The Idea of an Essay, Volume 3

Analysis & Response 127 If he has trouble finding one such book, they will go to the library together or scroll through the possible iBooks until they find one of proper difficulty and which he desires to read. Also, Mrs. Heinig has bean bag chairs, blankets, and other fun lounging accessories scattered throughout the classroom for the students to use while they talk to each other about what their books. They discuss why certain characters act certain ways as well as tones they noticed throughout their book. Each of these infuses fun into reading even for non- readers--it is an unusual atmosphere and students love it. Letting the student choose her own book and providing a fun place for them to read and discuss, allows the teacher to monitor the difficulty of the book and develop student interest in reading. Another way that teachers can combat inappropriate difficulty and literacy apathy through past reads is to help students with words which they read and did not understand. They can accomplish this through dictionary exercises, breaking down words as a class to their roots, or even memorization by means of illustrating the definition. Turning these ideas into games such as speed drills in a dictionary or class versions of Pictionary also accomplishes these goals. Libby Heinig uses a game she calls “Stump Your Classmates” to help her students learn words they did not know in their reading. Her students know to hunt for words they don’t understand or words they think their classmates would not understand while they read their books. For the activity in class then, she instructs a student to write one of these words on the board. The student then calls on his classmates who can guess what the word means. If a student in the audience can explain it, they get a piece of candy. If no one in the audience knows the definition, the student in the front explains it to the class and has successfully “stumped his classmates,” earning a piece of candy for himself. She says that this allows middle school students to be experts on words they have looked up and also causes them to tackle words they don’t know while they read (Heinig, Libby, Personal interview). Games like these allow students to tackle unknown words, helping them to conquer their particular reading level as well as develop a love of reading. Teachers can also keep assignments level appropriate and foster a love for reading by exploring current reads with their students. The best way for them to accomplish this is to promote reading in the classroom. The teachers can “talk up” books that they