Dr. Given's Mental Spaghetti: On Recreational Reading in Middle School

One of the common themes to my parent meetings each year revolves around the importance of recreational reading. Is your kid reading outside of his school assignments? How much is enough? What should you do if your child only reads fantasy novels, only reads Sports Illustrated, only reads comics? Ultimately, whether it’s the comics or Cervantes, recreational reading should be recreational. As parents, you can create an environment which encourages your kid to read through setting some expectations in terms of how much reading is reasonable for your child. The key is to offer your child some choice within the guidelines you set.

What counts as reading?

Second only to writing in terms of cognitive processes engaged, reading is an important way your child develops vocabulary, grammar and sentence structure, understanding of ideas big and small, and connects them into the thinking and actions of others. Additionally, reading for just 20 minutes a day is linked to higher test scores, the likelihood of college admittance, as well as stronger career and economic opportunities. There are benefits for all of us in picking up a book or checking out an online article every day as a part of our regular routine. So how do we encourage our busy, energetic, and multi-talented children to stop, drop, and read?

Share a book or article:

Talking about what your kids are reading is a way to broaden the learning and impact of the topic. Discussion and social interaction give the brain more opportunity to reflect on what was read, consider other points of view, and develop a stronger sense of theme/real-world connections.

Participate in Twitter:

At 140 characters a post, Twitter may seem far from an actual “reading” resource, but more and more professionals and hobbyists are using it as a platform to share the best of their thinking and learning. Consider having your child follow leaders in his or her area of interest. Often, the best tweeters are writing blog posts and articles that are directly linked to posts and can lead your kid to head down the rabbit hole of reading without even trying. Maybe it will even inspire your child to start his or her own blog on a topic. And don’t leave yourself out of the mix - you can follow the same people as your child and even add yourself to some groups about how to find more great reading ideas for your family!

Set reasonable challenges:

Our lives are busy and so are those of your children. Fifteen to twenty minutes of reading outside of school work can be a manageable goal. Consider family reading time before or after (or in place of?) screen time. If you are concerned that your child is not reading at all, let anything that is not school related count - comics, graphic novels, news articles, maybe even Facebook posts. If your concern is that your child seems stuck in a certain genre, challenge them to read something different once a week or one out of every 4 books. Your children can use goodreads and the Lexile Find a Book sites to get a wealth of suggestions

See below for specific articles and resources for your readers at home.

READING for MIDDLE SCHOOLERS

Best Young Adult Books
Dr. Given's Young Adult Book Recommendations

Summer Reading Lists for Middle School Kids