Daily Tips for Families

Today's Tip for Families

12-18-2022

Short Works Can Motivate Reluctant Readers

By the time they are teens, most students can read ... but many of them don't. Too many teens never learn to see reading as something they can do for fun.

Pleasure reading is an important way students can strengthen their reading skills. To encourage your teen to read for pleasure:

Suggest trying short works—collections of short stories or poems. If your teen doesn't like one poem or story, it's OK to move on to another. There's no rule that says your teen has to read every short story in the collection.
Encourage a routine. Ask your teen to commit to spending at least 20 minutes a day reading. Reading requires some patience—especially older works.
Encourage your teen to keep reading once started. Some teens stop to look up every word they don't know and soon lose any understanding of what the overall book is about. Unless a word reappears often—and your teen can't understand it—suggest jotting it down and continuing to read. Later, your teen can look up the meanings of unfamiliar words.
Suggest skipping prefaces and other introductory material by other authors. These can sometimes be long and confusing. Your teen can go back and read them after finishing the main text of the book, when they will make more sense.
Look for other books by writers your teen likes. Your student may also enjoy reading biographies of favorite authors.

Brought to you by:

Nye County Schools
Pahrump, NV

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