“This book is soooooooooo boring!”

That’s the refrain I heard over and over during my academic coaching sessions today.

Tom was annoyed with My Antonia; Grace couldn’t handle Huckleberry Finn.

 

I used to try to convince my students that the books they were reading were actually interesting. But the problem is: I know too well what it’s like to read a book I don’t enjoy. It’s no fun! And the truth for these students is that these books ARE boring. That’s their truth in this moment.

So now I encourage them to turn reading into a puzzle: How can you trick your brain into being curious? How can you solve the problem of the boring book?

Grace and I tackled this question by  making a list of all the possible ways she could think of that would make reading Huck Finn more pleasant. Here’s what she came up with:

  1. Music. Listen to music that she likes while she’s reading (I recommended staying away from music with lyrics in English, choosing instead to stick with instrumental music).
  2. Sing. When she notices she’s falling asleep while reading, start singing the text out loud. (What a unique idea, Grace!)
  3. Draw. Draw pictures after each chapter, capturing the most important action.
  4. Attitude Adjustment. When she sits down to begin reading,  tell herself “I don’t mind reading this!” rather than “I hate reading this.”
  5. Make A Worksheet. Read through the themes on Spark Notes. Make a chart with exactly the number of boxes as themes. As she reads, look for examples of the themes and list them in the chart as she finds them.
  6. Collect Data for the Essay. It turns out that Grace’s teacher has already given them a list of essay questions they might choose. Grace could pick one or two questions about which she’s most interested, and create a “data collection sheet” for the essay. For example, pretend this is the prompt:  “Throughout the novel several characters say one thing but do the opposite. What does Huck learn from these discrepancies about about human nature?”A potential data collection sheet could look like this:
  7. Character        What They Say        What They Do         Huck’s Response

 

After making this list, Grace seemed most interested in making the Data Collection sheet for the essay. She even got a big curious about what she might discover in the process! It doesn’t hurt that creating such a sheet will give her a leg up on her essay.

As far as Tom’s disgruntlement about My Antonia, I’m not quite sure what to do.  How to inspire a 15 year old boy whose first love is first-person shooters to dig a book about relationships, immigration, and pastoralism? The jury is still out on that one.