Frustrated Reading in Small-Groups

Michelle switched four books in four days.? On the fourth day, she selected Smack Dab in the Middle, a middle-grade novel.? Before then it had been Terrible Typhoid Mary, One True Place, and a picture book because she left her book at home. This was a shift from how she started off the year, reading traditional middle-grade novels with conviction. How much of this was an image?

Dani wasn’t reading much at all. From time to time, I take a “Status of the Class” to see how much students are reading in school and at home.? The inquiry sends me signals that alert me to their engagement with reading.? She’d now had the same book for two weeks with enough reading each day to suggest the only reading she experienced came during independent reading time.

Clara read 23 pages in three days.? Over the subsequent weekend, she added another 10.? 33 pages in six days, or 60 minutes in class with what was supposed to be another two hours at home.? Either way, after 33 pages in three hours, I knew she was over her head.? My guess is she “wasn’t reading at home” even if that meant 10-15 minutes every night. How could she?

Before I go further, please allow me to say, there is no one answer to determining the right instructional approach. At least in my opinion. We could blame it on socio-economic status. We could blame it on support at home. Turns out we can blame things like language development and a host of other issues that have come to light in recent years. Blaming solves nothing. Solutions mean everything.

My concern in this group was to help Dani find a way to see herself positively. I felt she deserved a (supportive) peer group that would help encourage her, which would start with managing and planning out her reading, thus scaffolding her ability to self-select books. Plus, the students needed support from someone with a vested interest in reading development. Since they had some commonalities, I grouped them so we could co-construct a path forward.

I had the students saddle up at the table to tell me about their lives to readers.? One might think I am looking for negatives to fester on. I’m not.? But I will admit that I am oriented to finding the origin of the problem, and consider the best solution.? In this case, I’m wondering why students were apathetic towards their reading engagement.?

The discussion followed:

Mr. Stygles: Yesterday, by my lead, we set goals of what we would read over the week. During the session, you (collaboratively) agreed to read the first four chapters.? Please, feel free to share how that went. Would anyone like to begin?

Dani: I didn’t get a chance to read last night. I wanted to because the book is interesting.

Michelle: Same.

Clara:? Mr. Stygles?? Why do you expect us to read for so long?? It feels like reading takes forever.? I just want to do something else.

As you can see, Michelle didn’t say much, at all. “Same” felt like a deflection of responsibility. By piggybacking off Dani, she adopted Dani’s thinking and actions, rather than his own. For me, this is always a cause for alarm.? Indifference or deflection represents a disconnection, the causes for the disconnection are my concern and something I need to explore more deeply.

I followed up by asking Dani, why she said “same.”? I almost wish I didn’t ask. She fired, “Mr. Stygles, I’m not interested in books like you. You’re the reading teacher. All anyone cares about is reading.? I hate it.? Why does everyone pressure me for it!”

We could argue she didn’t use appropriate boundaries to express her thoughts but what she said was important. The bigger issue is, why did I let this happen??

Maturing readers deal with a lot that goes beyond cognitive challenges. They’re beginning to navigate social capital, and self-perception, in addition to neurodiversity and executive functioning. Add in the balance between school life, home life, and well, integrating reading into their lives, never mind my advocacy, or constant promotion of independent, self-selected reading. While it’s great for some students, it’s damaging to others.? In a sense, these readers feel “othered,” contributing to the reading habits described above.

We reconvened as a group two days later. Dani had made more progress, though she wasn’t meeting her goal. I’ll be honest, language at this moment was key. I’m quite apt to say something like “What happened?” which has a negative connotation. Instead, I have asked, “What created the success?” Even though the success was not in meeting her reading goal, it was in that she read more.” Dani stated, “I’m trying to read for ten minutes each night. I do not like reading.? And I still don’t like that’s all you talk about.”? Oddly, the two other students started flashing their “same” hand signal.

There was no “I’m trying to be a better reader” “I’m reading more because I like it” or “I can feel myself becoming a better reader.”? There were no compliments headed my way.

It was a start.? As Clara followed, “It’s not easy to read alone. There are so many distractions. I want to read, but everything else gets my attention.”

Dani and her peers needed a long-term intervention more so than a one-off group. We’d work through self-selected books together, but we’d likely take on a common group text (the dreaded assigned reading) to scaffold their self-regulation to improve their self-perception.

Dani represents many readers who have never really been “seen” as a reader. She half-heartedly tried to read, but most often went about her way. It’s not like the content of the book left any significant impact on her. Whose is she reading for? What is she reading for?? She wasn’t reading for herself and that’s where our instructional shift, or intervention, would take us next. But first, it meant finding out what worked for her.

With small groups, and reading conferences alike, we must remember relationships and the comfort one feels to be vulnerable enough to share with a respected other takes time and courage. The courage to share deficits, transgressions, and shortcomings, yet, with the belief, that you, the teacher can help make a difference is an incredible leap of faith. They’re delicate to coordinate, sensitive to approach, and tough to maintain,? while constantly at risk of shattering a student’s self-perception. But this is what it takes to get our most reluctant readers, not to enjoy reading, but to take a step forward with the hope they can feel confident reading.