All the pressure on students to succeed in school is causing many to see assignments, such as reading, to be daunting tasks that must be avoided at all costs, especially when they have easy access to the internet at any given point. According to an article published by The Atlantic, many college students have never once finished a book, even in the most elite schools such as Harvard or Yale. With the pressure of academic success weighing on their shoulders and distractions glued to teens’ hands, many students have lost any sort of desire to read.
According to the Poly Prep News in October, to combat this problem, Poly has appealed to students’ competitive natures by reinstating a reading requirement and creating a Reading Challenge in the middle school.
In the Reading Challenge, created by Dan Doughty, Head of Poly Middle School, students are rewarded a fun bookmark for every ten books they read until they read 50. “We wanted to bring [the reading challenge] back to make sure that students are developing their love for reading and the practice of reading for fun,” said Doughty. The Reading Challenge appeals to students’ competitive spirit while still setting realistic goals.
As a result of reading requirements being considerably minimized by schools during COVID-19, many students lost interest in reading altogether. The National Library of Medicine reported a decline in reading achievements in grades three to eight. With this, Doughty made an initiative to not only bring back a reading requirement but also students love to read again.
The level of participation in the Middle School Reading Challenge has exceeded the expectations of many people.“So we’ve got some kids already that have completed 50. I only printed up to 50 for the year, but the kids have been reading fast, so I just made another for 60 through 100,” said Doughty.
However, this competition wasn’t always as successful as it is now: “And [in the beginning] it didn’t get much traction. I don’t think we had all the details quite worked out, but it sort of introduced it,” said Doughty. In addition, Arnelle Williams, Middle School English Faculty, found in the beginning that the distribution of work was unfair. “Personally, I was so focused on the preparation for my main class, and then [having] to do something extra, where perhaps another teacher from a different department didn’t have to think about that. It felt [as if] the workload wasn’t being dispersed throughout the whole Middle School.”
Doughty saw these problems and took action: “Instead of adding it to specific teachers, Ms. Owen and I are [taking it on] so that it’s really emphasizing that it’s a middle school-wide initiative, not like homework or a thing that another teacher is giving to them.” In addition, Samantha Owen, Middle School Librarian, and Doughty celebrated those who do read by giving them the time to come up during the weekly assembly and talk about a book they had recently read. With these changes, Owen and Doughty have been successful in their goal to instill a culture of reading. “When I first started [working at Poly], I would see the same group of students always come in to read, and now I am seeing more people come in to get books,” Owen added.
Despite these improvements, some wonder if the challenge will continue to improve as these middle schoolers get older. Andrew Brandmeyer’29 said the reading challenge is “way more of a younger thing.” Brandmeyer predicts that “those who don’t like reading probably will continue not to like reading [as they get older].” However, Owen is optimistic about the future. She noted that she has multiple plans to continue to instill this reading culture, and she has “been really working with the kids on helping to collect their bookmarks [and] getting them books to read.”
In addition to these multiple initiatives, Owen is also trying to change how students think about reading. She said, “I think what’s really important is not diminishing any type of reading that [middle schoolers] do. What I have found is that sometimes, with students who say they don’t like reading, they are frequently students who like to read comics and graphic novels and have been told that doesn’t count as real reading, which I disagree with.”
As a result of all the work, Owen, Doughty, and the English teachers are all optimistic that the students will keep reading, even when it’s not a requirement. Williams said “My hope is that whatever skills [students] learned in middle school, they continue that journey [through] high school,” she said. “There’s hope that [students] can at least reflect and [ask themselves] ‘Oh, when I was in middle school, I used to do this. How come I don’t do that anymore? How can I get back to that?’”
