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“I Hate to Read”

Susana M. Cevallos

This Monday will be the first day of winter session at Mt. San Antonio Community
College. I am a reading professor and will teach a six week course in which I typically
initiate by preaching on the power of being an independent strategic reader. This is a
power which I assert will benefit students not only at the college level, but within their
careers and beyond. To connect with my students, I will do my usual sharing of personal
experiences of my own struggles with informational reading during my early college
years, as well as the success stories that followed. During the six weeks, the course will
then continue with a weaving of research throughout the curriculum to continually
reinforce the foundation of this reading philosophy. The anecdotes, lectures, and research
will, for the most part, remain; however with the surfacing of brain research regarding
reading within the last few years, I have noticed a shifting and adjustment in my thinking
about the power of being an independent strategic reader. Although I still strongly believe
in the truth behind this principle, my emphasis is now leaning towards the power of
reading; the act itself, and brain development.

My challenge, as it has always been since I began teaching college reading, is to convince
students about its importance. A challenge, because the usual comment about reading
from many of my students, semester after semester, is simply, “I hate to read”. Many of
my students have admitted to not having read a book in its entirety, and some, even
having attended college for a few semesters, have admitted to passing classes without
reading the required text. I am also beginning to believe that the students are not the only
ones needing convincing of the importance of reading. Last year, an adjunct college
professor explained how she felt compelled to minimize the course text reading
requirement because students basically did not do it. This caused me to wonder: Could
this be a glimpse of other teachers’ response towards students’ disinterest in reading and
refusal of doing it?

After hearing the same comments, or more accurately, criticisms, repeated by students
over the semesters on reading, and now capturing an indication of possible college
instructors’ response towards students’ attitude and behavior on reading, I began to ask
questions. How did we get to this point? Why are students unprepared or unwilling to
read subject matter texts when entering college? How and why are students completing
high school or passing college courses without reading whole texts? What are the short
and long term effects on students? Does obtaining knowledge only by auditory means
have the same benefits as obtaining knowledge through reading?

Yes, students may be pleased, and even more, relieved by passing a class without having
to read much. And, teachers may feel as though they are doing their job by merely
dispensing the knowledge, however, the growing research on brain development and
reading has caused an increasing apprehension on my part. My concern: The absence of
college reading experiences among students and the effects it has on critical brain
development and the ramifications when continuing on to higher division college courses,
as well as career and lifetime experiences.
How did we get to this point? Why are students unprepared or unwilling to read subject
matter texts? I have my own notions based on my own experiences and dialogues with
teachers and students over the years, however, research does exists which may give us
some insights and possible answers. Research by Smith and Feathers (1983a; 1983b),
Mikulecky (1982), and Greenwald and Wolf (1979, 1980) revealed that high school
students are being required minimal reading. Further research by Greenwald and Wolf
(1980) also suggests that of the small amount of reading, students are infrequently
required to use these texts as their only or primary source to obtain information. The
study also noted that little sustained reading is occurring in the average secondary
classroom. It is possible that this scenario still exists in secondary classrooms today. Pre-
college students may still not be reading, resulting in being unprepared for college-level
reading, and perhaps, that being the major cause for the unwillingness to read, a
precarious cycle indeed.

How and why are students completing high school or passing college courses without
reading whole texts? Thinking about the possible ideas linked to this question, it is hard
to ignore the impact our educational system has had at the primary and secondary level
with the move towards a standard driven curriculum. Teachers have conveyed their
concerns regarding the demands of keeping to a strict timeline to ensure coverage of
standard objectives. In addition, instructors teaching in low income areas have expressed
further concern due to the added challenges connected with at-risk students, such as,
below grade reading levels. It is evident, with the growing amount of students required to
take reading courses at the college level, that students are being passed along through
high-school and graduating while reading below high school levels.

Research conducted by Moore and Murphy (1987) stated that although teachers at the
secondary level did assign portions of reading, students were not expected to develop
understanding from the text. Concepts that were to be learned by the students from the
assigned reading were later presented through lecture and discussion. It was mentioned
that, “many students can participate in class adequately without reading” (Moore &
Murphy, 1987, p.9). It is possible that this dispensing of information is the form of
instruction many teachers feel compelled to use perhaps to not only deal with the
demands to meet standardized requirements, but also as a way to deal with below grade
level readers. Furthermore, it was interesting to learn that behaviors similar to the
secondary level students mentioned previously were also seen by college students in a
case study by Beyeler (2003). In a psychology class in which the instructor provided
chapter objectives, students noticed that defining the objectives rather than reading the
assigned chapter was all that was needed to pass the course. Not only does the research
provide a possible explanation on how and why students are completing high school
and/or passing college courses without reading whole text, it also provides the
implication that a teacher’s course outline and organization can potentially determine
students’ study/reading behaviors.

What about the long and short terms effects due to the decline of reading? Cognitively,
with the lack of in depth reading experiences with a variety of texts, students may be
intellectually stunted remaining only with a surface level understanding of ideas and
causing students to be limited in managing and applying information in their discipline of
choice. In addition, the lack of reading will also impede on crucial brain development. In
a clinical study done by Just and Keller (2009), it was found that after 100 hours of
intensive remedial reading instruction, children not only improved in their reading ability,
but also showed an increase in their brains’ white matter, unlike students within a
standard class which showed no change in brain structure at all. Moreover, it is important
to note that the brain is malleable, and is more plastic than we used to think. Current
research has shown that the brain is still capable of developing neuropathways even as it
passes through middle age. Needless to say, the college age brain is more than ready and
able to restructure, grow, and develop.

Does obtaining knowledge only by auditory means have the same benefits as obtaining
knowledge through reading? Unfortunately, I have yet to find brain development research
which reveals the differences of the benefits between these means. Researchers have
learned, however, that the brain activity which occurs while reading and the brain activity
which occurs while listening to a person speak is very similar. Again, the specifics are
unclear, and should be furthered researched if it has not been already. If the findings
shows that more brain development occurs when students acquire knowledge through
reading than when students acquire knowledge by listening to someone speak, then this
may cause teachers to reconsider their course organization. First, teachers may be more
motivated to assign reading assignments in which students will use as their primary
source to obtain information. Additionally, teachers may find it necessary to create
reading assignments which ensures that students interact with course texts at various
levels of understanding, and which will keep students from using memorization of
isolated facts and reading to only answer questions instead of reading to learn.

Although much would be gained from the findings of brain studies detailing the
differences on development, what is known already, logically and from experience, is
sufficient to push the need for more reading of various types of texts at all levels of
education. The act of reading includes analyzing information, making connections among
ideas from whole texts, between texts, and our own background knowledge. It involves
drawing conclusions and generalizations, evaluating and questioning. It provides a setting
to grapple, argue, reason, interpret, and synthesize. Reading causes students to think.
Thinking develops and strengthens brain cells just as exercising develops and strengthens
muscles. And just as exercising is at times uncomfortable and may even cause some
pain, reading at the college level can be laborious to the reluctant and unprepared reader.
Educators like coaches towards their athletes, need to care and, more so, trust their
students enough and help them by giving them the challenge to experience the struggle to
gain the growth. Students like athletes need to welcome the challenge, embrace the
struggle and appreciate both for the growth they will bring. For the struggling reader,
opportunely, college can be a second chance, providing the appropriate setting and be just
the time and place for this development to occur.

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