As I sit and write this, I am receiving a flurry of text messages from my brother, a junior in high school. It’s day 3 of the academic school year, and already, he is upset about the “piles of work” he has been assigned. I, confused, ask him what kind of assignments teachers could possibly have come up with in such a short amount of time. His answer? Reading.
I remember being in his shoes: tired after a long day at school, only to have to come home and crack open a 5-pound textbook and read chapters and chapters about the intricacies of topics I had no real interest in. While I can thank my high school textbooks for ensuring I’ll never forget that mitochondria are the “powerhouses” of cells, or that the slope of a line can be found by putting “rise” over “run”, at the same time, they made reading feel like a chore. Today, I can confidently say that the page-turners I read for pleasure as a teenager were absolutely pivotal in shaping me into the student, professional, and friend I am—and they only ever made reading fun! But what exactly makes independent reading so important for teens?
Personal Responsibility for Learning
When a teen is given the opportunity to read independent of a rigid curriculum, they gain the power to choose what they read, and how they read. Oftentimes, high school English or History curricula, for example, won’t cover the average learner’s primary area of interest. My New York City high school certainly didn’t go as deeply into the roles of women during wartime as I would’ve liked it to, so I took the reins and read historical fiction told by women myself. In doing so outside of academic instruction, I was able to decide the pace of my reading and how I processed the information I was consuming. This level of control can have benefits more significant than you may think. Studies show that being able to choose what to read leads to increased motivation to read in the first place, which naturally results in a teen’s greater fluency, vocabulary, and overall academic performance. No one can deny the benefits of reading, but the vital first step is wanting to read to begin with.
Social and Self-Confidence
One of the great joys of reading is finding yourself woven in between the lines of the pages in front of you; the feeling of being understood, even if by someone merely fictional. My 14-year-old adventurous self warmed at meeting heroines with my same distaste for structure and rules, or following characters with my own insecurities as they overcame them. As research demonstrates, in connecting with stories and characters that reflect their own experiences and challenges, teens develop stronger empathy and personal identity. Reading inherently evokes a sense of selflessness; it forces one to follow the paths of others, and live outside their own life, even if just momentarily. The broadened perspective that results from this allows for stronger social and communication skills in a reader’s everyday life.
I can also attest to the satisfaction and sense of accomplishment that comes with finishing a book—especially a book one independently chose to read. High-low books (high-interest, low reading level) like those at Storyshares ensure that teens of all reading levels can feel this pride. Written about mature-age subjects and made to look and feel like Young Adult chapter books, high-low books eliminate the stigma that accompanies the reading of books that are explicitly made for beginning readers—which can often look and feel babyish and irrelevant to striving teen readers. With each completed book, the reader’s self-confidence and belief in their reading abilities soar!
If you’re a teen exhausted by the textbook assignments from your teachers, or the parent of a teen who similarly associates reading with homework, take it from me: reading and enjoyment are far from mutually exclusive. There is a story out there for everyone, and with the freedom to choose what you take off the bookshelf, it won’t be hard to find.
Browse the Storyshares eLibrary or online shop to inspire the striving teen reader in your life. You’ll find books at every intersection of interest (from upper elementary through early adulthood) and ability (books written at every level). Happy reading!