Encouraging Reluctant Readers in High School

One thing you can count on with high school students is that they crave connection and social acceptance. Along with a desire for connection with others, they long for meaningful content and high expectations from teachers. Giving them a lot of opportunities to engage and relate with their peers can also be a way to encourage reading.

Here are some ways I have found to work with students who are hesitant to engage with reading. These strategies have worked with grades 10–12.

Dedicated reading time with a twist

Start class with at least 10 minutes of silent sustained reading. Then, as appropriate, have students share with you or peers, or reflect on their reading. I try to center most of the reflection and sharing around their peers. I ask students to think deeply about the book they’ve been reading and create a metaphor related to it. For example, I ask them who the book would be if it were a person—and why. Or I ask them something related to their peers, such as which classmates would enjoy the book or dislike the book.

This allows them to show their understanding of their peers and the book they just read. When peers are brought into the mix, reluctant readers are more eager to engage with text. Of course, I am careful to do this only after peer relationships have been carefully built over time.

Local and data-driven articles with student facilitators

Look for online articles about your school or the town or city in which most students live. If you don’t have articles like that for your area, you can find relevant topics from Pew Research Center, which has data on teens’ views of the issues in their schools and is a great way to introduce data in an engaging way for students.

Have the students take turns reading one or two paragraphs aloud. Then prepare discussion questions around the articles. From the moment you begin the discussion, release control of the discussion to one student facilitator. You should rotate the student facilitator in later class discussions. At the start, it’s important to select students who have natural leadership qualities, so they can model what a strong facilitator looks like: one who is gentle and friendly when asking quiet students to speak; one who probes classmates to “say more” when they give short answers; and one who holds students accountable for their opinions, such as by asking for an example or asking for supporting evidence from the text.

I make a note of students whom I feel would be strong facilitators. A day before the discussion, I pull them aside and ask them if they will feel comfortable being the facilitator. I explain that they’ll be in charge of the class discussion so I can take notes, and that their role will be to elicit thoughtful, interesting comments from their peers, with clear evidence from either the text or personal observations, and to reread the discussion questions if a student asks.

I also tell them they will need to model patience, warmth, and kindness to everyone and, most of all, to display qualities of a leader who guides the discussion, not to find a single right or wrong answer, but to show the diverse opinions of the group.

The next step, which can be the hardest, is truly giving control to the facilitator. You should physically step back from the discussion circle and write down key points your students are saying. Occasionally, when students are modeling excellent collegial points, I make sure to praise the specific language they used so other students can then use that as well. But for the most part, I allow them to move the conversation to places that they want it to go. By stepping away, you allow students to begin to build strong relationships with each other and genuinely engage with the ideas in the reading.

Once the student facilitator has modeled excellent facilitation skills, I allow them to choose the next facilitator, so students feel it’s an honor to choose the next person and also to be selected, not by me, their teacher, but by a peer.

This builds a sense of caring and ownership in the discussion. Students want to be a part of the discussion and share insights that their peers think are interesting, unique, or noteworthy. Because students become motivated by talking about the text, they will usually start to be more motivated to read because it’s the way they can connect with their peers.

Short stories or poems with small reading groups

Once students have become accustomed to the dynamic of reading nonfiction texts and discussing them, I then have them break into small groups to read different types of fiction and poetry. I think carefully about the dynamics of each group. It’s important that the groups change often, so the readings are short, allowing the students to have a quick but intense discussion about the text. I assign brief analytical responses, which students can answer alone or as a group with one recorder (another rotating role), who then shares one group member’s response with the entire class. Because the students have started to learn the voice of each of their classmates, I have the class guess who said what.

This dynamic teaches the importance of having a voice, identifying a clear voice, and building peer relationships. I lean into this strategy because what motivates students is strengthening bonds with each other. Since there’s a performance element to this task, students don’t feel bored by the reading. And because the groups change often, students remain engaged in discussions with all of their classmates, rather than just their friend group.

As the task of reading becomes enjoyable, I extend readings to many pages and make the questions more complex. This can occur because, over time, students are more invested in one another and view readings as links to connecting with peers.