Blame it on "Rise and Read," a program where my eighth graders get a chance to read with kindergarten students.  Or perhaps it was the fact that we spent fifteen minutes in the library and I allowed the lowest level readers to pick a few books with more pictures and graphics (like comic books or non-fiction books on lizards), but we turned a corner in reading.

In the first week of school, many students resented silent reading.  A few enjoyed it from last year, but others found it hard to concentrate.  They gradually moved from bitterness to a general sense of finding it a tolerable chore.  Still, I had students asked why we didn't get stickers or coupons or names on a wall and I told them it was because reading is inherently rewarding.

So today, when a student complained, "Why are we stopping?  I was just getting into my book," after twenty minutes, I asked the students if they wanted another twenty minutes.  The hands shot up.  They read.  Silently.  Calmly, but with a certain level of excitement.

It confirms two almost contradictory ideas in teaching.  Sometimes you have to force students to do something that is inherently rewarding in order to get them to feel like it's not forced upon them.  It makes little sense, I realize.  However, students need a forced detox sometimes before they can find the enjoyment they once had when they picked up a book.


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