The development of good reading skills is a lifetime pursuit that hopefully begins in infancy. Some people pick up reading easily and seem to have inherent reading comprehension skills. Others labor through early reading and resist reading for pleasure because they don’t seem to “get much out of it.”

In this post we’ll look at some of the struggles of poor readers and what you can do as a parent, teacher, or tutor, to help your students to improve their reading skills and learn to love literature.

Poor Readers Struggle with Decoding
What exactly is “decoding”? Decoding is the ability to apply what you know about language structures to sounding out unfamiliar words. This is an especially important skill for new readers to develop because they encounter unfamiliar words so often.

Students with decoding struggles benefit from reading aloud in a safe setting. They may feel intimidated by reading aloud in front of a group, but reading one-on-one can be an especially good way to find specific decoding problems and address them. For instance, a student might read the word “pheasant” as “peasant” because the “ph” is not recognized as using the /f/ sound. This gives you an opportunity to fill a hole in the student’s understanding that will be helpful every time he comes across “ph” in the future.

Practicing spelling can be another good way to help students with decoding problems. Middle and high school students can benefit from spelling tests as much as elementary school students, but spelling is often considered to be a lower-grade activity. Use the vocabulary words in the Tolman Hall study guides for spelling tests, and students will concentrate more on the construction of words. This helps to improve decoding.

Poor Readers Often Lack Background Knowledge
It can be extremely frustrating to embark on the reading of a book without any background knowledge of the setting, historical events, and other key information. As a teacher or parent, you can help set the stage by talking about the book ahead of time. If the book contains unfamiliar vocabulary, talk about those words before your student gets to them. For example, in Number the Stars, it would be difficult to understand what’s going on without a little background about Europe, World War II, the Nazis, and the Holocaust.

Introduce this book by getting out a map and exploring Copenhagen, Denmark. You could even give your students some time to roam around the streets via Google Earth. Explain the issues at stake during World War II and the great dangers faced by European Jews during these years. Explore the map a little more so your student knows where Sweden is and what obstacles there would be if you were trying to travel from Denmark to Sweden. All of this information will help your student to visualize the book’s action and better understand the story.

Poor Readers Struggle to Recognize a Text’s Organization
Reading an entire novel is difficult for readers who struggle to recognize a text’s overall organization. You can help students to improve these skills by reviewing what has happened so far in the plot. For example, before your student moves on to Chapter 5 of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, review what they’ve read already:

TEACHER: “Okay, do you remember what happened to the Logan kids when they were walking to school?”
STUDENT: “They got splashed with mud by the bus.”
TEACHER: “Right, so then what did they do about it?”
STUDENT: “They dug the big hole and the rain made it even bigger and the bus got stuck.”
TEACHER: “Good. And then in Chapter 4 we learn about the history of the Logans’ land, right? What did we learn?”
STUDENT: “Harlan Granger’s family used to have it, and he wants it back. But if they want it so bad, why did they sell it in the first place?”

If this is the way your conversation has gone, you’ll be in a good place to fill a gap in the student’s understanding. Some stories have complex, adult concepts in them (like this one). You may have to spend some time explaining about the loss of value of Confederate money, the need to pay taxes on property, and the harsh realities of the Great Depression. Most kids will not understand these concepts unless an adult explains them. Talking about the story as you go along will help poor readers to stay engaged, and if you’re the one who starts the conversations, they can save face by not always having to admit that they don’t understand something.

Poor Readers Don’t Reflect on What They’ve Read
Phew. Got through that book.

Reading an entire book can feel like climbing a mountain to a struggling reader. Kids who don’t like reading often want nothing more than to return that book to the library and never see it again. But you’ll do them a favor in the long run by encouraging some reflection. It will make connections in their brains that will help make the next mountain climb a little easier.

Our Tolman Hall study guides include a variety of end-of-unit projects for this purpose, and many of these projects have little to do with reading and writing. While essays and written research projects are great for some kids, struggling readers may get more out of artistic, scientific, or performance projects. As long as your struggling readers are still thinking about the story, the concepts are still gelling. The story as a whole is still getting some of their attention, and they’re increasing their abilities to hold complicated stories and ideas in their minds.
The following are a few end-of-unit project ideas from Tolman Hall study guides:

• Dioramas depicting favorite scenes
• The development of secret codes like those used in World War II
• Map-making to show the route of the characters in the story

These and many other projects can give struggling readers an alternative way to connect with the story and continue to ruminate on its themes, characters, plot, and language.
For more information about how our study guides can help your struggling readers, get in touch with us at Tolman Hall, or get a copy of our latest study guide for your next unit study.

The way literature is taught has changed dramatically in the last 50-80 years, and some now say that most Humanities curriculum is infused by one ideology or another. I’ve seen this myself. When one of my kids was taking an English course at the local public school, the students were asked to explain why Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness was racist. The worst part of this assignment is that they didn’t actually read the classic novel. They were simply given a few short excerpts and asked to explain why the novel was “racist” based on these few excerpts.
 
If the students had actually read the novel, they would have been able to use their own minds to explore a deeply psychological plot line and some intriguing characters. They would have been able to experience what it was like to travel through an African jungle on a steamboat a century ago (the author actually did this, so he knows all about it), and they would have been able to explore the symbols, imagery, allusions, and other masterful literary devices employed by the author. They could have admired the literary genius of this Polish author who wrote the book in his second language–no small feat.
 
Instead, they were asked to condemn it outright. Why would any of them bother reading Heart of Darkness after learning from their teacher that it was racist? And by extension, why would they ever pick up another one of Conrad’s nearly two dozen books, which include collaborations with other leading authors of the day, such as Henry James, Edith Wharton, Stephen Crane, and Ford Madox Ford?
 
It’s baffling that teachers of the Humanities would undermine their chosen academic subject and ruin it for the next generation. That’s why it’s so important to find curriculum that respects and deals honestly with literature.
 
When students come away from a literature unit study, they should have an expanded worldview, an increased respect for language, and a better understanding of how authors use literary devices to tell a story. All of this learning should lead to improved writing skills for the student. As we study the great writers, we learn about how ideas can be effectively developed and conveyed, and we also increase our vocabularies and powers of description.
 
Essentially, the study of literature should help students to learn how to think, not what to think. Curriculum that includes leading questions and personal assumptions (“tell me why this book is racist”) leads to the closing of minds rather than the opening of minds. If there’s anything we need now it’s young people with open minds who have the ability to think for themselves and recognize the good and the beautiful in the world around them.
 
There is so much to learn from literature. Using the previous example of Heart of Darkness, students could study it on many levels. They could analyze its frame story structure and compare it to other works written in the same format. They could talk about point of view and how the story would have been very different if it had been written from the 3rd person or from another character’s viewpoint. They could talk about the world in which the author lived and how his personal experiences affected his fiction. They could study Conrad’s imagery and practice imitating it in their own writing.
 
However you choose to teach your students, be conscious of the intentions behind the curriculum. Does the curriculum aim to help students love literature for literature’s sake and to use their reading to open their minds to new knowledge and skills? Or does the curriculum aim to get students to see only certain things and to think only in certain ways?
 
Dr. Camille Paglia
If you want your students to be lifelong readers and to develop the skills necessary to think, write, and act for themselves, introduce them to good books, and make your introduction an honest and respectful one. Dr. Camille Paglia expressed her concern about “the total inability of students to assess whether something is solid, dubious, or whether it’s a joke or a scam. People who’ve worked with books have the ability to do that.”
 
Give your students the ability to think for themselves by choosing literature curriculum that respects students, authors, and knowledge.

You have all kinds of friends who tell you all kinds of stories. Some people are more exacting and others exaggerate. Some always leave out certain details when they talk or consistently portray certain people in certain ways. We know what to trust and what to take with a grain of salt because of our experiences with our friends.
 
But do we know when we can trust the narrators of the novels and stories we read? I love reading stories with unreliable narrators because they really make me think. One of my favorite books that includes an unreliable narrator is We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson.
 
At the beginning of the story, we don’t have any reason to distrust the story’s narrator, Merricat Blackwood. But as the story goes on, we start to notice that things don’t always add up, that Merricat’s perceptions may not exactly jive with reality. As the readers start to make this realization, they have to think back to everything they’ve learned so far and sift through the evidence. In effect, the literary device of the unreliable narrator turns readers into detectives, and that’s a very effective way to draw them even closer into the action of the story.

A Separate Peace by John Knowles
John Knowles’ classic A Separate Peace is set at a New England boys’ boarding school during World War II. Like all teenagers, they have to face the challenges that come with growing up and moving beyond the world they’ve always known. But this particular generation of boys must also grapple with war, fear, and uncertainty.
 
The narrator is Gene Forrester, and he’s telling the story from the vantage point of experience. When the story opens, Gene is visiting his old school about 15 years after the events of the story take place. He’s thinking back to a time that was both golden and glowing as well as tragic and scary.
 
Every now and then, grown-up Gene jumps back into the story to give us some commentary in a nostalgic, adult way. And then the narration returns to the 1940s and the concerns of the school boys.

Is Gene an Unreliable Narrator?
In order to answer this question, we have to take a step away from the story and ask what makes a narrator unreliable? When are you less objective when you’re telling a story? Can you be truly objective about a person who is one of your closest friends or relatives? Do people at funerals seem to be very objective about the person they’re eulogizing? Can you really be objective when you’ve just had a big shock or when you find the world is different than what you thought it was?
 
When it comes right down to it, no one can be truly objective all the time. This is because we’re human, and our emotions and limited perspectives influence the way we see events and people.
 
In Gene’s case, he is dealing with some pretty heavy issues (which I won’t go into in detail just in case you haven’t read the book yet). Even as an adult, his perceptions of the events and people of his high school years will surely cloud his ability to be objective. While he doesn’t seem to be the kind of character who would intentionally mislead anyone, he might not be able to see his friends as others would see them.

More Stories with Unreliable Narrators
If you enjoy stories told by unreliable narrators (like I do), you might want to try these YA books:
 
I Am the Cheese by Robert Cormier
Rebecca by Daphne de Maurier
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
Invisible by Pete Hautman
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

A Separate Peace Tolman Hall Guide is Coming Soon
There may not be a better novel out there for teaching young readers about symbolism. If you’re looking for a great novel that introduces symbolism on many levels, get your hands on a copy of Tolman Hall’s new literature unit study for A Separate Peace.
 
Written in 1959, this novel is extremely relatable to teenagers. The characters grapple with fitting in, making decisions, dealing with their own jealousies and insecurities, and wondering what to do with their lives. At the same time, the setting is foreign and intriguing to many readers and offers an intimate glimpse into an interesting time and place.
 
Get a copy of A Separate Peace and a Tolman Hall literature unit study for three to four weeks of quality literature curriculum. Schedule your unit for the January. It will be ready for you by then.

What good does it do your students to be able to recognize literary devices? Isn’t it enough to read and enjoy a story without having to analyze it to pieces?

These are good and fair questions, and sometimes what your students will need most is to just read a book and enjoy it without having to write about it or even discuss it with others.

But there is real value in learning to recognize literary devices. First off, your students will learn the language of literature. For instance, the more they know about symbolism, the more they will enjoy finding it in what they need. They’ll feel as if they’ve cracked the code. And in a very real way, they will have done just that.

Secondly, they’ll learn how to use literary devices in their own writing. Their writing will become more powerful when they can employ imagery, irony, alliteration, and other devices that convey their ideas in clear and poignant ways.
In this post, we’ll talk about foreshadowing and how you can help your students to recognize it when they see it.

Use Films as Examples of Foreshadowing
Instead of simply explaining foreshadowing to your students, why not show them an example from a favorite film?

Foreshadowing is frequently used in television and film to increase suspense and interest. For instance, you could show them the scene in Jurassic Park when the main characters are descending into the valley. Dr. Grant discovers that he has two female ends to his seatbelt, and he can’t figure out how to fasten it.

Eventually, he ties the seatbelts together to make them work. How does this scene foreshadow what will happen later on in the movie? Details become more interesting when you look for and find meaningful details.

Here’s another one: In That Thing You Do, Jimmy and Lenny go to the appliance store early in the movie to see their friend Guy Patterson, who becomes the drummer in their band. As they watch one of the televisions in the store, Lenny says, “My grandma and I watched this. Three weeks, we’ve been watching it and last week, she realizes there’s strings. They’re puppets.” Jimmy says, “Yeah, they’re marionettes. That’s what they are.” Anyone who is familiar with the rest of the movie knows that these characters end up being puppets for the record producers and managers who co-opt the young band for their own purposes. It takes them much longer than three weeks to see the puppet strings that entangle them.

Foreshadowing = A Crystal Ball
Some kids (and adults) are tempted to read the last page of a novel when the conflict and tension heat up. You can explain to your students that finding the foreshadowing in a story is like using a crystal ball to see the future–you don’t even have to skip ahead to the last page to get a glimpse of the ending.
Good readers like to make guesses about what will happen later on in the book and then find out if they were correct.

Many authors leave clues in their writing like breadcrumbs for readers to follow. As readers find these breadcrumbs, they become like detectives, sifting through evidence to come to conclusions. Not only is this exercise highly satisfying, but it also helps to develop analytical thinking skills.

Looking for Patterns
Sometimes, foreshadowing is used in a methodical and direct way. Take The Storytellers by Laurisa White Reyes, for example. In this novel, an older woman tells stories about her parents to the young protagonist. As the story proceeds, it becomes clear that the older woman’s stories foreshadow events that will happen to the young listener. After a few of these episodes, readers start to watch the pattern closely to see if the story will continue to follow the arc of the foreshadowing.

Tolman Hall has released a literature unit study for The Storytellers. You can learn more about foreshadowing and many other literary devices through this unit study as well as other Tolman Hall curriculum guides.