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Connecting with students who are disinterested and inexperienced
William G. Brozo
Throughout my time as editor of this department I have been an unwavering advocate for strategies and practices that build upon what students already read, know, and like to do outside of school, linking those interests to classroom topics and texts. While my conviction remains as strong as ever, that students will become engaged readers and learners when those links are made, I feel compelled to respond to a growing number of teachers' concerns related to my admonitions to tie students' interests and competencies to school learning. Put simply, here is what teachers are asking me: How can we connect with students' interests in reading and other subject areas when they tell us they don't read anything and aren't interested in anything? How, indeed? I'll offer an answer by way of an extended anecdote about my encounter with Omar (all names in this article are pseudonyms), a young man I tutored in a university reading center I directed.
When I asked Omar, an 11-year-old fifth grader, about the kinds of reading and literacy activities in which he engages outside of school, this is what he said:
- We don't have books and stuff like that at my house. And we don't have a computer either... I don't have computer games or anything like that.
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Connecting with students who are disinterested and inexperienced