I was 14 years old in 9th grade when they slapped Great Expectations down in front of me and said I was going to have to read it. I didn’t read it and they couldn’t make me. I tried to read it, but I quit. To my 14-year-old self, that book was awful, and reading it was not something that I was going to do. I didn’t care at all about Pip or his benefactor. I also resented the fact that someone was forcing me to read something without explaining its relevance or why. Pip was the beginning of my resistance to school reading.

If you’re a lover of Great Expectations, please don’t be offended. I did read it later in life. I never actually liked it and still don’t, and that’s ok.

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What My English Class Got Wrong

I had always really enjoyed reading before Pip came into my life. My mom worked hard to make sure of that. She read to me nightly and did all the things great moms do, like making sure my subscriptions to Sports Illustrated for Kids and Sports Illustrated were always paid for.

But just a few chapters into Dickens’ “masterpiece,” I realized I wasn’t okay with some old person somewhere deciding I had to read about a kid named Pip and his benefactor in the 1800s. I also hated how my high school English classes approached any novel. It was an exercise in memorizing facts and spitting them out on paper. My English class taught me to hate reading. I later became an English teacher in an attempt to change that model, which was the beginning of my journey to fight against the educational norm.

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How I Found My Way Back to Reading

Fast forward 30 years, and I’m working hard to get kids to love reading. I’ve recovered from my Great Expectations experience, and I truly love to read. The truth is, I never stopped reading. I just decided during my teen years that what my school wanted me to read was awful, and I preferred to read things that I actually liked. Now if you read that and you’re thinking, Miles, the good students read the classics anyway, you’re wrong. Maybe a few do. But most of them fake it by learning about the book and cheating their way through. That’s the truth.

As an aside, I wouldn’t recommend making 14-year-olds read about Pip or his benefactor in the year 2025 any more than I’d recommend it in 1995.

So if you don’t want your students to hate reading, which is exactly what schools often do, check out The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller and the 40 Book Challenge.

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Why We Need to Rethink How We Teach Reading

I read The Book Whisperer last summer. It’s a terrific book that offers a powerful perspective on how reading is taught in schools. If you read one book this summer, consider this one. And don’t worry. I’m not forcing you to read it. That would go against everything that I and the message of the book stands for.

If you haven’t read it, I highly recommend checking out The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller.

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The 40 Book Challenge: A Better Way

I took the 40 Book Challenge idea from The Book Whisperer and applied it to the school I led this past year. I challenged the entire school, staff, and students to read 40 books throughout the year. And we had many students who actually did it, which is awesome.

The number 40 sounds huge at first. And for many people, it is. There are students and adults across the country who have never read One book. And there are so many more who simply don’t enjoy reading.

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What the Numbers Say About Reading Today

Despite most school districts including “lifelong learning” in their mission statements, the majority of people don’t become lifelong readers.

Only 14 percent of 13 year olds read for fun daily, down from 35 percent in 1984.
And 46 percent of adults didn’t read or listen to a single book last year. We are so focused on reading skills that we forget the purpose of why we are teaching the skills in the first place.

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The Real Problem With How We Teach Reading

As teachers and researchers rack their brains to discover new ways to increase reading fluency and comprehension, I ask, what’s the point?

Whatever you’re doing, whether it’s the science of reading or drilling sight words until kids can’t keep their eyes open, you might be teaching students to hate reading. It’s like drilling piano lessons into someone for 13 years only to have them hate music and never play the piano again.

We must move as fast as possible away from this approach. We need to ask why students and adults aren’t reading. Many of the answers lie in the way we teach reading.

Any real reader knows the magic that can come from a great book, including the genuine feeling of being connected to characters and authors, like you’re one with the pages. The feeling that comes from being so immersed in a text that you forget that the world around you is happening. Or, after you’ve finished a boo,k the way that the world has changed never returns to the way you saw it before you opened the pages. That’s what we need to teach.

What You Can Do Next

The Book Whisperer by Donalyn Miller shows us the way. Consider checking it out this summer and try launching your own 40 Book Challenge in your classroom or school next year.

I did read over 40 books this year because I wasn’t about to lay down a challenge I wasn’t willing to meet myself. It was fun to record every book I read throughout the year.

I’ll share my reading list and a few of my favorite highlights in a future post.

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Join the Conversation

I’d love to hear your story. What’s your experience as a reader, either as a student or a teacher? Drop a comment below and share your perspective. Have you tried the 40 Book Challenge? Are you thinking about it? Let’s start a conversation about what really works when it comes to helping students fall in love with reading.

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