I Won't Read and You Can't Make Me: Reaching Reluctant Teen Readers

by Marilyn Reynolds

Marilyn Reynolds has brought many disaffected, school-hostile, and wholly unmotivated students into the ranks of lifelong readers. In this concise, practical book, she shares techniques she has used and personal anecdotes that reveal much about reluctant readers and teachers who struggle daily to engage them. Among many other key topics, Reynolds In addition to insightful analysis, Reynolds devotes a good portion of her book to practical, immediately usable resources, including answers to frequently asked questions, prompts for teaching, and a separate section of "Tricks of the Trade" with logs, forms, an extensive list of "hit" books, and much more. Read Reynolds and offer your reluctant readers the gift of a reading habit.

Genres: Education, Nonfiction

144 pages, Paperback

First published February 11, 2004

Reviews

[Liz Whittaker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quick read for my Teaching English methods class this semester, so it's academic, but I was inspired by it. Marilyn Reynolds is a YA fiction writer and has worked in alternative high schools for at-risk teens, teaching English. She set up her English classes based solely on reading for pleasure. Her objective as a teacher was to create life-long readers out of her students. She points out that statistically, those who study grammar and punctuation can tell you the WHY of English, but tend to score lower on tests than those who have never learned the rules but read for pleasure. We learn language instinctively. But she also knew that books could hold hope and escape and meaning and life-changing power for the students who had failed in the academic world, who were active in gangs, who were getting high and drunk every night, who weren't eating breakfast most mornings, who didn't have both parents in the home, who were getting pregnant. She worked hard to find books that would first and foremost, SPEAK to her students and their lives. She wanted them to know that they were NOT ALONE in their experiences, and that they could have hope and guidance. Her rules were that you could read whatever you want--be it Huck Finn or Anna Karenina or Box Car Children--and you received credit for just reading and talking about the book with the teacher. Even if it takes you the whole term to read 1 chapter.

I was inspired by this book and while my English classes will probably not be just like hers, I love the idea of implementing something like them.

[Terry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Hard to know by what standard to measure this thin volume. As a memoir of a teacher/writer, Reynolds offers up some affecting anecdotes, the sort you'd expect from someone working with tough kids. There are more here than in most teaching books, though not as many as you'd get in a conventional memoir, like "Teacher Man." She's honest about the failures as well as successes, and she speaks with undeniable authority.

As a teaching text to help those of us in the trenches who need more tools to reach kids, there's really nothing new here that isn't covered better in The SSR Handbook: How to Organize and Manage a Sustained Silent Reading Program, The Book Whisperer: Awakening the Inner Reader in Every Child, and Nancie Atwell's The Reading Zone: How to Help Kids Become Skilled, Passionate, Habitual, Critical Readers. Reynolds advocates free-choice SSR and personal response as a way to engage non-school-playing older teens; she mentions a bit about journals, double-entry responses, writing prompts. I usually get at least one new idea from teaching books, but this covered territory that I already knew through the books mentioned above, and I'm walking away empty handed.

Stephen King describes reading average books as a good thing, because when you get done, you're left thinking, 'I could do that. I could do better than that.' If Reynolds can write this, teach, and write seven YA problem novels, maybe the rest of us should get cracking. And I am curious to see if her novels will appeal to my kids. I'm off to get Love Rules.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're looking for a book to remind you why SSR is so important, this is a good read. It's quick (I read it in a day) with lots of stories from Reynolds's personal experiences. She even includes some examples of handouts that she uses to keep track of students' reading. I especially love her list of recommended book titles for YA.

That being said, she talks quite a bit about the books she's written, at least too much for my taste. Not only did she find a way to mention her books in every chapter, but she also devotes an entire chapter at the end and several parts of the resources at the end to both showing off her writing and urging teachers to write also. I understand her purpose behind it, but I think it strays from her established thesis.

[Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Looking at the description this book is pretty much what it claims to be - but I found it to be too much personal narrative for me. Her main point was to hook students with books by letting them choose what is appealing to them - she even went as far as to start writing her own realistic fiction for teens when she discovered there didn't seem to be enough of it for the at-risk teens she worked with. I think this is all great, but I was looking for additional "doable" ideas I could use to help reluctant readers & felt that was lacking. I also felt she spent too much time promoting her own fiction books. The tools in the appendices are useful though.

[C.S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

This teacher writes this book after teaching in an urban setting with students other teachers had forgotten. Many of these students had no desire to read at all. This teacher also writes this from the perspective of a successful young adult author.

[Rachel Prince · Rating 2 out of 5]

My favorite part of this book was the resource at the end about how to 'discourage' a reading habit - good reminders of what not to do. But the personal stories that don't match my students' lives and the constant push and self promotion of her own books was a little much to take.