads, they can keep reading assignments appropriate and even grow students’ interest in reading. Teachers can monitor assignment difficulty and maintain student interest by recapping past reads with fun partner and class activities which shepherd the students into discussing what they have already read. Libby Heinig, a middle school language arts teacher in Plain City, OH, implements partner activities that do this. She often assigns the students reading partners and provides a fun casual environment for them to discuss the books which they are reading. She never assigns the class to all read the same book, but rather gives a genre requirement and allows the students to choose their own. Granted, a class of thirty each with a different bookmakes it more difficult for a teacher, but the students perform better under these circumstances. They do not have complete freedom of books though. Each student must ask Mrs. Heinig to approve his choice.