Eleven year old Sabina loves to read. Even at the breakfast table she has a book propped open in one hand. Sanjit’s mother makes it a point to buy books for him regularly, but he rarely gets beyond the first few pages of a book.
As educationists, we have thought for a good reason to this phenomenon - why some children read and others don’t? We find that in an average class, perhaps 10 out of 30 children read habitually, while the rest seem to shy away from books. They are all taught in the same classroom, exposed to the same texts and teachers. So what could possibly cause some to befriend books while their classmates show no such inclination?
The reason we found is quite simple.
Children in classrooms have varying levels of ability and interest in Language. Just like their performance in school, their extracurricular reading is also influenced by this. Thus some children develop an interest in the literature prescribed at school, and also like reading similar books outside school. The majority, on the other hand just about complete their prescribed readings at school.
To make all children read with interest, we need to answer - what are the books that most of them would find appealing?
Everything in our children’s lives has gone through dynamic changes over time. Supplementary reading lists remain the same as they were thirty years ago. We cannot expect modern children to naturally relate to texts from a bygone era. The language of the books, the flavour of the characters, the settings and contexts are very different from what they are familiar with. Contemporary languages, particularly English have evolved so much over the years that it is hard to understand the language of a book written hundred years ago. Most of the books are presented with limited or no illustrations making them even less attractive.
In earlier times, children loved to hear or read stories of fairies and dwarves and princesses. A few decades ago Enid Blyton was the reigning author for children. She created a world of boarding schools, full of adventure and pranks. Children from today’s age of technology find it difficult to relate to the adventures of the Famous Five and the Secret Seven. It was for this reason that Harry Potter became a global hit. The series came at a time when writing for children was going through a lull, and reintroduced children to the world of magic and fairies; only this time the context was modern. A world of Playstations and computers. Harry Potter gave children the gift of imagination without taking them back in time.
Comic books also hold a special place in the hearts of children. They are attractive and do not contain too much text, thus engaging even struggling readers. The graphics help children better visualise the story. While this is not to say that all comics are good, they can certainly be used to gradually build children’s interest in books and help them enter the fascinating world of literature.
So why aren’t these alternative reading materials referred to at school? Why do we leave it to the children to bump into these by accident, that too beyond the purview of scholastic activities? After all, the purpose of introducing children to literature at school is to ensure that they read. Why can we not tell them about Tintin and Potter at school? Why can we not get them to discover Nancy Drew and Wimpy Kid in school? These texts do classify as popular literature. They use decent language and manage to hook the children’s interest. They encourage children to use their minds and give wings to their imagination.
Why then, can they not be part of school reading? That is a question to ponder upon.
As educationists, we have thought for a good reason to this phenomenon - why some children read and others don’t? We find that in an average class, perhaps 10 out of 30 children read habitually, while the rest seem to shy away from books. They are all taught in the same classroom, exposed to the same texts and teachers. So what could possibly cause some to befriend books while their classmates show no such inclination?
The reason we found is quite simple.
Children in classrooms have varying levels of ability and interest in Language. Just like their performance in school, their extracurricular reading is also influenced by this. Thus some children develop an interest in the literature prescribed at school, and also like reading similar books outside school. The majority, on the other hand just about complete their prescribed readings at school.
To make all children read with interest, we need to answer - what are the books that most of them would find appealing?
Everything in our children’s lives has gone through dynamic changes over time. Supplementary reading lists remain the same as they were thirty years ago. We cannot expect modern children to naturally relate to texts from a bygone era. The language of the books, the flavour of the characters, the settings and contexts are very different from what they are familiar with. Contemporary languages, particularly English have evolved so much over the years that it is hard to understand the language of a book written hundred years ago. Most of the books are presented with limited or no illustrations making them even less attractive.
In earlier times, children loved to hear or read stories of fairies and dwarves and princesses. A few decades ago Enid Blyton was the reigning author for children. She created a world of boarding schools, full of adventure and pranks. Children from today’s age of technology find it difficult to relate to the adventures of the Famous Five and the Secret Seven. It was for this reason that Harry Potter became a global hit. The series came at a time when writing for children was going through a lull, and reintroduced children to the world of magic and fairies; only this time the context was modern. A world of Playstations and computers. Harry Potter gave children the gift of imagination without taking them back in time.
Comic books also hold a special place in the hearts of children. They are attractive and do not contain too much text, thus engaging even struggling readers. The graphics help children better visualise the story. While this is not to say that all comics are good, they can certainly be used to gradually build children’s interest in books and help them enter the fascinating world of literature.
So why aren’t these alternative reading materials referred to at school? Why do we leave it to the children to bump into these by accident, that too beyond the purview of scholastic activities? After all, the purpose of introducing children to literature at school is to ensure that they read. Why can we not tell them about Tintin and Potter at school? Why can we not get them to discover Nancy Drew and Wimpy Kid in school? These texts do classify as popular literature. They use decent language and manage to hook the children’s interest. They encourage children to use their minds and give wings to their imagination.
Why then, can they not be part of school reading? That is a question to ponder upon.
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