Analysis: What Kids Are Reading, In School And Out

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The passages "If we stop telling kids what to read, they might start reading again" by Max Ehrenfreund and "What Kids Are Reading, In School and Out" by Lynn Neary both detail the struggle between what kids want to read and should be reading. According the the passages, the youth is reading books that are assessed at a lower level than what they should be reading. Kids should have a say in what they read to create more voracious and enthusiastic readers. Firstly, kids are more likely to do what they like to do. When we encourage kids to read the things they want, they tend to enjoy it better. As Pam Allyn, an advocate for literacy, says, "You tend to get better at something you love to do." If society needs good readers, it is important that youth are passionate about reading. When we let children have a choice, they learn just how much they like reading and are more likely to continue. Kyle Good from Scholastic Corp. believes that …show more content…

They believe that children should be reading the classics. For example, Adriel Miller, a tenth grader at Woodrow Wilson High School, says that reading the classics is "a challenge." The issue with this logic is that when we are making kids read what they aren't interested in, they will associate feelings of negativity with the task of reading. As previously stated, when kids enjoy reading, they want to continue reading. Sometimes, like in the case of the "Hunger Games", the level of the dialogue doesn't represent the content. While the "Hunger Games" may be written at the level of a fifth grader, the book is much more mature. It is both twisted in logic and violent, and when kids read it, they work harder to understand the content. Because of this, kids reading these books, and more like them, not only enjoy reading, but also take out real world skills from the complexity of the

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