Here’s an interesting conversation in Teacher Magazine among members of the national Teacher Leaders Network about why students aren’t reading very much or very well.
To me, the issue is simple. If students were encouraged to read for pleasure, were allowed to choose their own reading material, and reading weren’t turned into a chore by making kids log what they read, answer questions about their reading, look up vocabulary words, etc., then students would read better and more. As I’ve said before, I wish every teacher were required to read, and then implement, the ideas from Nancie Atwell’s, The Reading Zone: How to Help Kids Become Skilled, Passionate, Habitual, Critical Readers.
Stop Homework 
Sigh. I agree. I’ve seen my son go from a voracious reader to reading because he has to for “AR points,” and assigned below grade level books that I consider drivel. Make someone do something and they’ll love the innate love of it. I can see that some kids might need extra incentive, but making even the best readers keep logs, have to do AR, etc. can be quickly turned off of reading.
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I meant to say, make someone do something and they’ll hate it! They will lose their innate love of reading…I’ve seen that with my son.
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I agree my son has to fill out a reading log every week. The teacher chooses a genre he doesn’t like he goes down in Litature
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Im 25 and out of school now. And now I love reading. My wife gets mad at me for reading so much. But I never read a book in high school- I never could get through them. They were boring, and I was sick of reading after elementary. 300 pages per 6 weeks in 3rd grade. 400/6 in 4th, 500/6 in 5th, and 600/6 in 6th. Boxcar children got really really old- but I had to do it. And I thought all books were boring by then.
Im sorry- Heart of Darkness might be a classic, but most of my classmates were just taught most books suck. Now I read good books because they are good and I like them.
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