Earlier this week I caught my fourteen-year-old sister doing something usually reserved for me: opening a book and devouring chapters quite efficiently. The only problem, of course, is that she was reading Eclipse, the third title in the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. This marked a noted concern for me: is there a point where "schlock" might be good for a young reader? Is reading anything better than nothing at all? Most importantly, is there a way to parlay this sudden interest in bound pages to a new passion, a great new source of knowledge?
According to an article posted on the TES website, it would be wrong and foolhardy to not link reading and writing in any age group, especially teenagers. The writer of said article, Alan Davies, states that "the writing attainment target is crucial to any assessment of the importance of teaching children about sounds in words, especially words created using an alphabetic script". Davies goes further to emphasize various officials in his field stating that students who read, write. The application of abilities such as phonological awareness leading to plausible spellings and various literacy skills is immeasurable, allowing any real kind of reading to inform and improve the writings of young people. According to an extensive NEA essay about the decline of literacy and long-form reading in America, the percentage of young adults who read novels recreationally has slipped to 14% of all book sales, a disturbing figure when compared to to the overwhelming 44% of book sales, in print and digital formats. From this block of information, one can infer that due to the rapidly dropping figures of teenage and young readers in general, and the direct links between reading and writing, that any kind of teenage consumption of literature, even that concerning the pulsing undead hearts of vampires, is a great thing.
This is a great post about literacy among teens on the decline and how it can be addressed. I agree that regardless of the subject matter teenagers finding enjoyment in reading is the best way to combat falling literacy rates. The TES article linking better writing to reading cannot be denied and the figures published by the National Endowment for the Arts are alarming to say the least, it is clear that more needs to be done to address the issue.
ReplyDeleteI have noticed many teenage students carrying around the Twilight novels and they are genuinely excited about reading them. The rise of books that teens are interested in such as the Twilight series, and Harry Potter novels get teens interested in reading will certainly help the literacy rates among teens. IIt seems like the most iconic books teens are reading revolve around the occult and it is my belief that there is not a wide enough range of subject matters to stimulate a larger group of teens to read.