How To Discuss Literature With Your Kids

It has always been a struggle to help kids getting into the reading habit. Emily Boudreau shared her thoughts on this topic on Harvard Graduate School of Education:

Literacy and ELA standards often call to mind skills like fluency, phonemic awareness, or vocabulary knowledge — but literature has the potential to be so much more than a vehicle for practical instruction.

While the research around empathy and the social emotional consequences of reading fiction is mixed, the work of Ph.D. student and researcher MG Prezioso points toward the feelings of excitement and curiosity that are often sparked when children connect emotionally with a story.

“There’s an element of enchantment or absorption that happens because you’re so immersed and invested in a story and so there’s a gateway that’s opened to deeper content and concepts,” she says. These concepts include questions of justice and morality presented in ethical dilemmas faced by characters or the potential to develop an understanding of abstract ideas like love, friendship, or jealousy. “I’m invested in having kids read fiction because it points us towards and enables this nuanced, textured understanding of the world we live in.”

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Know and use the themes at work in a text. Books should have a place on your syllabus for a reason, not simply because they’re classic works of literature. For example, read Othello to talk about jealousy or The Hunger Games to talk about power.

Ask yourself why you like a particular book and what excites you about it.

At the same time, think about what’s relevant for kids. While some works commonly read in middle and high school may always be exciting for young people, others may require a bit more work to mobilize student engagement and excitement.

Pair books with something in pop culture. Read 1984, for example, and then discuss recent elections.

Find and use modern retellings of older stories.

Think about representation and the range of perspectives you’re including. Remember, kids need to see themselves in the books they’re reading no matter how old they are.

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