Getting Kids Excited to Read (Sarah)

In my first year at WMHS, I had a particularly challenging 10th grade class. There was a very strange dynamic of the apathetic, rigid thinkers, and goal-driven students. I really struggled to engage them in reading. Since they were so driven by what was relevant, only wanting to learn about “life now” or “what would help them right now”, I devoted a day each week to critically discussing current events. 

I quickly noticed that local or state events were easy hooks to engage kids, but national or international events seemed too far away. During the Flint, Michigan water crisis, I felt they really needed to discuss the impact this negligence had on the people. I set up a pre-reading activity to draw them in and bridge a connection to think more globally about others. I created a scenario in which they “heard” at a school assembly that the drinking water in the school was contaminated with lead, and had been for awhile. I described in brief detail a scenario that really amped them up. They started looking into the effects of lead poisoning, etc., all before I passed out the news article about Flint. One student even shared he had suffered from lead poisoning as a kid, and shared a little about how that affects him. The students were respectful, engaged citizens that day I think because they had the opportunity to bridge their thoughts from self to world.