Reluctant teen readers and Allison Van Diepen

Last week I spent two days at the Ontario Library Association annual Super Conference, and one of the sessions I attended was on reluctant teen readers.  I have a male version at home, very embarrassing for his library mom.  Who’d have thought that a book toting mom could have a non reader in the house?  I tried everything: magazines, reading to him, books scattered in every corner of the house, picture books, graphic novels, high-interest books for boys like BMX biking, newspapers…ultimately it all made no difference, he does not enjoy reading.  When he went to a book store, it was overwhelming; he did not even know where to begin. You can imagine that reading some of those subject textbooks was brutal.

So, the session I went to was delivered by Allison van Diepen, an Ottawa teacher, with teaching experience in Brooklyn and an author of two books Street Pharm, Snitch and a third one Ravento be released any day now.  She talked abut how students, for a variety of reasons, often do not enjoy the  classic reading material found on high school English course lists (dead white guy stuff) but enjoyed reading other books, especially those selected by themselves. Key features for popular books, include: fast paced action right from the get-go, short chapters and paragraphs, action is easy to visualize, lots of dialog, edgy and dramatic, real in that it reflects the daily life and language of the kids. 

I purchased Street Pharm for my 17 year young son and the next day at the dinner table, he announced that he loved it and had already read over 100 pages! The next day he was over half way though it! Hope glimmers on the horizon.

Check out Allison van Diepen’s web page. Like the books she writes, it is a fun hook for teens and includes some teaching materials to support the books.

I should say, that my son also liked books by Andrew Clemens and Eric Wilson.  Keeping the momentum going is the hard part.

Rowan

Why I love to hate high school football

My son, in grade 11, plays football on the senior boys team for East York CI.  In grade 9 and 10 he played on the junior team and last year they won the city junior championship.  He proudly wears his Goliath’s jacket.

Football has been very important and beneficial for my son. It gave him a gang to hang out with when he was a miner niner; it gave him a bunch of friends; it taught him all about teamwork, respect for rules; consequences about lateness, skipping and poor marks; it gave him some teachers that he could talk to and who have provided support and understanding when he needed it. It has given him status with his peers.

So why do I hate it? After years of telling him that hitting was bad, the first thing football teaches is how to hit and hit hard. He is tired and hungry all of the time, and homework is secondary. Who knew that football was such hard work? When I catch the occasional play on TV, other than the odd “look at that SOB run”, most of it seems to be excruciatingly slow, and don’t even talk to me about stopping the clock – whose bright idea was that?  Every game I worry that he’ll get hurt or injured. But even more than all of this, I hate the neanderthal attitude that seems to hang around these boys.  Ok, so they are not all intellectual neanderthals, but to have a bunch of these boys in a classroom can be very disruptive-they are noisy, pushy, often stinky ‘cos the showers don’t work, and they hang out as a clump.  Bravado, camaraderie? Call it what you will, but it can be hard to control. 

Football is a huge distraction for my son, who struggles academically, and I will be very happy when the season is over.  And by the way, they do not pull kids from the team if they fail courses, otherwise my son would have been out of it last year.  Will I stop him from playing? Too late for this year, but next year is another story.

Rowan