After 40 years of teaching, I have retired from the classroom with many lovely memories, a few embarrassing regrets, and loads of acquired insight into what teaching is really about.
In short snippets, I am sharing some of these insights with you in the coming weeks. This is #7.
There Is a Book for Everyone – They Just Need to Find It
Some students say that they don’t like reading or that they even hate it. The reason is most often the same: They find it difficult, in one way or another.
My standpoint has always been that my task as an English teacher is to give the students opportunities to learn the English language despite whatever other problems they may encounter at school or in their learning.
From research, I know that reading is the best way of learning a language, so first and foremost I have tried to help my students find books that are easy enough to start with. I especially remember a group of girls in the 7th grade, whom I let borrow children’s books from the library. They were very simple, very short, and with a lot of pictures. There was a pile of them on one of the desks in the classroom and in one lesson they managed to read several. The joy they showed was indescribable when they could count how many books they had read.
Sometimes it’s not the difficulty of the language that is the problem. There was a boy who had difficulty concentrating on following a narrated story. He borrowed a non-fiction book about something he was interested in. The book had a lot of pictures and short passages of text, so it was not too overwhelming for him and he could learn facts about the topic he enjoyed.
Some research a long time ago pointed out that one could learn a language only by listening. At the time I had a 6th-grade class with a lot of behavioural issues. Leaning to the research results I decided to dedicate one lesson a week to reading a book to them, just to keep them calm and quiet. When I suggested this, they first said no, because they didn’t think I could possibly choose any good book. So, of course, I let them choose: Misery, by Stephen King (abbreviated). They were right. I would never have chosen that book. I didn’t even wish to read it myself, but I did.
I thought the language would be too difficult for them, so I started by reading some chapters beforehand, and then I would read and tell them what was happening. No way. They realised I wasn’t actually reading every horrible word in the book, so I had to give in.
After a lesson or two, I started doubting that they had understood it and that they all actually enjoyed it, so I had them write to me about what had happened and what they thought of it. The results were staggering. They all knew the story and no one found it too horrifying, not even the timid girls.
Nowadays, there are loads of Audiobooks that can do the reading for you. I once had a group of autistic students and one of them, at the age of 16, had only learned to read a year or two ago. To read an English book by himself took too long, so he enjoyed listening to Audiobooks, instead. As a curiosity, I’d like to tell you that in the same group there was a boy who did nothing but read – in English – all the time, every lesson, every break, whenever possible.
After all these years, my experience says there is a book for everyone. They just need to find it.
In WebEnglish, there are loads of suggestions for books for all levels to buy for the class, or to read and/or listen to online.