Shelby's Response #2 Prompt #5

Reading Response #2 Prompt #5: Engaging Reluctant Readers with Eleanor and Park

            The one challenge every English teacher will face at the start of every single year is the reluctant reader. Eventually, every teacher will see progress in their classroom management skills and will gradually solidify a solid lesson plan, but the reluctant reader is an issue that will appear year after year, and always with a different reason. One hundred and fifty new kids, one hundred and fifty different levels of reading proficiency, and one hundred and fifty reasons not to read the book. What is a teacher supposed to do? Like every other book, Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor and Park presents its own unique set of challenges regarding the reluctant reader, but I will argue that the firm commitment of simple techniques such as teacher-first-enthusiasm, maintaining awareness of cultural trends, and student choice will encourage a higher percentage of reluctant readers to give Eleanor and Park a chance.

            Attitude is everything. Bucher and Hinton suggest that a good way to engage reluctant readers is to “allow students to ‘self-select’ their own books” (69), but it is important for an educator to remember that the process for engaging reluctant readers does not stop there, nor is it the only way to get students interested in a book. Oftentimes, free-reign book selection will lead to reluctant readers picking the novel version of a movie they have seen recently, thereby having the opposite effect on reluctant readers. Similarly, student selection from a pre-approved book list still needs a level of teacher involvement an accountability to encourage reluctant readers. Here is a brief anecdotal story from my own life to show what I mean: When I was in high school, I had a teacher who handed each of us students a sheet of paper with the titles and synopses of seven different novels. We were asked to look over this list, and pick the novel we wanted to read and explore as a class for the next few weeks. A vote was cast, and our class had picked Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter as the book we were most interested in reading. I myself voted for this book. Once our teacher saw the results however, he walked over to his desk, grabbed his copy of The Scarlet Letter, and exclaimed, “This book sucks! But I guess we are going to read it anyway,” as he forcefully dropped the novel onto his podium. I did not read The Scarlet Letter that year, even though I initially voted for it as the book I was most interested in reading. The attitude of my teacher was enough to make me a reluctant reader. Whether Eleanor and Park is presented to a class as a choice or a requirement, the teacher’s enthusiasm is just as important as the book itself regarding student participation. Consider dropping comments about how excited you are to read this book weeks in advance to build curiosity among your students. Furthermore, make sure students know just how excited  you are to be discussing this book the day it is presented to them. I took a look at Eleanor and Park the day I bought it and immediately thought to myself “oh god, what is this? A teenage love story? This is going to be awful.” Many students will feel the exact same way before they ever open it. Use a wide variety of adjectives to describe the novel upon presentation in hopes that one of these descriptions will peak interest. Tell students that Eleanor and Park is a love story, but it is also very dark. Eleanor and Park is also a bit of a mystery and explores themes of abuse and neglect, all while being a story about not fitting in and the everyday struggles of high school. Every book should be pitched like an original screenplay looking for funding: talk it up, explain why it’s for everyone, be excited.

            For reluctant readers, books need teaser trailers too. Like many YAL books, Eleanor and Park begins with a small passage, with no context, which is meant to get the reader interested for the remainder of the book. Unfortunately, I do not believe that the passage chosen is strong enough to encourage the reluctant reader. Fortunately, this presents a great opportunity for a read aloud to peak student interest and involvement before they ever open Eleanor and Park. Bucher and Hinton explain that the stereotypical reluctant reader “is a boy who has below-the-grade reading ability” (69). Though Bucher and Hinton continue to say that this stereotype may be false, I will be using this example as a potential student for the remainder of this argument. Eleanor and Park is first and foremost a love story. How do you get a teenage boy interested in a love story? Perhaps you don’t. Perhaps instead, the teacher gets this student interested in another aspect of the story, to show reluctant readers that Eleanor and Park has more to offer. Generally speaking, female readers are more interested in stories involving a relationship and male readers are more interested in stories involving a conflict. In this way, reading a passage aloud regarding Eleanor’s home life may be a way to peak interest among readers who are unenthused with Eleanor’s relationship. Here is a possible passage to consider for a read aloud:

She woke up to shouting. Richie shouting. Eleanor couldn’t tell what he was saying. Underneath the shouting, her mother was crying. She sounded like she’d been crying for a long time—she must be completely out of her head if she was letting them hear her cry like that.

Eleanor could tell that everyone else in the room was already awake. She hung off the bunk until she could see the little kids take shape in the dark. All four of them were sitting together in a clump of blankets on the floor. Maisie was holding the baby, rocking him almost frantically. Eleanor slid off the bed soundlessly and huddled with them. Mouse immediately climbed up into her lap. He was shaking and wet, and he wrapped his arms and legs around Eleanor like a monkey. Their mother shrieked, two rooms away, and they all five jumped together. (48,49)

Read this passage aloud to the class before they are ever given a copy of Eleanor and Park. Without any prior knowledge of the text, this puts the strong readers and the reluctant readers on equal footing. After reading, ask the students to answer questions about the passage you just read. “What do you think is happening? What do you think is going to happen next?” Without any other information, reluctant readers are more likely to engage in the read aloud because there is no risk to be wrong, and the students are already thinking critically about the text. It is after this initial discussion that students should be given their copies of Eleanor and Park. By enabling a discussion about the book without offering any concrete answers, the teacher is far more likely to get reluctant readers to open the book, interested to know what was happing in the anonymous passage presented at the read aloud. For twenty-first century students, teaser trailers are a cultural phenomenon, use them to your advantage in the classroom.

            Promote success, not book reports. Even if a teacher is enthusiastic about a novel, and gives the best read aloud in high school history, a reluctant reader may still give up all hope at the sound many teachers’ two favorite words—book report. In modern-day classrooms that are filled with inclusive practices and UDL framework, a traditional book report may do more harm than good. If a student’s reluctance to read stems from their inability to read at grade-level-proficiency, then requiring that student to write a traditional book report will most likely set the student up for failure and further their disdain for the written word. Bucher and Hinton suggests that reluctant readers should be offered an alternative to the traditional book report in order to promote student success (69). It is important to note that unless the alternative is presented to specifically apply to an IEP, then the book report alternatives should be given to all students, not just the reluctant reader. A good way to supply book report alternatives is to encourage students to explore all outlets of creativity. Remember, these choices are in lieu of a final book report, so the choices should still require a good bit of work. For Eleanor and Park, I suggest the following:

·        1.  Illustrate the characters: Eleanor and Park is being reprinted with pictures and you have been commissioned for the artwork. Illustrate, paint, or otherwise create an accurate representation of Eleanor, Park, and three other characters from the novel. These representations should be accurate, provide the in-text evidence to support your artistic choices.

·     2.     Create a soundtrack: Eleanor and Park is being made into a movie, but the director wants to set the story in 2016. Look up 7-10 songs Eleanor and Park reference in the book, and find modern-day songs that have a similar meaning that Eleanor and Park would listen to. Provide a song-by-song comparison for each track to support your modern-day choices for the movie soundtrack.

·      3.    Create a comic book: Eleanor and Park love comic books. As a tribute to their nerdy past time, create a 7-10 page comic book using the Comic Life! software in which both Eleanor and Park have developed some type of super power. These super powers should be logically based on the descriptions of Eleanor and Park in the novel.  

Each year, less and less students are reading for entertainment. Unfortunately for

high school English teachers, many students have decided if they like reading or not long before they ever step foot in their classroom. Turning around reluctant readers is a difficult task, but through a little ingenuity, a lot of enthusiasm, and creative YAL novels such as Eleanor and Park, future generations may still learn to be bibliophiles.

Work Cited

Rowell, Rainbow. Eleanor & Park. New York: St. Martin’s, 2013. Print.

Short, Katherine Bucher and KaaVonia Hinton. Young Adult Literature: Exploration,        Evaluation, and Appreciation. 3rd ed. Boston: Pearson, 2014. Print.