Reaching Reluctant Readers – Random House
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nc. Volume 1 • Issue No. 1 RAn Annual Magazine for EducatorsH I Focus On: Reaching Reluctant Readers New Teacher’s Guides for Struggling and Reluctant Readers Articles by Noted Authors: Terry Brooks, Billy Collins, Firoozeh Dumas, Nancy Rawles and Brian Strause Using Graphic Novels, Manga, Audiobooks, Gaming & More Reading Excerpts from New Titles Contents CONTRIBUTORS . 2 TEACHER TALK . 4 20 TEACHER’S GUIDES . 5 “You Got More of These?” Re-engaging Adolescent Readers and Writers with Meaningful Texts 56 by Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher . 7 Generating Enriched Literacy Experiences GENRE/MEDIA OFFERINGS . 55 for Older English Language Learners Nothing Beats a Good Story: Using the Works by Dr. R. Cipriani-Sklar . 14 of Louis L’Amour with Reluctant Readers Consider the Classics: Time-Tested Titles for by James Blasingame . 56 Even the Most Reluctant Readers Graphic Novels: A New Art Form by Rebecca Shapiro . 18 by Chris Schluep . 64 Winning Back Your Reluctant Readers Graphic Novels: Books that Matter by Pat Scales . 20 by Dr. Rocco Versaci . 67 Ten Ways to Build a Reluctant Reader Library Reading Manga, or How I Learned to by Monique Delatte and Deborah Anderson . 26 Stop Worrying and Just Love Reading Booktalking: Get Your Reluctant Readers to Listen Up! by Dallas Middaugh . 70 by Terrence Young, Jr., M.Ed., M.L.S. 28 Weave a Good Tale with Dungeons & Dragons® A brief overview of the game concept and history AUTHOR ARTICLES . 29 by Peter Berbergal . 77 Fantasy: Why in the World What Thrasher Magazine Means to Me Do Kids Read This Stuff? by Ryan Henry . 84 by Terry Brooks . 31 Young Adult Audiobooks: The Audio Answer When Reading Ain’t Natural: for Reluctant Readers My Jim, A “Talking” Novel by Tim Ditlow . 87 by Nancy Rawles . 38 Audiobooks & Literacy: An Educator’s Guide “It Doesn’t Take a Miracle. .” to Utilizing Audiobooks in the Classroom by Brian Strause . 40 by Dr. Frank Serafini . 90 Poetry Rocks: Inspire Your Students The Reluctant Reader, Gaming with Dazzling Poetry Selected by Environments, and the Future of America’s Best-Loved Poet Laurete Teaching and Learning by Billy Collins . 43 77 by Kate Wittenberg . 93 A Spoonful of Humor Gets the Pages Turning READING EXCERPTS . 101 by Firoozeh Dumas . 51 RANDOM HOUSE, INC. Academic Dept., 7-4, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019 e-mail: [email protected] tel.: 212-782-8482 Visit our website at: www.randomhouse.com/highschool Cover and Interior Designed by Timothy Shaner. Cover Image © Corbis. Printed in the U.S.A. 90 A Note From Your Friends at Random House “Kids say that the #1 reason why they do not read more is because they cannot fi nd books they like to read.” —Kids and Family Reading Report (June 2006), Scholastic/Yankelovich he quote above presents a deceptively simple observation of a truly complex challenge: understanding and countering students’ reluctance to read. When students claim they cannot fi nd the right book to read, Twhat factors determine whether any given book is “right”? Don’t tastes and suitability vary from student to student? Just how do adults help students fi nd, and actually read, the “right” books? With these questions in mind, we welcome you to RHI (for Random House, Inc., naturally!), the premier issue of a magazine for educators. As the cover states, this issue focuses on reaching reluctant readers. ~ More and newer forms of enter- tainment, media, and distractions vie constantly for students’ time; ultimately their attention is diverted from reading. As RHI’s contributors explain, however, many of your students’ extracurricular activities—reading comic books, listening to CDs, even playing video- games—need not be interests to be combated: they can instead become special opportunities, to be used as springboards to reading. Each section of RHI is introduced by a different member of our department—albeit via a superhero alter ego! Even with all of our special powers (does speed-reading count?), we cannot succeed in rescuing reluctant readers alone. Each section of this magazine therefore includes articles full of advice, instruction, experiences, and recommendations from leading authors, educators, librarians, editors, and other experts: professionals who either work with young people or produce literature or other materials for them. Their advice and ideas will help you make use of your students’ interests in various media to spark a lifelong interest in reading. We hope that RHI offers some new and helpful information and ideas. If you dog-ear this magazine, write in it, and use it as you see fi t, we will be gratifi ed. This issue of RHI was meant for you, the educator; it is our contribution to your efforts to reach your reluctant readers and to eliminate that “#1 reason,” that barrier to their reading success. P.S. All of the Random House, Inc. books mentioned throughout RHI may easily be ordered via the order form found in the center of the magazine. RHI: Reaching Reluctant Readers 1 Contributors Page 7 “You Got More of These?” by Nancy Frey and Douglas Fisher Re-engaging Adolescent Readers and Writers with Meaningful Texts. Use critical literacy and texts drawn from popular culture to fi ght the progressive disengagement of struggling teen readers. Page 20 Winning Back Your Reluctant Readers by Pat Scales Creating “a nation of readers” calls for a fl exible outlook as well as personal attention to students’ choices. Page 31 Fantasy: Why in the World Do Kids Read This Stuff? by Terry Brooks By changing the rules, well-written fantasy teaches reluctant readers lessons about life and about the power of possibilities. nc. RHRandom House, Inc. 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Academic Dept., 7-4, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019 e-mail: [email protected] tel.: 212-782-8482 Visit our website at: www.randomhouse.com/highschool KEY: HC = Hardcover TR = Trade Paperback MM = Mass Market 2 RHI: Reaching Reluctant Readers Page 38 When Reading Ain’t Natural by Nancy Rawles My Jim, A “Talking” Novel. An ALEX Award-winning author demonstrates that using texts which mimic the natural rhythms of speech can spark the interest of struggling students. Page 51 A Spoonful of Humor Gets the Pages Turning by Firoozeh Dumas When a book can make a reader laugh, says an Iranian-American writer, being a reluctant reader may only be a temporary condition. Page 56 Nothing Beats a Good Story by James Blasingame Using the works of Louis L’Amour with reluctant readers a teacher recounts how the use of western novels in his Boys Town classroom produced readers whose successes surprised even themselves. RANDOM HOUSE, INC. ACADEMIC MARKETING DEPT. MICHAEL D. GENTILE JOSH BLACK Associate Director Associate Marketing Manager Tel. (212) 782-8387 Tel. (212) 940-7334 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] LEILA LEE KAIULANI KANETA Marketing Manager Marketing Coordinator Tel. (212) 782-8927 Tel. (212) 829-6929 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Photo of Terry Brooks © Judine Brooks. Photo of Firoozeh Dumas Photo by Stephanie Rausser Photo of Nancy Rawles © Spike Mafford. Photo of Louis L’Amour by John Hamilton—Globe Photos, Inc. RHI: Reaching Reluctant Readers 3 Teacher Talk --------———————————–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––—––––––––————————--- I hate assigNiNg summer reading. Years ago, a study of reading habits reported that the best The English Department at our school, I’m glad to say, tries to assign readers at the high school level had read comic books when they were books that will be fun to read. young. I recalled that at the middle school I attended as a child, our When one of the designated books was Tim O’Brien’s The Things teachers tried to interest us in the classics by They Carried, one rising senior (age 18) read it and loved it, even giving us comic versions of Dracula and Fran- though he had never been much of a reader. In September he enrolled kenstein. Therefore, when I was volunteer at in my fi ction-writing class because we were using Things as a model. a library serving developmentally challenged One day he stayed after class to tell me he had read more of O’Brien’s kids, I added comic books to our library—in work. Once I see this kind of interest, I try to stoke it in little ways, to spite of our lack of a budget. keep the fi re going. I had a signed copy of one of O’Brien’s books that The older kids were grateful for the picto- I’d gotten at a reading, so I gave it to him. You would rial versions of books they’d been encouraged have thought I had given him gold. to read. Overall, however, the mad rush to the Perhaps, my favorite choice of all time was comic-book section of the library was motivated mostly by the latest Laura Hillenbrand’s Seabiscuit.