Teens Rediscover the Joy of Reading with High School Teacher Beth Donofrio

In this episode, I focus on the reading habits of teenagers with high school English teacher, Beth Donofrio. Beth has her bachelor’s degree in Secondary Education for English and her master’s degree in Children and Adolescents at Risk from Harvard. She is a conference speaker, editor, and author of the book, Champions Way: Inspiring Stories from the Journeys of Hometown Champions. 

Beth conducted a survey in her high school and discusses the trends of teenage reading habits.  She answers the question, "How does reading change during childhood and how can it be regained?"

 Studies show a consistent decline in daily reading as children grow older, with a sharp drop by age nine that does not typically recover throughout adolescence. Scholastic reported a 24% drop in daily reading and The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) reported a 34% drop in daily reading. Since 1984, the number of tweens and teens who read for pleasure at least once a week decreased 5% among 9-year-olds and 24% among 17-year-olds. Finally, more preteen and teenagers reported to rarely if ever read for pleasure since 1984: sixteen percent more of 9-year-olds, 18% more of 17-year-olds.  So, what changed, and how can we get it back?

Listen to Beth as she discusses what has changed in teen life as well as their choices, how it's impacted SAT and reading scores, what books can help your teen, and how adults of all ages can impact teen reading habits.

To learn more, read my blog, Turning the Page: How Adults Can Help Teens Rediscover the Joy of Reading.

Chapters

• 0:35 teen reading data
• 1:53 Beth Donofrio
• 3:46 What is the cause of the reading decline?
• 7:51 COVID impacted
• 12:13 reading survey at your high school
• 17:09 encourage teens to enjoy reading at school
• 23:40 Who influenced your reading habits?
• 30:23 How parents can help teenagers want to read more
• 36:19 Call to Action

Transcript

Teens Rediscover the Joy of Reading with High School Teacher Beth Donofrio

Lisa Hassler

Welcome to The Brighter Side of Education. I am your host, Dr. Lisa Hassler here to enlighten and brighten the classrooms in America through focused conversation on important topics in education. In each episode, I discuss problems we as teachers and parents are facing and what people are doing in their communities to fix it. What are the variables and how can we duplicate it to maximize student outcomes? In this episode, I focus on the reading habits of teenagers. How does reading for pleasure change during childhood and how can it be regained? As parents, we know the importance of early reading.

There is a lot of data and focus on reading with young children. We buy the beautifully illustrated picture books and read to our little ones snuggled on our laps or as they drift off to sleep while tucked in their beds. We hope to have instilled a love of reading that lasts a lifetime with our children. But then somewhere along the way, they stop consuming books at the same rate that they did when they were younger. Studies have shown a consistent decline in daily reading as children grow older, with a sharp drop by age nine that does not typically recover throughout adolescence.

Scholastic reported a 24% drop in daily reading, and the National Center for Education Statistics NCES reported a 34% drop in daily reading since 1984. The number of Tweens and teens who read for pleasure at least once a week decreased 9% among nine year olds and 24% among 17 year olds. Finally, more preteen and teenagers reported to rarely, if ever, read for pleasure since 1984. So 16% more of the nine year olds and 18% of the 17 year olds. So what has changed and how do we get it back? Here to discuss the trends of teenage reading habits is high school English teacher Beth Donofrio.

Beth has her bachelor's degree in Secondary Education for English and her master's degree in Children and Adolescents at Risk from Harvard. She is a conference speaker, editor and author of the book Champions Way inspiring Stories from the Journeys of Hometown Champions. Welcome to the show, Beth.

Beth Donofrio

Thank you so much for having me, Lisa.

Lisa Hassler

I'm so happy to be here and what a great topic, and I think very timely as we're heading into summer and a lot of people are thinking about those summer slides and so what could be parents be doing to prepare for it? So this is coming at really a good time. Can you tell us about yourself and how you got into teaching high school English?

Beth Donofrio

Sure. So I have four children. I've been married 30 years. I have always liked being a teacher. When I was a little kid, I would play school with my brother and sister in our basement of our house. I was the oldest, so I was always the teacher. And we would save our little workbooks from school and we had our pencils and pens, our little chalkboard down there, those little desks. And I just liked playing teacher. And I really feel like teaching is a calling, not just a job. I kind of think that teaching, preaching and healing are all callings, body, mind, and soul.

When I started applying for jobs, in the very beginning, I would write a cover letter and I would say, teaching is in my blood. And I just really feel like that it is just in my blood.

Lisa Hassler

Yeah, I would agree. I think that's how I always referred to it. I didn't know why I went into this, but then I just remember having this strong calling and I think that that's how a lot of teachers feel. Absolutely. When I looked at the data regarding reading teenage rates declining, I wasn't surprised. I have seven kids between my husband and I, our youngest, our 17 year old twin. So I've been through these teenage years and I've definitely seen this change. So what do you think causes this change?

Beth Donofrio

Yeah, it's hard not to find some sort of article that says social media is to blame. And I would have to really go along with that. Honestly, the trend is just going up and up and up. For kids being on their phones, it's at seven and a half hours a day average, which is stunning.

Lisa Hassler

Wow.

Beth Donofrio

Yeah, it's really hard to imagine that. But Google it, check it out.

Lisa Hassler

Yeah.

Beth Donofrio

And I mean, if you think of that, right, you're at school for 7 hours a day. You are sleeping for around 7 hours a day. Now you're on your phone for 7 hours. It's actually seven and a half hours a day. And actually low income students typically are even on their phone longer than that. So like 9 hours, which is a significant difference. Huge. So it's a lot of time and it adds up. Probably kids don't even realize how much they're on their phones, but they do realize that they don't have a lot of time. That's something that they frequently will talk about.

I just don't have time. I just don't have time. Or I'm not getting enough sleep. I'm not getting enough sleep. And I think that it just adds up. I don't think they're sitting there for seven and a half hours in a row.

Lisa Hassler

Right.

Beth Donofrio

But it's so easy to just get dragged down the rabbit hole scrolling. I've seen things that it says that scrolling up and down as opposed to side to side is more addictive. And yes, the companies are aware of that and that's why we all scroll up and down as opposed to like not turning the pages of a book. Not side to side, not that type of a scroll, but like a paper towel roll going around and around. And so it's just easy to get lost, I think, on social media for sure. Or any sort of on your phone anyway.

So yes, definitely screen time going up a huge amount the kids will say that they have a lot of other commitments and they do, for sure. They're working, they have sports and band and all those sorts of things. But I don't think those things have changed significantly in multiple decades. So kids have always worked? Yeah, they've always worked after school. Ted Williams didn't go from, I never played baseball until I hit 21 and lo and behold, here I am.

Lisa Hassler

That's exactly it. So they've had to balance their sports, their social life, their work after school for all of these years. That's not anything. The only thing that's new is really social media being inserted onto their phones at such an easy and tempting place. And I've done it myself, where you look at something and then before you know it, half an hour has gone by and I'm like, how did that happen? I don't have time to do this. So I know that for myself, I have to make an effort to say, I'm not looking at my phone until this time, or until I do this thing that gets away from you.

Beth Donofrio

Absolutely. Anybody. So it's not like, oh, these teenagers, it's anybody, it's anybody. Very easy to happen.

Lisa Hassler

Yeah. My mom on Pinterest. Dear God.

Beth Donofrio

Exactly.

Lisa Hassler

The pinterest thing, right? Where you're thinking, how easy that? So it's not just the evils of social media when it comes to maybe what we're thinking of is like Instagram or Facebook or TikTok and stuff, but it can hit anyone at any age. But I think that it's really hitting our kids when it comes to balancing out reading time. So when we think about the Pandemic and COVID, how do you think that impacted teenagers reading?

Beth Donofrio

Yeah. So, again, if you're looking at any kind of research, no doubt scores are plummeting hugely across the board. So little kids scores are tanking. SATS are the lowest they've been since 1972, when they started tracking Saturday in 2016, they were the lowest that they had been since 1972. And then they redid the test and then now our scores now in 2022 are the lowest they've been since 2016. Interestingly enough, reading has also, in some ways, gone up. So BookTok has become very popular. And that's of course, a social media hybrid there with reading. It's influenced a lot of young teenage girls have become book influencers and they are getting lots and lots of followers and book sales are going up.

However, I think that a lot of the books that kids are reading and of course you're reading for pleasure, so it's good to be reading, but you also need to be cognizant of what you're reading. As we begin, as you said in the very beginning, we're coming into summer, and who doesn't love a great beach read? Relaxing. Yes. So fun. But if that's your mainstay of reading, kind of the easy, breezy romance novel or fantasy novel, then yes, you're reading. But your test scores, your reading scores might not really be improving a whole lot. So I think that's why those two things are kind of happening simultaneously.

Yeah, we're getting more readers, but test scores are still not coming up.

Lisa Hassler

So what do you think are better fits then, to help that with the reading scores going up? What are better book suggestions than, if not romantic fiction?

Beth Donofrio

Right. I think that obviously there's a place for all kinds of reading, and I would never say, like, don't ever read that book, but I kind of think what you just said earlier about, like, I don't let myself get on my phone until I have done XYZ. So if you and the parents and start to say, like, okay, every other book, great. Colleen hoover fantastic. Love it. But in between that, let's get maybe some classic in there or let's get some actual literary fiction in there. Let's get, again, maybe nonfiction or historical fiction or whatever the case may be, and ideally still something that the teenager is interested in.

Yes, that seems to be a huge help and that's kids and experts across the board will say, let us pick the books that we like. So having a conversation about, all right, let's look at an actual reading level. Where is this book scoring? It's 7th grade. You're in the 12th grade. Let's kind of do a one in one. You can't have only desserts. Desserts are fun. We love them. Fantastic. But you got to have a few vegetables in there. Let's pick something you like. You don't have to have Brussels sprouts. You can have beans. But let's kind of make a balance.

Lisa Hassler

That's true. And I was looking at the different types of literature that adolescents were choosing. Poetry is coming down a lot, so there's not a lot of poetry. So we're just thinking about different genres, different types, and so that was just one of them. That also is slipping as well as the nonfiction, I think about even myself is I don't think I chose books that went out of my genre until I was older and kind of bored. I just remember, like, going, okay, it's summer, and I had some books on the shelf that I didn't really like, but I just thought, well, I'm going to try it.

And so sometimes having that teacher there or parent as a guide to say, I know this isn't in your norm, but give it a try. Read the first chapter, see if it hooks you. And so sometimes being challenged to go outside your norm can be beneficial. So having that adult to kind of nudge you, to say, hey, this used to be one of my favorites, or, I hear this is really popular, or something, just these suggestions to help them as well. And now you recently conducted a reading survey at your high school. Do you want to talk about what that was and the findings?

Beth Donofrio

Yeah, sure. So I'm kind of interested, right, in what the reading habits of kids are. And I realized I'm only seeing them through one lens. I'm just seeing them really in the classroom. So I'm interested in are you reading for pleasure? And I do try to encourage them to read for pleasure outside of school, and I try to give them some reading time in school, but not enough that I had a really great handle on what they were doing. So I started asking them, like, okay, well, do you even consider yourself a reader? And the answer from the very first kid was so surprising to me because they said, well, what counts as reading?

So that goes right back to kind of what you were saying earlier, that the social media, again, they thought that counted as reading. They said, Well, I read text, I read Instagram, and kind of chuckled. And I was like, yeah, that's not even in my wheelhouse right now. I'm not thinking that at all. But they really thought, like, if I said and they said, well, how about websites? So I really had to make kind of a list and say, like, okay, what do you like to read? And I included those things that they have been telling me, like, this is what we like to read.

So I ended up with, I think I had like 120 kids and yeah, by far, social media posts that please rank the order of the material that you like to read. Social media posts, number one, websites, number two, book number three, finally, and poetry, way down the list, like you said. But 60% of the kids said social media posts is what they like to read. Books was 8%, and that was the third choice. Short stories, graphic novels, comic books, magazines, newspapers, and poetry. Only one kid out of 120 said they like to read poetry. So I think, again, going back to what you said, it's just so important to try to get kids to do that two byte test.

That was a big thing. When my son was in kindergarten, his teacher used to do little food lessons with them, and they all had to do the two byte test. You had to do the two byte test. If you didn't like it after two bytes, you didn't have to finish it, but you couldn't just say, I don't like that. I don't want to try. It true, right? Just what you said. Try the one chapter.

Lisa Hassler

Just try it. Just try those new things. I remember I read like, White Fang and Hatchet and what I consider like, boy books. And I was like, I don't want to read boy books, and actually really liked them. And I was very surprised. I was learning about wolves and being outdoors and things that I had never read before. And actually, once I got past that initial first chapter and kind of eased my way into it, I really enjoyed it. And so I think that that's just something to be thinking about for parents when it comes to let's get out of some of the norms and give them some other things.

But what's kind of sad, is poetry. I love poetry. I mean, poor Shell Silverstein! Who didn't love him? I know that they like those fun poems when they're little, and so it's like, how do we keep them maybe to go a little bit deeper into that poetry as they move on.

Beth Donofrio

Yeah. You know what? I think a great way to do that is to look at song lyrics as poems.

Lisa Hassler

Yes.

Beth Donofrio

And that's really because kids love music. They have their earbuds in a lot. That's another kind of change that I'm seeing in the high school as they walk around with their earbuds in constantly.

Lisa Hassler

That is so true.

Beth Donofrio

But I sometimes use music in my classroom, and I pull in lyrics that are linked thematically to something that we're reading, and they really like that. And if you can show them poetic devices and rhythm and the rhyme scheme and the imagery, all of that, and.

Lisa Hassler

Maybe I can get them more engaged and more interested. I know that my son's fourth grade teacher was so into poetry, she was having them constantly writing, and he got so interested in it that he really just took off. And now he considers himself a singer songwriter. He loves to write, and he writes songs. And so it came from fourth grade, his teacher being that poetic influence in his life, and it changed his path. And he does poetry slams and open mic nights and write songs. So when I saw poetry going down, I was like, oh, they need some good influences on that, right?

Beth Donofrio

Yes.

Lisa Hassler

So what are you doing at school to encourage teens to enjoy reading?

Beth Donofrio

I have a saying at school, "lit is lit." So lit in high school, lingo means, like, cool and fun. "Lit is lit!" And I'm trying to spread, "lit is lit" everywhere that I go. So things that I do in my classroom, I do let them read for pleasure. They have to have a book. I used to when they were done with the test, I used to say, like, okay, you can study for another test now if you have homework that you want to do or whatever. But I stopped doing that. I said, no, you're not doing any other class homework.

You're not putting your head down. This is now it's reading time. And actually, in that survey that I was doing, one of the things I asked the kids also is, what can adults do to help you? And they said, Give us time to read, because that was their big complaint. I don't have time to read. So if you can figure to get that into the school day somehow and that's actually really hard for teachers. They feel like they don't want to give up that time. Yeah, but I had one of the girls on the survey that I say, give us the first five minutes of class to read when you're taking attendance.

And I thought, okay, that's brilliant. I can do that. That's an easy give, because a lot of teachers have, like, bell work, and they're doing some kind of little worksheet, or they're doing something, but it is how easy to just say, like, okay, this is five minutes. I'm going to take attendance. I'm going to do this little administria, and that's your reading time. And she followed that comment up with saying, like, if we get into the book, we'll probably bring it home and continue to read it. And I just thought like, okay, that's brilliant. Fabulous idea. Brilliant.

Lisa Hassler

Love it.

Beth Donofrio

Yeah. So I don't do that. I'm going to start doing that now. Going to help me, because sometimes I forget to take my attendance. I don't do that bell work, but I usually just say, like, okay, come on, let's get going right away. Come on, let's do and then I'm getting email from the attendance office saying, like, hey, where's your attendence.

Lisa Hassler

I get the phone call. My gosh, Miss Butler. I was always like, I'm so sorry. I know why you're calling. I'm going to do it right now.

Beth Donofrio

Exactly.

Lisa Hassler

So I think that's a good idea. It's a helpful thing for both, right? For the students and for the teacher.

Beth Donofrio

So I've tried to do that. I do a little book talk cafe with them. So twice a year, they can bring in the book that they are now reading in the classroom. And we have some food. Who doesn't like food? And it's books and it's talking and it's cafe. I mean, how you can't get any better than that?

Books and so they just sit with their friends and they talk about their books. This is what I like. This is what I'm reading. I've had kids send me little texts on remind that say, like, mrs. Dinafrio, I had the best day today. You don't know how much I loved talking about my book. So just giving them those little opportunities. I try to do little celebrations like that. At the end of the year, we'll do a book swap. So they'll take a book that they have already read, and they'll just line the shelves on the whiteboard and put them up there with a little card.

What is it about? So they can take a book home? That's actually one of the big problems in the summertime is kids not having access to books anymore.

Lisa Hassler

Yes.

Beth Donofrio

So I have a little free library at school. I send them on scavenger hunts to find little free libraries wherever they happen to be. If they send me a picture of themselves, they win a prize. The local bookstore was very nice to give me ten gift cards of $10 each. So if they do that, they send me the little picture of themselves at a little free library. Now they've got a gift card to go get a book for themselves. And I've had kids send me pictures from Mexico, from us, from Gainesville. They found one. I had one mother send me one.

It was during the Hurricane Ian, and she was in her kayak paddling down a street that was flooded past a little free library and took a picture and sent it to me. That was awesome. Yes. Scavenger hunts in general, whatever we happen to be reading in class, if we're reading Shakespeare, and I say, like, find some references to Romeo and Juliet and send me a picture, it just gets them aware that this reading culture exists in other venues, not just in your classroom, not just here. Right. And the same thing with the Odyssey. Send me something you see about Greek, and they'll find these songs that have references to Romeo and Juliet in it.

One girl sent me the COVID of his cigar box picture that had a picture of Romeo and Juliet on it. Like, who would think streets. They're named Bard. B-A-R-D. That's nicknamed Bard Street or Verona Ave, stuff like that. So they love that. And then I put it on the whiteboard, and then when they come in in the morning, that's one of the things I'm showing them up. Look what I got on the scavenger hunt. They like seeing their little pictures, bullet, headboards, stuff like that.

Lisa Hassler

Have they ever gotten my little free library? Has mine ever shown up?

Beth Donofrio

I'm going to look. I have got a bunch. If you're in Venice?

Lisa Hassler

Yes.

Beth Donofrio

I'm going to send it to you. I have, like, 35 so far.

Lisa Hassler

I'm just wondering if any of them are mine. That would be great.

Beth Donofrio

I bet one of them is. Yeah, I'll have to look and see. Yeah. T shirt Tuesday we're doing. So I'm trying to encourage the staff to wear, like, a reading T shirt on Tuesdays, because if you think of, like, a sports team, how do they get their fans motivated, right? Everybody's wearing the rays. Everybody's wearing the Buccaneers or whatever, the Patriots, whatever your team is. Okay, well, we're all reading. That's our team. We're on the reading team.

Lisa Hassler

The reading team.

Beth Donofrio

So we're doing T shirt Tuesdays, and those are some of my prizes as well, giving those things away. So trying to just make it cool to be reading. Yeah. And bulletin boards, and I do a lot of game playing around books just as a lesson gamification of reading and just trying to make it exciting. I have the teachers putting outside their doors. Mrs. Kune is reading. And then a picture of the COVID of the book.

Lisa Hassler

Nice.

Beth Donofrio

I'm trying to get every single solitary teacher. So the math teacher, the Spanish teacher, every teacher is Mr. So and so. Mr. So. And so is reading. Because if the kids see the adults are actually reading. Yes, that's helpful.

Lisa Hassler

Then they know it's a priority, right? Adults are doing it. They're prioritizing it. It's something that we do, right? It's something people do. I had found one of my favorite childhood books. The one that I remember the most is go, dog, go. I don't know why, I just do that one. And so I used to just sit there forever, it felt like, and on the floor and look over those pictures and all the little details and the hidden things and the fancy hats and read it over and over and over again. And so a couple of years ago, we were out of town, and we went to some record shop, and they had some fun T shirts, and they had books on their T shirts, some of them, and Go Dog, Go was one of them. So I immediately had to get that T shirt. So if I was at your school, I'd be wearing my Go Dog shirt.

Beth Donofrio

I love it.

Lisa Hassler

We were talking earlier about childhood memories of reading, and I was talking to you about my grandmother. And my grandmother was a huge influence on me as a reader. She was always lounging around on the blanket on the floor, reading what she would always call her Smut books, which were really the romance historical novels. And the books were everywhere that I could remember. They were all over in her house. We had a family cabin up in Michigan. They were lined on the shelves there. And so at some point, I started reading them along with her. And I just remember being under a tree out in the shade on a summer day in the grass, and just reading next to my grandma.

And it was probably one of my favorite memories as a child. I just remember the closeness that I felt with her, and I remember the coziness of it, the warmth and the breeze and all those senses that kind of come with that memory. But it was her being such a big impact on me and that influence, and so that really stayed with me, those magical moments of reading with my grandma. And as an adult, as I grew up, the books that we shared continued, but it started to be passed around because I no longer was with her as much.

And so it went from my grandmother would pass it to my aunt, would pass it to my other aunt, and then it would end up on my doorstep or in my mailbox or in my door jam or something. And so the books came my way, and then the next time that I would see my grandmother, I'd bring the book back. And so we just do this full circle, and we just kept that reading circle going. And it was just something I thought every family did. Her impact on my reading and the reading in my family was so big from modeling, like, always being on the floor, reading her book, to sharing the books and being next to me, even, and then having those discussions about like, oh, my gosh, can you believe JD Robb did this? My mother is now doing the same thing with my daughter, except she is actually reading the books that my daughter is reading to help her just have that conversation, the shared experience. And what I love is that they've had this bond with that shared reading that started when they were young, and now my daughter's 19 and she's continuing to do that. And so where it went from them reading together to my mom reading the vampire romance novels that my daughter is now reading. Thank you, mom, for doing that, by the way, because I don't want to.

And so it's really where I'm like grandparents have played such an important role in my life and even my own mother and my daughters. And so that shared reading is just such a great memory, I think, and a gift that we can give to our kids. So who shaped your reading habits, and do you have any special memories surrounding it?

Beth Donofrio

Yes, for sure. So my dad is one of seven. He's the oldest of seven kids. And we did Sunday dinner at my grandmother's house for years. Very smart family. My grandfather went to Harvard, and they were all just very smart people, and they were always talking about books around the dinner table. And those were kind of the days where children were a little bit more seen and not heard. But I was absorbing a lot of those conversations and I realized these were smart people. I really could just pick up on that at a little age, and I wanted to be part of those conversations.

And my dad used to go to the bookmobile when I was little. I don't know if those are still around. I haven't seen one in 40 years. But anyway, we had a bookmobile that came to our corner, and I used to go with him. That was one of the things that I was the oldest, and he would bring me on Monday nights and he would always pick out books, and I would ask George the Bookmobile Man I don't know what his last name was, but that's what I called him all the time, George the Bookmobile Man.

He drove it. And I would say, I don't know why I didn't have to call him Mr. Somebody, but I didn't. But I would ask him if I could get a library card. And he was always telling me, no, I was too little. I was four. And finally one day, I pestered him enough, and I said, I really want a library card, George. And he said, if you can write your own name, you can have a library card. And I, of course, went right back home and figured out how to write my name, which had to be Elizabeth, because it had to be.

Your whole name. It's a lot of letters for four years old. I went right back, got my library card and got that first book. And I was so excited. And I soon thereafter, I'm sure they were picture books or my dad was reading them to me, but I soon thereafter got the chickenpox in kindergarten and I was home for a long time by myself. And I, lo and behold, had a book called Elizabeth Gets Well. And that was the very first book that I learned how to read all by myself because I was Elizabeth and I had the chickenpox.

And probably like with COVID I was probably stuck at home, couldn't play, couldn't go to school. So I figured out somehow how those things went together. And so, yeah, that's an early and my grandmother also big him to poetry. And my other grandmother, my nana, she only went to the 8th grade, but when she slept over our house, she would let us snuggle in bed with her early in the morning and she would give us spelling words. And it just also made me think that somebody that I knew, she only went to the 8th grade. I was probably in, like, the fifth grade or fourth grade or something.

But words were still so powerful that that's what she decided to do with me when she had a little bit of time was like, okay, let's give you some spelling words. And it just kind of reinforced that idea of words are powerful.

Lisa Hassler

Yeah, absolutely. It's such a sweet memory. For this last question, I'd like to focus on ways that adults can make a positive impact on teenage reading habits. How can we help teenagers want to read more?

Beth Donofrio

Yes. So I would say exactly what your mom is doing is read books. Read the same books that your child is reading. That might be the two byte test for a lot of parents. They might not want to do that. But I'll tell you that I was a middle school teacher for a long time and there's a lot of really good books out there that are really engaging. And so I think do the two byte test, mom or dad read along. Even if you don't love it, it gives you something to talk about with your child.

And I think that is just really the number one thing that you can do. I would just ask about reading, just have conversations. Start off just by saying, what are you reading in school? Even if it's not a book for pleasure, what are you reading? Tell me about it. What can you tell me about that story? If they're really reluctant, if you know, there's a movie out that has a book, go to the movie first and then get the book second. Sometimes that can be a draw for kids. Let them see you reading that's. Also, again, really important.

My daughter Sarah, when she was about five, she's 24 now. She did not want to read. She was running around the house, and I said, Sarah, come on over here. I want to read this to you. And she said, no, Mom, I'm busy. I'm running, I'm doing stuff. And I said, Sarah, reading is important. And she said, no, it's not. And she kept on running. And I said, Sarah, of course reading is important. Why would you say reading is not important? You know, Mommy used to be an English teacher before. Reading is so important. Why don't you think it is?

And she said, Because I never see you do it. And she was 100% right. I had four kids under the age of six, and I was not reading. And lo and behold, my overt message of Sarah, reading is important, was completely undermined by the hidden meaning of I am never reading. I promptly went to the library and got we used to go to the library all the time. That was one of our free great things to do. That's another thing to do with your kids, go to the library. And anyway, got my first book that I had read in years, secret Life of Bees, which I recommended to you.

Lisa Hassler

Yes, and I can't wait to read that one as a beekeeper. I know one of the things that I love to do with my kids growing up, I had four kids, and a lot of that time, I was a single mom. And so you're thinking about parents and you're saying, well, go out to bookstores and buy your kids books. And sometimes you can't afford to buy the books that they want. So then there's a library option as well, when there's a lot of electronic books. But one of the things that we would do and oddly enough, my kids are still doing this to this day, and I think it's kind of fun.

My son called me up to say, mom, we went to this thrift store. So I would take them to different old bookstores, even not even just thrift stores, but, like, old antique kind of places. And you would look just peruse through the old books, and sometimes you can find them really inexpensive garage sales and stuff like that. But they always are so excited about the good deal. And so they're like, mom, this is in Colorado. And he's 23, and my other son's 28 right now, they were super excited because they said they got a whole cart full of books for $5.

Yes. And so they're like, mom, it was the best. They said, A whole cart full $5. You can get all these books. And he goes, and you'll never believe it. We found these books that we used to love when we were kids, and we put them all in there. And so I just thought that was kind of fun, that he's thinking about his childhood and about picking those books that he remembers and has fond memories of, as well as getting himself books that don't have to cost a lot, but sometimes it's the fun of finding it.

It's like the, look at what I got. So I think sometimes there's a little bit of adventure to that.

Beth Donofrio

Agreed. Yeah. A little free library scavenger hunt, too. There you go.

Lisa Hassler

Yeah, right? There's nothing that doesn't cost anything, but sometimes there's that little bit of adventure. And I know we started our little free library, and so everyone in the family gives books to us once they're done with them, and then people that we know will say, hey, do you need books for your library? We have some. And so it's a good way for the community to get involved with it as well, because they know that they're going out to kids and to parents and to anybody. Just nice.

Beth Donofrio

Can I add one more quick little thing that I just thought of? So in addition, I think, to parents reading to their kids or reading with their kids. Here's another great thing. I have one student who her grandmother's eyes are failing a little bit, and so they flipped it where she reads to the grandma, and she reads books that the grandma used to like when she was younger. And so she's one of my students who's reading Anne of Green Gables. And I loved Anna Green Gables when I was little, and I always find one student a year who is aware of Anna Green Gables and music.

But anyway, that is also just I just want to say that. So if you for some reason, like my grandmother, who only went to the 8th grade, maybe she might feel like, I don't really feel that I can really read that well or whatever. That's just another great thing to do, is flip it and have the child read to you. In all honesty, kids need that practice. That's another skill that is falling down. They're not always great oral readers.

Lisa Hassler

Yeah.

Beth Donofrio

They're not really that fluent. So that would be helpful to the child and I think just another thing you can do. So sorry about that. I just thought about it.

Lisa Hassler

That is such a great idea. It really is. I love that one. All right, well, thank you, Beth, for joining me today to discuss the reading habits of teenagers and ways to improve them. And thank you for being such a positive influence on our educational system.

Beth Donofrio

Thank you.

Lisa Hassler

So here is the call to action. Get involved with Tween and teen literacy. Adults of all ages have a lot of impact. If you have a story about what's working in your schools that you'd like to share, you can email me at drlisarichardsonhassler@gmail.com or visit my website at www.drlisarhassler.com and send me a message. If you like this podcast, subscribe and tell a friend. The more people that know, the bigger impact it will have. And if you find value to the content in this podcast. Consider becoming a supporter by clicking on the supporter link in the show notes. It is the mission of this podcast to shine light on the good in education so that it spreads affecting positive change. So let's keep working together to find solutions us focus on our children's success.