The Quiet Magic of Getting Teens to Read Again
There’s a particular kind of student I love teaching most—not the bookworm who reads under the desk, though I love them too—but the student who says, “I don’t read” with a shrug and a wall already up. The ones who’ve written off books as boring or pointless. The ones who used to love reading (or at least being read to) and don’t anymore, even if they can’t quite name when it changed.
Getting those students to connect with just one book, one poem, one strategy is just the best. I love when a previously closed off student tells me that whatever we’re studying is the first book they’ve enjoyed in years. An even better feeling is when a student reads all the books in a series that we’ve started in class. And my favorite is when a parent sends me a note saying that they haven’t seen their teenager engaged with literature since they were in elementary school. I love the challenge of pairing students with texts and giving enough of myself that they can connect to me and to what I am presenting to them.
If you want to reel in these students, here are a few things that I prioritize to help students re-engage with reading—and a bonus, these are all things that reignite my own love for reading and teaching when the going gets tough :)
1. Have students write their own reading histories.
This is one of my favorite early-in-the-year activities. We talk about how reading is a relationship that changes over time, and I ask students to trace that arc. What was the first book they loved? When did they start enjoying it less? What’s the last thing they remember reading just for fun? I have them write and share about their own and I always start with sharing my own (the good and the challenging) so that they get to know me as a reader.
There’s usually a moment—middle school, standardized testing, being told what not to read—that marks the turning point. Once students can name that, they have a better chance of reclaiming their own reading life. When students share these, and realize that most everyone has the same story, they are more open to reading in general because they know that their teacher can acknowledge that reading isn’t always fun.
2. Teach what you love to read.
Students can tell when you’re just getting through a text versus when you actually enjoy it. If you want them to believe reading is worth their time, they need to see it’s worth yours.
Some of my favorite books to teach are:
Red Rising by Pierce Brown because am obsessed with the whole series and basically teach it so that I can nerd out and have all the discussions I want to have about something I love.
World of Wonders because I read it at a poignant time in my life and it helps me to remember to look to nature to ground myself.
Sharks in the Time of Saviors because it’s set just one town over from the town I grew up in and it gives me the opportunity to share my history and homeland with my students.
Poetry with the Poetry Unbound podcast because I listen to the podcast myself and love how it drops me into poetic analysis without all the work of sitting down to a poem.
You don’t have to teach the books you loved in college or the ones on the canon list. In fact, I highly recommend NOT teaching those books, at least at first. Do whatever you can to hook them at the beginning of the year by sharing your love of reading and, I promise, they will be much more willing to go with you when you introduce more challenging and obscure texts. Teach the books you can’t stop thinking about. The energy that you will bring to those books is contagious and students will be captivated.
(If you want to teach one of my favorites, I have a mini unit with Poetry Unbound here and I have upcoming novel studies on both Red Rising and World of Wonders—subscribe to be the first to hear about them!)
3. Protect sacred time for independent reading.
When the schedule fills up, independent reading is often the first thing to go. But it’s also one of the only times students get to practice being readers without being graded or guided.
In my last classroom, I kept Fridays for reading time. You could do the beginning 10 minutes of each class day, break up a longer class period with reading time, or finish each day with reading—whatever works for you! Students love this time. And, critically, I read too—no grading, no laptop, no walking around. That stillness matters. It tells them this time is important. It builds trust. And slowly, even the resistant students start finding books they’ll read.
A few tips that make this time work:
Allow audiobooks and podcasts.
Don’t police reading materials—they get to choose.
Let students draw while listening.
Absolutely no reading on phones or screens.
Avoid homework reading unless you're helping students catch up.
Bonus: take them outside sometimes for a mini “reading field trip.”
4. Let them choose how to respond.
When students have more say in how they respond to what they read, their engagement goes way up. Projects don’t have to be complicated—they just need to be open enough for creativity. Try to reach different students with your projects—what choices can you add in that will bring in the widest selection of your students’ interests as possible?
I’ve written up a few of my favorite creative project ideas that can work for any text—and they’re totally free :)
Giving students options allows them to interact with texts in ways that feel personal—and that’s what helps them remember what they’ve read and connect deeply to texts that would otherwise be inaccessible to them
5. Make assignments feel like real progress.
Some students disengage from reading not because they hate stories, but because they don’t see the point. When every assignment feels disconnected from their lives or future goals, it’s hard to care.
So I make the case that reading and writing are practical, too. In research units, we learn how to read actual academic studies. In writing, we focus on clear communication, style, and voice. I remind students: you don’t have to be an English major to need these skills. You just have to be someone who wants to be understood.
The quiet magic of small reading wins.
If you’ve ever had a student say, “This is the first book I’ve actually read since middle school,” then you know how good it feels. If you’ve ever watched a kid start bringing their book to lunch, you know. These are small moments, but they’re everything.
And maybe—if you’re lucky—they’ll remind you why you fell in love with this work too.
I’ll be sharing more in my next post about how to stay engaged in your own reading and teaching life (even when things feel tired or overwhelming). For now, I hope something here helps you reconnect one student to one story.
Because sometimes that’s all it takes.