Literacy—October

Do you teach children or adolescents who are reluctant to read? Some of the manifestations of reluctance in deaf readers are the following:

• Some children are reluctant readers at school but not at home. And some children are reluctant readers at home but not at school.
• One of the major factors contributing to reluctance is related to the child’s notion of him/herself as a successful reader. In other words, it’s not whether the child is successful, it’s whether the child sees him/herself as successful.
• Another factor contributing to reluctance is how the significant adults around the child engage in reading. For example, one study showed that a child with parents who only engaged in job-related reading was a reluctant reader at home and school.
• Yet another factor is how the child views the place of reading in the classroom. In this same study, another child read a great deal at home but was reluctant at school. The researchers found that the reading center in the classroom was a place where children went to calm down when they were angry.
• Another factor is how much reading the child does at home or in school, the opportunity to engage in other types of activities, and the solitary nature of much reading. For example, some children who were reluctant to read set aside time, such as before bed, to read and preferred to engage in other, more social activities at school and home. When reading is viewed by children as a solitary activity, they may often avoid it to be with friends, whether in the classroom or at home.

Barbara R. Schirmer, Ed.D.
Kent State University
bschirmer@educ.kent.edu

 

Uploaded By: Debbie Slyh/Kent State University/Deaf Education Major