What is the #1 skill necessary to becoming an excellent student?
It is the ability to read well.
But here's the crux of the matter: children go to school to learn how to read, but they don’t discover the love of reading.
“You don’t have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.”
To be frank, we get just about everything wrong when we teach schoolchildren how to read. If a child does not learn to love reading, he’ll have no incentive to become a good reader.
One of the mistakes schools make is to insist that elementary-grade students write book reports. Children are not usually big fans of writing book reports; on the contrary, they do not like to write book reports!
Consequently, they learn to associate a negative learning experience with reading.
When we have a negative experience, we want to avoid having the same experience again. Children are no different. They are little versions of ourselves and their emotions operate on the same principles.
Let’s look at the anatomy of writing a book report.
THE BOOK REPORT
This is a real life sample of questions an elementary-grade child could expected to answer:
Do you like the book? Why so?
Can you come up with another title?
What is the setting/background information?
Who are the main characters?
Who was your favorite character, and why?
How does the story start? ...
What is the story's plot?
I would suggest that fours of these questions are too advanced for a child with an undeveloped mind, and a fifth is going to bore a child.
Some Considerations to Ponder
Why frustrate a child in the name of reading by demanding that he writes a sentence or two explaining why he likes or doesn’t like the book. We should ask ourselves, will will this encourage a love of reading? If not, we should abandon the question.
Suggesting he come up with an alternative title is unreasonable. If it is meant to be an exercise in creativity, there are effective ways to foster creativity in a child, but this is not one of them.
I could go down the list of questions, but I won’t bore you!
In a nutshell, book reports are merely busy work for schoolchildren that create a negative association with reading.
Wouldn’t a free-flowing conversation be a better way to engage a child than to ask him to write a book report?
THE HEART OF THE MATTER
We fail to teach children how to love reading because we turn it into a chore before a child can learn to enjoy it.
The point in the elementary years should not be to teach a child how to analyze a book, but the aim should be to encourage a child to love reading a book.
“I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.”
Instead of book reports, let your child read for the enjoyment of reading. When he's older and ready for thinking analytically about a book, he can learn to write an essay about a theme in a book he read.
Until then, supply him with quality books and let him enjoy reading unto his heart’s content.
No book reports allowed!
Don’t miss our free download, Ten Books Every Well-Educated Child Should Read.
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As a homeschooler, you will never have to worry about failing your children, because working with Liz, you will feel confident, calm, and motivated; as she guides you to train your children’s minds and nurture their characters.
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Elizabeth Y. Hanson is a homeschooling thought-leader and the founder of Smart Homeschooler.
As an Educator, Homeschool Emerita, Writer, and Love and Leadership Certified Parenting Coach, she has 21+ years of experience working in education.
Developing a comprehensive understanding of how to raise and educate a child, based on tradition and modern research, and she devotes her time to helping parents to get it right.
Elizabeth is available for one-on-one consultations as needed.
"I know Elizabeth Y. Hanson as a remarkably intelligent, highly sensitive woman with a moral nature and deep insight into differences between schooling and education. Elizabeth's mastery of current educational difficulties is a testimony to her comprehensive understanding of the competing worlds of schooling and education. She has a good heart and a good head. What more can I say?”
—John Taylor Gatto Distinguished educator, public speaker, and best-selling author of Dumbing Us Down: The Hidden Curriculum of Compulsory Schooling
