Literature Appreciation for a Reluctant Reader

How do you get your child to appreciate literature?

If you decide to do without a formal literature analysis, then what can you do to teach literature appreciation – expecially in a reluctant reader?

I am wondering what you would recommend her to do for her literature.  Should I just let her read what ever she wants or should I have her pick from a list of options.  How much reading should I be requiring?
Sandy in Utah

Dear Sandy,

I used Sonlight curriculum, and I’ve heard that it’s wonderful for reluctant readers, because they will real great books without the pressure of dissecting stories.  Here is a link to Sonlight.

It can help, with a reluctant reader, to choose books that are high quality but slightly BELOW reading level, to make it as easy to love great literature as possible.  Reading aloud is important as well.  Sometimes just reading the first couple of chapters aloud will get the child “hooked” and they’ll finish the book on their own.

Instead of teaching literary analysis through dissecting books, you can teach the literary terms through a writing program instead.  We did “Learn to Write the Novel Way” one year, in my feeble attempt to teach literary analysis.  The kids wrote their own novel that year (wrote too big a novel, actually, so the project lasted almost two years, which drove me crazy!  LOL!)  Learning things like setting, voice and character was a little easier through the writing program, and it didn’t slow down their enjoyment of reading.  Here is a link to Learn to Write the Novel Way.

You can read a description here.

The question of “how much” reading can vary widely.  For some kids, 5 books may be enough – and for others 50 is the right amount.  Like other subjects, just making sure they are working at a reasonable pace, at their level, is much more important than the actual number of books.  I hope that helps!

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