ASSESSING ADOLESCENT MOTIVATION TO READ

ANSWER TO WHY OUR STUDENTS DO NOT READ

Pg 379

“When some students judge reading and literacy activities to be unrewarding, too difficult or not worth the effort because they are peripheral to their needs, they become non-readers…”

Here in lies the problem and one way to go about solving it. As expressed before, the nature of the content of school text in many cases plays a key role in determining whether or not our students engage in effective reading. Often, students don’t read because they find no beneficial reason to. Gone are the days when students who achieved academically were considered prestigious by their peers. Instead, the adolescent with the ‘street smarts’ who is knowledgeable and has access to the latest technological gadget is the one who is deemed worthy of notice. So, the interests of our students have changed which leaves the curriculum going in one direction; the pen, paper, textbook route and our students in another towards a more technological way of doing things .

The expectation of the teacher is to there fore find creative ways of tying in the interests of the students with meeting the objectives of the curriculum. No longer can the textbook, chalkboard, pen and paper suffice educating our young people.

We realize that our students do not enjoy reading school content text. In many case neither do we the teachers. The egocentric nature of our students allows them to only feel enthused about topics or issues that pertain to them, otherwise, they get board and we lose them in the classroom. This has been happening for so long now that when we look at the state of the literary competence of our learners we are devastated at the results. Change is difficult but oh so necessary if we have to save what is left of our school system.