Thoughtful article on why students need to read again. I also love the idea that this professor has gone back to in-class writing assignments.
In my work as a test prep tutor and essay advisor, it is VERY noticeable to me that students have lost reading and writing skills, especially in the last 5 years or so. They have a hard time writing a cohesive essay that addresses a prompt, be it the common app personal statement or a supplemental essay. Of course, a lot of students are simply turning to AI for writing. That’s a different discussion.
What I really find concerning is the vocabulary and reading skills students seem to have lost. When the digital SAT rolled out in 2024, I wasn’t expecting that it would make clear to me, at least, how much ground has been lost in a short period of time. Students can barely absorb a short four sentence passage. They are clueless about vocabulary and transition words (however, therefore, meanwhile, etc…), which the SAT emphasizes (of 54 questions in the verbal section, typically 14-17 questions are vocab or transition word questions). The SAT is a different conversation too. My point is that students can’t work out how to use context, and thus lack the skills needed for reading comprehension.
They don’t know fairly basic words, such as discount (not just money off the price) and prescribe (not just a piece of paper from the doc) and they seem unable to think about the word prefixes to gain some kind of understanding. The read a four sentence passage and have no idea what it’s about.
Obviously people do still read books, but I love that this article promotes the idea that rather than making everything shorter and allegedly more digestible because students have no attention span, they can read and indeed enjoy discussing books. They can write and enjoy the process.
If I am feeling optimistic, I believe that there always needs to be room in higher education for students to read and write and enjoy it. If I am feeling cynical, I am wondering if it matters when AI does all the work.
Interesting assessments, but I wonder whether or not you are working with a special group of students as those whom I encounter are highly skilled in these areas.
P.S. Not sure why the entire article appears in my response post; I have tried to delete it. I just wanted to highlight a single sentence.
I did read the article, but did not find it to be persuasive.
The most common issues that I encounter with college applicants’ writing is getting them to communicate in a clear and concise manner as many try too hard to impress readers with elaborate word choices and pseudo-intellectual insights.
Another issue that I encounter with young, ambitious writers is that each is typically at a stage of life where it is more important to question matters than to state understandings or experiences as conclusions, yet they misunderstand and believe that showing insights is the same as arriving at conclusions.
In short, there seems to be an incorrect belief that good writing is composed of complex words and thoughts when, in fact, the purpose of writing well is to communicate in an effective fashion.
I’m working with college-bound students in well-funded suburban school districts. In general, many schools in this region send students to competitive universities.
When you say the article wasn’t persuasive, what idea are you referring to? The title of the article, or students don’t need to read books, or something else?
Reading and writing is one thing I have never had to worry about with my kids. They are both excellent. Math, on the other hand, is not their strong suit. Reading and writing comes so easy to my D22 that, in comparison, she thought she was ‘terrible and bad at math’ for a really long time. But then she started working retail and realized that her math skills were above the average member of the general public (which is what I had been trying to tell her for years) but she just doesn’t like it and doesn’t excel at it the way she does with writing. As an English/Creative Writing major she is reading books and writing all the time.
I have seen this happening with my HS and my college kid, in class writing assignments. I have no problem, but it is a big change since they never did that before, even when small kids really (if we mean hand-written in class assignments).
However, they both consistently read whole books in middle school and HS; in fact, except for the year of AP Lang, they almost exclusively read entire books in English. (One in a well-funded public HS and one in a private HS). That was their reading list (except for poetry units). Clearly this must be the exception, but my 11th grader in English goes from book, to book, just like I did.
Don’t misunderstand that I don’t think any students read books anymore. I know reading is still popular, but up until maybe the last five years, I wouldn’t have felt the need to put the word “still” in this sentence. I am actually somewhat hopeful that reading “whole books” is making a modest comeback thanks to recent prominent appearances in movies and television.
I think I find it unbelievable that many schools have abandoned the practice of students doing summer reading, or of assigning reading for homework, which have just been a normal expectation. I honestly think that much of the problem is that we are adjusting our expectations to fit with students’ new “schedules” of time dedicated to tiktok and other social media, when literally just a few years ago, students would absolutely have spent more time reading and doing written assignments. I would love to see an article discussing the evolution of how WE lowered these expectations. Because this writer makes it clear that not only can students read, they can also enjoy the act of reading and then writing about it. Maybe I am overly optimistic that we will find our way back from the mindless garbage of social media.
I also don’t understand how teachers aren’t assigning (or aren’t allowed to assign) the reading of whole books. Like, I literally do not understand it? Why? I get it is hard, but so is calc and people aren’t dropping the teaching of that that I hear.
It is the norm around here, maybe fewer than before to add more diversity to lists? I can’t speak to that, but certainly still plenty of books. I have friends in many nearby towns/districts/schools. One of my BFF’s spouses is a long-time English teacher, too (not at either of my kids’ schools/districts) and sometimes we discuss their lists. I know for a fact they teach whole books as well. Then again, pretty much every article I read about “America today” doesn’t speak to anything around me. I live in the opposite land, I guess.
Clearly this must be the exception, but my 11th grader in English goes from book, to book, just like I did.