Topic: Avid Teenage Readers

10-second review: Parents and teachers significantly influence children to become avid readers.

Title: “Who Is the Avid Adolescent Reader in Taiwan? The Rule of Gender, Family and Teacher.” Su-Yen Chen. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy (November 2008), 214-223. A publication of the International Reading Association (IRA).

Summary: Children become avid readers when they see parents who do things with their reading, see that reading helps to achieve their success. “These results suggest that what parents do is more important than who they are.” Teachers who are enthusiastic about their subjects also contribute to the enthusiasm that students have for reading. “The teacher’s influence is as important as the parents’, at least for 12th graders.”

Comment: I think I intuitively knew the truth of these findings. However, that parents show what they have learned from their reading contributes to their children’s becoming avid readers is, for me, a new and thought-provoking idea. That teachers are enthusiastic about the subjects they teach—not just about reading—is also an interesting thought. We assume that all teachers are enthusiastic about the subjects they teach. My experience tells me they are not. At least they don’t show it and their students are bored. I need to think more about parents’ and teachers’ roles in encouraging avid reading. RayS.