It's All About The Book: Motivating Teens To Read

By Author: emaly su
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We just had the most fantastic teachable moment, or should we say hour, because that's when we shared book club time with 24 students we teach at Health Sciences High and Middle College.

A typical conversation that occurred among a group of our students as they discussed their book club selection went like this:

Mykia: If I could meet Sharon Draper, I'd hug her. She made me so excited to read a whole book.
Doumas: Yeah, it's like she knows us.
Dursa: Romiette and Julio [by Sharon Draper] is the best book I ever read. They act just like us.
Paola: I bet Sharon Draper has kids.
Paul: It says on the back that she teaches high school.
Mykia: There's even irony in this book. ...
... Dr. Lapp, didn't you say one form of irony is sarcasm

Malaka, my favorite character has so much sarcasm when she talks. She cracks me up. Listen to this. Malaka has just gone into Romiette's shop. She asked her if anything is new and Romi tells her they just got some new kente cloth dresses. Malaka asks Romi if her Mom gives her the clothes and Romi says, "Give You must be crazy! My mother is in business for the money.

She pays me for workin', so she expects me to pay for things I see and like. She takes it out of my check". Now listen to Malaka: '"From what I've seen you wear, you must not get a very big check,' Malaka laughed sarcastically". See what I mean. She says so many funny things. I was crackin' up so much when I was reading this that I had to read it to my mom because she asked me what was so funny.

Sarah: I think it's also ironic or irony that Romiette and Julio really are like Romeo and Juliet. Did you notice how the names and situations are so similar It makes me want to really read Romeo and Juliet. We were supposed to read that in ninth grade, but I didn't really do it.

Amanda: Dr. Fisher, I just couldn't quit reading the book so I finished it early.
Veronica: I did, too. We even called each other up on Sunday to talk about it.
Doumas: Paola: I think she wrote some other books we can read. Let's read all of them.
Dr. Lapp, instead of changing authors, can we read everything Sharon Draper's written

Like all teachers who have ever had their students ask "Can we read everything...," this was music to our ears. We probably would have responded affirmatively no matter what they had wanted to read because getting students engaged enough to want to stick with a text is often a daunting task for teachers, especially those who teach adolescents.

As we reflect on this conversation, we are convinced that the impetus for this level of engagement was that we followed the lead of our students when they asked if they could partner with us to choose the texts, the topics, and the assignments for their English class. Here are the details of how this happened.