You Want Me to Read WHAT???
If a child or teen hasn’t caught on to reading, is totally uninterested, or shuts down when a parent or a teacher tries to teach reading, we need to ask ourselves: “What are we putting in front of their eyes?”
In Through the Heart, Right to the Brain
Here’s what works for the child:
A. It’s about something he/she absolutely adores, spends time on, talks/gestures about.
B. It’s designed to make reading a piece of cake for the brain.
If the material doesn’t fit those two requirements, it’s going to be toast with a reluctant reader. So then we might ask ourselves, “What are we thinking?” That question actually comes to my mind every time I look at typical reading materials: What were they thinking when they published this?
The last thing we want to do is lose the reader–either his interest or his confidence. If the task is boring or looks too tough, he’ll avoid it just to avoid failure. I know you’ve all seen this happen. So I’m back to waving my flag…Let’s go in through the heart and teach to the brain. 
Anyone who has followed my blogs and created personal books for their reluctant reader knows that it’s magic. All we have to do is follow those two guidelines. High Interest + High Visibility = Magic.
Size Really Does Matter
And–as far as possible–get the classroom on board. At the very, very least, get the staff to enlarge the materials used so that the brain’s visual pathway has a chance to mature more quickly, more easily.
No matter which student I test “size” with, I get the same response: identical material offered in large type wins hands down over typical school-sized small type. There is never any hesitation on the child’s part. Why? Because it’s easier to read. We want easy. Easy is good.
Here’s a review of how to create those beginning materials that fit the bill: check out Personal Books; that’s the starting link. After that, type “Personal Books” in the “Search the Blog” box to the right and you’ll get a string of articles to help you finesse this. Next, check out Modified Books. That link will encourage you to modify classroom materials as well.
So Simple
We want their ATTENTION!! and we want to make it eeeeeasy. Simple formula: Go in through the heart and teach to the brain!
Cheers,
