1.++A+Brief+Description+of+Reluctant+Readers


 * Portrait of a Reluctant Reader **

Being a reluctant reader usually involves having very little motivation or drive to read for personal pleasure or academic success. Reluctant readers come in all shapes, sizes, and sexes, and can generally, but not always, be characterized as socially disengaged low achievers who struggle with reading. Guthrie and Davis (2003), in their article on how to motivate middle school students to read, state that, “Traditionally, the struggling reader has been viewed as a low achiever [who is] lacking cognitive competencies, which may include reading comprehension, study skills, word recognition, and reading fluency” (p. 60). Guthrie and Davis (2003) go on to point out that these areas of deficiency are not the only indicators that a student is a reluctant reader. They argue that the definition of a reluctant or struggling reader, “must be expanded to recognize [the student who] is disengaged from literacy” regardless of his or her academic ability (p. 60). By that, Guthrie and Davis (2003) mean that reluctant readers are often completely unmotivated to read because they lack the necessary confidence in their own ability to comprehend or complete a text (p. 61). This is often referred to as a student’s low level of self- efficacy. According to Margolis and McCabe (2006), self-efficacy refers to a student’s intrinsic and internal beliefs about their own ability to learn (p. 219). Students with low self-efficacy tend to believe that they lack the skills or abilities necessary to understand and successfully complete an academic task or assignment (p. 219).

Margolis and McCabe (2006) go on to point out that low self-efficacy is the root cause of many motivational problems, especially among struggling learners (p. 219). It only stands to reason that if students believe they cannot be successful on an assigned task, that they will not attempt it or attempt it half-heartedly. In time, this half-hearted approach to learning will negatively affect a student’s academic progress and create an endless cycle of failure and self-doubt (p. 220). Margolis and McCabe (2006) also point out that this endless cycle of failure can cause other problems for low achieving students that are not necessarily academic in nature. For instance, low achieving students might have more conflict with their teachers and their peers or feel socially awkward or even unaccepted at school (p. 220). As a result of their lack of motivation and confidence in their own abilities, many reluctant readers will eventually become academically and socially disengaged (Guthrie and Davis, 2003, p. 61). Because of all of these factors, struggling readers often end up feeling uncomfortable in their own school environment. They may even put up walls of self-protection that make it appear that they don’t care about learning or success. Those walls are really just put in place to cover their very real discomfort with being labeled a low achiever (p. 61).

The ramifications of being a reluctant or struggling reader are vast and far reaching. Academic success can be directly related to the amount of successful reading a student has engaged in. According to Jones and Pooré (2008), “reading volume, both in and out of school, is associated with higher reading achievement” (p. 41). Jones and Pooré (2008) go on to cite several studies that indicate that the more words a student reads in a certain span of time, the higher his or her reading scores will be on mandated achievement tests ( p. 41). There is little doubt that in order for students to get better at reading, they must read more. The question remains, how do we as teachers make that happen in our classrooms, especially for those very hard to reach students? The purpose of this paper is to convey the necessary teacher dispositions, classroom structures, and teaching strategies that teachers can use to encourage reluctant readers to not only read and comprehend more, but to learn and grow, both academically and socially as a result of the increased amount of time they spend reading.