position paper lists the following eight instructional supports that adolescents deserve: • Content-area teachers who provide instruction in the multiple literacy strategies needed to meet the demands of the specific discipline • A culture of literacy in their schools with a systematic and comprehensive programmatic approach to increasing literacy achievement for all • Access to and instruction with multimodal texts • Differentiated literacy instruction specific to their individual needs • Opportunities to participate in oral communication when they engage in literacy activities
• Opportunities to use literacy in the pursuit of civic engagement • Assessments that highlight their strengths and challenges • Access to a wide variety of print and non-print materials Closing Thoughts
As the world around us becomes ever more interconnected and complex, the demands on literacy increase. Today’s new tools and technologies demand ever-higher levels of processing and performance. Access to high-level literacy is more important than ever. In 2014, Common Sense Media issued “Children, Teens, and Reading,” a report suggesting that teens are pulling away from reading. In 1984, 70 percent of 13-year-olds read weekly, compared with 53 percent now. Forty-eight percent of 17-year-olds say they have read for pleasure only once or twice in the last year, according to another study cited in the report. New Yorker writer David Denby, musing over the demise of teen reading, offers this humorous spectacle: A common sight in malls, in pizza parlors, in Starbucks, and wherever else American teens hang out: three or four kids, hooded, gathered around a table, leaning over like monks or druids, their eyes fastened to the smartphones held in front of them. The phones, converging at the center of the table, come close to touching. The teens are making a communion of a sort. Looking at them, you can envy their happiness. You can also find yourself wishing them immersed in a different kind of happiness— in a superb book or a series of books, in the reading obsession itself! You should probably keep on wishing. Yes, wish for a teacher like Nancie Atwell, Anne Merkel, Michael Smith, or Jeff Wilhelm, all who know teens, know books, and understand the essential role of pleasurable, self- selected reading—and the difference it makes for all readers. High school teachers Kelly Gallagher and Penny Kittle (2018) sum up their teaching goals for their students: We want to show our students the beauty that reading and writing can bring to their lives. We do not want them to be indifferent; we want them to be empowered and independent, curious, and passionate.
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ADOLESCENT READERS
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