Novel reading problem

How is his comprehension? I had to read all those things and was not resistant but I had a horrible time in terms of comprehending fiction. If he can’t understand ti then it is no wonder he is resistant. There are methods for assisting in comprehension. There are other ways of working on this mentioned in Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz. They would work evne if your child isn’t dxed dyslexic. One idea is to find a movie on the book. He sees the movie then has an idea who the characters are, what happens, etc.

—des

Des, He remembers seeing the movie of Hounds about two years ago on TV. He has to answer 4 or 5 comprehension questions for each chapter and he is doing all right with that (when he finally gets around to finishing the chapter). He says he’s not having a problem understanding (I’ve asked). He’s pretty slow in general—homework is stretched out for hours and hours but reading this novel has set a new low for productivity.

May be time to drag out the productivity arsenal — try the “small doses” first. Cajole him into reading for ten minutes (or five), with the rewarde being you’ll trade off paragraphs with him for the next five minutes. And do try to convince him of the rewards of self-discipline — that real men suck it up and do stuff even when they don’t want to, or something like that — something to get that ego tuned into it, though that message is probably more effectively delivered by somebody besides Mom :)

I don’t much like reading fiction myself. You could always get him the books on tape and let him listen to his assigned books and let him read and continue to grow his reading skills with the stuff he enjoys. I agree watching the film first might help him when it comes to reading the book. And why can’t he do his book reports on the non-fiction he reads?

Have you ever tried reading a page outloud to him and then having him read the next page and you the next and so on? Some people have luck with that approach.

Well, school stuff you just have to do. Try to get through to him that the sooner he holds his nose and does it, the sooner he will be through with it. Perhaps provide small rewards after a chapter is done in a timely fashion — say stay up for a TV show if it gets done and questions answered by 9, or whatever.

I would NOT recommend seeing the movie before reading a detective or mystery story — the whole point that keeps you slogging through the thickets of Victorian prose is trying to figure out the ending. If the teacher is one of those who believes in telling the whole story of the book before reading, this may be exactly what has turned him off reading. Sherlock Holmes and the puzzle story are chosen to be interesting to many boys just because they are puzzles to solve.

Lots of adults don’t care to read novels, or they read only certain kinds of novels. Many boys and men, as well as not a few of us women, only care for science fiction and/or detective puzzle stories; they/we like plot with beginning, middle, and end, which modern fiction tends to shun.

I well remember one book I had to read for a “recent Quebec fiction” class — I hasten to add that one of the other books is now a favourite and the three others were passable, it was not the entire class which was quite good — but this one book was absolutely the very worst stinking disgusting rotten thing I ever dragged myself through, all putrefying 582 pages of this offal. It took me to the very end of the class and the night before the exam to hold my stomach down long enough (literally) and I am a compulsive reader!
And then this fall a student had to read a “modern youth” novel, which was nearly as bad, alternately whining for pages and pages and then describing in positive terms behaviour which I cannot condone — lying, stealing, suggested suicide, alcohol poisoning, sex with strangers — and this book was given as required reading in a Grade 8 class! In this case as in several others I used the book to teach reading and pronunciation and vocabulary and grammar, and when we stopped at the end of a page and it came time for discussion, I made it clear that I thought it was a dreadful book, both badly written and from a point of view I do not support. The main character’s favourite expression was “I hate … ” and we made a joke of it, looking for how many things were hated per chapter, and reading the lines with great expression and enjoyment.
The point of this example is that while you have to do work, you don’t have to like it; and specifically in literature you may be inspired by, like, be bored by, or intensely despise any given piece of writing. It is important in essays and book reviews to make it clear that a negative opinion is perfectly valid, given only that you have demonstrable reasons to back it up. Finding reasons to disagree and writing a good bad review are healthy exercises and free up the student’s feelings and creative juices. Making fun of a novel requires reading it and comprehending it, even better than praising it will.
If the teacher has not learned this basic lesson number one of criticism and insists that all reviews be positive, first get a few pieces of writing about freedom of speech for her, and then complain to your principal and school board.

Victoria,
I think you may have nailed it—he told me several times about having seen the movie and knowing that one of the neighbors did it. I just didn’t connect this to his reluctance to read the book. But now it makes perfect sense. He’s still slow though in general and I’ll have to find ways to speed him up. By the way, thanks for giving me something to be grateful about today—a middle school teacher who assigns Doyle instead of teen angst novels.

Yes, be very grateful your teacher at least assigns literature that is literate!

Worse yet, the teen angst novel was in the student’s new language, and we had to translate each and every miserable word of it …

However, at the beginning he had to translate everything to understand a single word and we did two pages an hour, while by the end he was sometimes laughing before the translation and doing six or seven pages an hour, so yes, even non-literature can be used to some purpose, although I would still prefer stove fuel (and so would the student.)

Do keep in mind that there are some people out there who enjoy reading *more* if they already know how it’s going to come out (obviously not your son, and I’m not one of ‘em either by nature — but being envious, I *have* been inspired to go back and re-read books, and it’s fun when it’s good lit).

And yes, there’s so much Teen Angst Prose out there… librarians have noted that child lit is so much harder than it once was. Back in the day, yes, there were the “teen problem” books… but I knew how to avoid them and they didn’t seem to dominate the venue and they didn’t write them for ten year olds (or require them to read them). I’ve noticed that a certain kind of personality — and for some reason many of them become English teachers… or maybe it’s just that they’re the ones who survive their major and go on to perpetuate it — seems to think kids NEED to read these books to prepare them For TH e Harsh Real World. Gag.

THat said, I love Chris Crutcher’s books and if you are in a spot where you have to read a “teen problem” book… his books are about characters that tend to have “significant issues” — but it’s not The Plot of the book and the characters aren’t defined by The Problem Of The Day as we voyeuristically gaze upon them. Ironman is a great read, as is Staying Fat For Sarah Byrnes.

I echo the suggestion to get the fiction requirements on tape. My son and husband (both with dyslexia) absolutely hate reading fiction and absolutely love listening to fiction on tape/CD. They listen about 1/2 hour every day on the way to school and they both really enjoy it. Reading for the Blind and Dyslexic seems to have an enormous library, and lots of the more recent “classics” can be had pretty cheaply on e-bay.