Inspiring Adolescent Readers...

Within the last week or so I have had the pleasure of reading two phenomenal articles about adolescent students having ownership in their reading and educational lives. In one article, Valerie Lee stresses the point of how we, as parents and teachers, should trust our adolescent learners to select their own reading text and transition from hovering to simply mentoring. I enjoyed reading this article because one of the main words that Lee used which stood out to me was trust. I truly believe that, teachers alone, do not allow ourselves to trust our students enough when it comes to their choice in the world of education. I have noticed myself struggling with the idea of trust in my classroom. Although my students are only in Kindergarten, they have adapted to my expectations quite well; however when the time comes for them to have choice in how to express their learning, I struggle with trusting them to meeting my expectations independently.

Using the concept of trust, Valerie Lee spoke about how to implement a sustained silent reading (SSR) in her high school class in order to allow students the time to simply read for enjoyment. I appreciated the fact that she was not judgmental of the students who brought in magazines of their hobbies such as traveling or hunting. She understood the importance of trusting them to make their own choices in their reading which eventually lead to their interest of reading novels of others topics.

 In addition to the first article, I also read an article which takes a closer look on the reading difficulties in adolescent learners and the interventions put into place in order to "help" students improve. Although I could relate to this article due to my professional experience of intervention put into place and failing; I could not help feeling bothersome because in each case discussed it seems as if the needs of these students were not being met. In addition to the needs of the students not being met, these students slip through the cracks, which could be avoided, because their parents are not being heard. I could appreciate that fact that the researchers of this article interviewed the students in order to get their thoughts on their reading struggles. This allows students the opportunity to have ownership of their education.