Reading with Highschoolers by Lindsey Jane Godbold @ljgodbold
Most of us have some ideals about reading to children. We certainly read to children who cannot read for themselves. We tend to expect to sit and read with six- and seven-year-olds. Our homeschool visions of sitting around a fire while reading stories usually involve reading to small children. We typically don't imagine ourselves reading to older kids who can read for themselves. We don't imagine teenagers piling around on the couch to gather around mom to read. However, reading to children of any age forms a bond and family memory that is not long forgotten. It also happens to be an awesome way to teach older kids to explore more difficult works with confidence.
I had this idea that by the time my children were in the high school grades, I'd be more hands off. I just imagined that when they were teenagers, they'd be working on their own, whatever that meant. In my imaginary homeschool vision, high schoolers sit around on the computer doing their studies... alone.
While independence in learning has always been a goal in our home, I've never pushed for complete independence. I thought I would, but I found that I longed to keep them around me, even if it was just for a portion of the day. As the older ones grew and we added younger ones to the mix, I looked for ways to keep the kids together in many subjects and together in their connections with one another. Morning basket helped significantly with that. But as the older ones entered high school, I could see that they needed connection with me in some areas without the little ones around.
I tend to make quite challenging reading lists for my kids. I don't want to overwhelm them, but I do want to challenge them. I also wanted them to dive into these more difficult books and not just glean the information, but really enjoy them and use it to shape their worldview and challenge their character, as well as their intellect. I didn't want them to read the classics just to be able to say they read the classics. The simplest way I have found to accomplish these things is to read with my high schoolers.
Some books are best treated like a book club. The Hobbit is an example from this year. We each read the book on our own but had weekly "book club" discussions about our reading. (I also pulled the middle schooler along on this particular journey, since The Hobbit isn't too advanced.) More than just reading the story and doing some vocabulary words—I wanted to really dive into the book and explore the themes Tolkien was putting before them. I looked at dozens of literary guides, but none of them seemed able to guide the kids like sitting down and having a discussion. The guides helped me understand the story better, but I saved the kids from having to read those and just guided the discussions toward the kids finding their own way through the book. It surprised me how deeply they thought about the story in this format. Not only did they find the story of Bilbo amusing and entertaining, but they were able to identify with him and feel his courage as a small guy against a large evil. Reading it with them gave me the opportunity to ask what they were seeing and answer their questions as we went along. My teenage son is on the smaller side, so he identified with Bilbo's lack of physical strength and how he made up for it with intelligence and being clever. My teenage daughter began to see how racial differences and biases held by the elves, dwarves, hobbits, etc. made them interact with the other races in ways that were perhaps inefficient and denied the good in them. She made connections with the racial issues we've been seeing in the news this year, and how affected we are by ethnocentrism and bias in our own lives. As a teacher, these are awesome connections they were making that had very practical implications in their real world. I couldn't have assigned them something to bring those things to light in the same way. But in reading a book alongside them and discussing it with them, we were able to have some insightful conversations. As a mom, I couldn't believe how much connection they began to have with me and with one another just from reading The Hobbit.
Some books, reading to them and discussing after each reading is helpful. I'll admit, the initial plan for The Iliad was for them to read it on their own and discuss it with me. However, they both seemed so bogged down in the wordiness and repetition you find in The Iliad, it was clear early on that they weren't going to get as much out of it reading on their own. I decided to try reading the book to them. I know they're high schoolers, perfectly capable of reading on their own. They read Plutarch, certainly they could handle The Iliad. And while, yes, those things are true, I wanted to see what happened if I read it to them and we discussed after each reading. The results surprised me. Not only do they love being read to (both teenagers have admitted this to me), but I also enjoy the time we get to spend together. Reading with them, we've been able to pick up little things as we went along. This would be the same if we were listening to an audio book together. There isn't anything magical about my reading of The Iliad, I assure you. We just love being able to discuss it as we read and stare wide-eyed at the vast array of ways one can be killed with a spear.
What sort of questions do you ask to get teenagers talking about books? Well, I'm glad you asked! I do have some questions that are not specific to any single book that have been helpful for us in getting the discussion going. I
What character do you most closely identify with? Why is that?
If you could be anyone in this story, who would you want to be? Why?
What choices were made in this chapter (book) that changed the course of the story?
Why do you think the author wrote this story? (Or why do you think the author wrote the story in this way?)
If you could give a title to this chapter, what would it be?
What is the motivation behind [a given action]?
Is this character right or wrong in how they're handling this?
What would you do (or feel) in this situation?
What alternative could have been chosen in this situation?
Why do you think the author included [particular scene or event] in this story?
What does the author want you to think about this story?
What is the author missing? (Should they have included more details, more descriptions, an alternative motivation, etc.)
Is there anything significant in the setting of the story?
Is there any one quote that stood out to you?
How could the story have ended? What would that have changed about the message behind the story?
These are just a few of the many questions you could ask, but this is enough to get you going. I have also found that reading the literary guides and study guides help me as I lead the discussion more than they help the kids as they read the story.
I have one child who was reluctant at first, because he didn't want to be wrong in his answers. So, I made it a point to find a way to affirm him while making him dig a little deeper or pushing him in the right direction. ("Interesting you bring that up. How does that further the story?") We didn't get to all these questions every discussion, but we got to them over the course of the book. Did I hit every literary device used in the books? No. In fact, the discussions were so guided by what the teens answered, that sometimes our entire discussion was just centered around one question.
We get so much more out of reading together than just checking off that we did literature (or history, or science, or whatever subject we're calling it). It has brought me closer to my kids. It has given us an avenue to discuss hard things that might not be brought up in daily conversation. Reading together has brought the kids closer together and taught them to respect one another's point of view more. It has given them more confidence in expressing their own thoughts. They're learning that they have a voice that deserves to be heard. They have opinions that matter. They're learning that others, even if they saw something differently than they did, also have a voice to hear. Others can help us see the same thing in a different way. We all read the same thing and we don't all see the same things in the story. That is amazing! Far from being hard and overwhelming, reading with high schoolers is the reward for all those long hours teaching them to read all those years ago. It is enjoyable for all of us and is helping us grow. And isn't that what education is all about?