By: Ally Ener

It’s not possible to fix everything everyone has ever disliked about required reading. Not everyone will be pleased with the reading selections no matter what they are, and not everyone will like the ways in which they are taught to students. But things can still be done to reduce the number of people that are unhappy with required reading as it currently exists, and this starts with figuring out how to capture students’ attention.

One solution to this issue is to shake up the list of books that are assigned to students. Classic literature is important, but maybe it shouldn’t be the only thing students read in their high school English classes. Providing more variety would hold more students’ interests. Maybe some teachers could also allow their students to choose between different pieces of literature to make them feel more involved in the class. If not, they could still ask students how they felt about certain pieces of literature to take students’ preferences into account for future classes.

Additionally, it would be helpful for English teachers to incorporate a few contemporary novels into their classes alongside other pieces of literature to show students that they can analyze them in the same way. Also, sometimes students are better able to relate to contemporary novels, so reading a few of these could show students that they are capable of understanding and enjoying required reading. When asked what she most enjoyed reading in high school, Celia Garcia, a junior accounting major at TLU, said, “I think that it was pretty cool that we read 13 Reasons Why in school. I liked how in-depth the book got about suicidal thoughts and things like that, and how it deals with depression, and how it talks about how it feels to go through that.”

Teachers should also probably stop playing recordings of the readings in class. Even if students frequently skip out on reading outside of class, they often still don’t pay attention in class if there is just a recording playing; they’re more likely to fall asleep. Students need to be actively engaged in the reading, and some teachers have started noticing this. “We have to do a lot more holding people accountable all the time. They have to talk about what they’re doing. They have to write about what they’re doing. They have to mark the texts. And we have to hold them accountable. No more just sitting and listening,” said BJ Swenson, an English teacher and instructional coach at El Campo High School.

In-class reading needs to be active, and sometimes it also needs to be fun. In Mrs. Swenson’s 10th grade English class, she teaches Cyrano de Bergerac by having students read a portion of the play in class, discuss it, and then show that part of the French film to her students. Students seem to love this tactic, and it shows them that they can understand and enjoy older literature, even if it was originally written in another language. “That’s one of my favorites, too, because kids really like that one, and they can’t believe they can understand French,” said Swenson.

Of course, some of these solutions may be difficult for some teachers to adopt, and they may not work in every situation. Some teachers may be hesitant or unwilling to change their book selections or allow students to choose their own books. Getting newer books into classrooms might be especially difficult for many teachers because people are often reluctant to change, or it might simply not be within the school’s budget. “The book lists don’t change often, due in part to tradition. The ‘that’s how we’ve always done it’ thinking. Money also determines it—you know, budget limits,” said Lynn Jarzombek, an English teacher at La Vernia High School.

However, even if some teachers are unable or unwilling to implement changes, others will do it, and that’s okay because not every English class is the same. Hopefully students will be exposed to both older and more contemporary reading selections throughout their different classes. “I’ve got teachers that like to use what’s popular now, you know, lots of new literature. I find that what happens is that we then end up disjointed; there’s no thematic piece running through. So I’d rather stick with the theme, and that may or may not be the right thing to do. And that’s why I think it’s good that we all do things differently and you don’t get the same English teacher every year,” said Mrs. Swenson.

It’s also important for students to realize their part in all of this as well. The whole point of assigning readings in school is for students to learn something from them. When students skip out on reading, they’re cheating themselves out of their education and the potential discovery that they enjoy certain pieces of literature. It’s all about gaining a new perspective and seeing that literature can be fun, relatable, and understandable if you allow it to be instead of getting so caught up in the fact that it’s a “required” school assignment. There are many changes that teachers and schools can make that would be very helpful, but the change that might make the most difference is students finding a spark of motivation within themselves.