by John Schaidler

Adapted from a discussion with parents at Salk Middle School (a Manhattan public school) by Dr. Mary Ehrenworth, Columbia Teachers College.

According to Dr. Mary Ehrenworth, one of the foremost experts on teen literacy, there is a direct, quantifiable relationship between a child’s ability to read and his or her overall academic success. The correlation is so strong, in fact, that even the most basic reading test can usually predict a student’s SAT scores—both verbal and math—with surprising accuracy. Not that it’s surprising to Dr. Ehrenworth. As students get older, she points out, they’re expected to read and comprehend longer, more complex works, everything from the proverbial 400-page “classic novel” to daunting 15-pound science textbooks. If they can read well, great, but if they can’t, they won’t keep up.

Unfortunately, students receive almost no reading instruction beyond sixth grade. Teachers simply expect students to keep up with hours of assigned reading per day with little patience—much less assistance—for those who can’t. Sounds like a losing battle, but it’s not, because whether their children admit it or not, parents are still their primary influence and there’s a lot parents can do to help their teens become better readers.

First, it’s important to know the three main components of reading: rate, volume, and comprehension.

A slow reading rate can be one of the biggest stumbling blocks. Slow readers take longer to do their homework, tend more often to forget what they’ve read, and are easily overwhelmed by seemingly endless chapters in seemingly endless books.

Luckily, improving reading rate is also the quickest and easiest fix. The more you read, the faster you read. It’s that simple. And reading anything will do the trick: sensationalized tabloid articles about man-eating tigers, fantasy football magazines, trashy romance novels—anything. Exploit your child’s hobbies, obsessions, or interests by finding reading material that taps into her passion. It’s not the time or place to question what she’s reading, just keep her turning pages. Reading rate will improve in no time.

Reading volume, or endurance, is also a relatively easy hurdle to overcome. Dr. Ehrenworth likens it to becoming a better distance runner: just do it. You would never run a marathon without training first; reading is no different. Your child isn’t going to suddenly start reading four hours every night, he’s got to work his way up.

This is where you come in. Carve out time every day to read with or in front of your child. Relaxing as it may be, don’t read alone during your precious “me time”; grab a book or a magazine and lounge around with your kid. “If your child doesn’t consistently see you reading,” Dr. Ehrenworth says, “you’re sending a subtle message that it isn’t actually important, it’s just another annoying task like emptying the dishwasher or mowing the lawn.” Middle schoolers should be reading at least one hour per night, about two hours for ninth and tenth graders, and between three and four hours for juniors and seniors.

Reading comprehension is perhaps the most difficult skill to improve. Still, there’s plenty a parent can do. For starters, gauge your child’s reading level by having her read aloud. If she can’t read a passage smoothly, with expression and inflection, she doesn’t really get it. Choose an easier book and make sure she’s mastered that before moving on. Like increasing rate and volume, improving comprehension is a deliberate, step-by-step process. It doesn’t happen overnight.

Reading books in a series is a great way to improve over time. As the series progresses, the story gets more complicated. Find a series your child particularly likes and encourage him to stick with it all the way through to the end. Dr. Ehrenworth finds many of the most popular fantasy series particularly helpful. “Fantasy worlds are complex,” she says, “with their own sets of rules and logic. He doesn’t know it yet, but your child is making connections—understanding and tracking cause and effect—across hundreds, even thousands, of pages. Readers who learn to do this early are much better equipped to make similar connections in a cumbersome college textbook.”

Another easy—if somewhat sneaky—way to improve your child’s comprehension is to get her to talk and write about what she’s reading. Show an active interest in book choices and start asking questions: Who are the main characters? What’s the setting? What it is about? If your child seems confused or forgetful, encourage her to go back and reread the text. Ideally, she should jot down notes, questions, and comments every chapter or so. Several studies have shown that writing even the simplest notes while reading greatly improves retention, and better retention means better comprehension.

No matter what, remember that every child is a reader. “If a child says, ‘I don’t like to read,’ ” says Dr. Ehrenworth, “they’re simply telling you there’s a problem. The book is too hard or too easy, or simply not interesting to them. Give them the right level book, on the right topic or with the right story, they’ll read it and ask for another.” And that leads to academic success.

More Ideas for Parents and Their Teens
Beyond Harry Potter and Percy Jackson: A New Generation of Fantasy Series

The Hunger Games trilogy, by Suzanne Collins

Teen “tributes” from the twelve districts of Panem (the former USA) battle to the death on live television in the annual “Hunger Games,” but a rebellion is brewing and a young hero emerges. Interview with Suzanne Collins.

Uglies trilogy, by Scott Westerfeld

At age sixteen every child undergoes compulsory surgery to become a “Pretty,” the uniform and idealized standard of beauty. Young protagonists Tally and Shay disdain this life of conformity and discover a colony of like-minded conscientious objectors.

Maze Runner trilogy by James Dashner

Sixty teen boys subsist in a completely enclosed environment with no memory of the outside world, Suddenly, a comatose girl arrives with a strange note and their world begins to change.

Incarceron and Sapphique, by Catherine Fisher

Prisoners are born, live, and die in the self-sustaining Incaceron. Legend says only one man has ever escaped. Young Finn is determined to be the second.

The article “Fresh Hell,” by Laura Miller in the New Yorker (June 14, 2010), discusses the boom in “dystopian” fiction and how it helps teens process their conflicting emotions. Search: Newyorker.com.

 

A former Loft Mentor Series winner in fiction and Loft youth instructor, John Schaidler has written everything from TV commercials, to bus shelter ads and children’s plays. He’s also written numerous one-man shows and monologues that he’s performed at the Minnesota Fringe Festival, Balls Cabaret, the Minnesota State Fair and on KFAI Radio. He currently lives in New York.