Gay Ivey’s article, "The Social side of engaged reading for young adolescents," presents a study that demonstrates how social reading can change the reading culture among the teenagers. Teenagers in the modern world are more engaged in social activities that include group conversations, social media conversations and other social activities other than reading. It has also been observed that these teenagers do not really like reading material that leads to testing, or rather when they do, they do not take time to understand the lessons of that text, beyond fulfilling the test demands. My interest in this article rotates around understanding how the reading culture can be inculcated in our teenagers, by taking advantage of their social interests and engagements.
The article takes us through the social aspect of reading, why it should be encouraged and how teachers and educators can introduce the social aspect into their classrooms and student engagements. The social aspect of reading manifests itself in conversations that the students often find themselves in during or after reading. Conversations are created over certain books or characters that a student comes across. It has been noted that students often find themselves engaging in conversations in their social groups, regarding the books that they have already read, or in an attempt to understand certain aspects of the book that they are currently reading. By encouraging social reading, it has been noted that students are more interested in understanding what they have read. From the article, we understand that students continue to engage in conversations because they do not want their thinking to end. They seek further understanding by engaging in conversations with their peers, from which different aspects and perspectives are presented. This article demonstrates how teachers and other academicians can introduce or create a desire to read in the minds of the students. Teachers such as Ellen are seen engaging the students through provocative engagements that create a desire by the students to seek to understand her thinking towards a character or an aspect of the book.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
From this article, we find an interesting habit by the students where they are seen to engage each other in their reading proactively. It is interesting to see students seeking to understand what they have read, whereas no specific assignment or task awaits after reading. It is also interesting to see how the reading impacts on the students. From the article, several students have confirmed how reading has changed how they approach life, how they interact with each other and their views of other people. Social reading changes the previously considered to be a huge task by the teenagers and helps create a reading culture which could have a positive impact on both their adolescence and adult life.
References
Gay Ivey, (n.d.). The Social Side of Engaged Reading for Young Adolescents
