As I write this post, my eyes wander to the stack of 90 student essays that have just been graded. I feel that I have performed one of my first true feats of strength as an aspiring English teacher. Next week, my students will begin rewriting sections of these essays (I can already hear the groaning!). What weighs most heavily on my mind, however, is how little students appear to be reading the novel their papers address. For the crafty student who listens in class and skims his Spark Notes, it could be easy to make all A’s and yet never crack open a book.
Educational researcher Tovani (2000) calls this phenomenon “fake reading,” and she has experienced it first-hand. She claims that she read the first and last page of assigned books, found the Cliff notes, and managed to write high scoring essays without every actually reading and interpreting a text on her own. It was not until she began attending an adult book discussion group that she found she could no longer get by with faking it. The other book club members were relating personal experiences to the novel in a way that only true readers can. As I continue to tweak assignments and projects during my current teaching unit, I keep Tovani’s book club in mind. How can I push students to become personally invested in their readings?
–Katie Harris
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