Before beginning to tutor your teen in reading, you must find out why he is having difficulty reading in the first place. This involves meeting with the teacher and carefully reading all evaluations that have been done. Is there a learning disability? Does he understand phonics? Can he sight read? Does
he just not enjoy reading? Are there comprehension problems? Once you understand what the issues are, ask the teacher how she has worked on these problems so far. You may want to duplicate her efforts in some ways, although it may be the method that is the problem. At any rate, you need to know what has been done so far. If the teacher is willing to provide work accept it, but only on the condition that you don't absolutely have to do it. You may need to change your plans as you learn
more.
There are a number of ways to help a teen improve his reading skills. The most important thing you can do is to teach him to love books. Spend time reading to him from a variety of books until you find one that captures his imagination. Once you know what he likes, you can use this book in your tutoring. Also take him to the bookstore and let him buy any book he wants. A reader needs a library of his own, and it needn't conform to anyone's idea of acceptable but his own. If he doesn't have
books, he can't be a reader. Make sure he owns plenty of his own choosing.
Ask your teen what he wants to know how to read. One child gave this question serious thought. Then he announced that whenever he and his siblings watched television, they were supposed to take turns choosing the programs. However, his sisters had to read the television listings to him, and he suspected they were only reading the programs they wanted to see. So, he wanted to learn to read the television listings and a popular car repair magazine. The father went to a thrift store and found old
copies of the car magazine and also bought an extra copy of their current television listing guide. He used both to teach his son to read. These weren't traditional texts, but the boy was motivated to learn to read them, so he was successful. If your son is only willing to read comic books, buy comic books-but teach him to read the words to you before the book becomes his to keep in his own room. "You can keep it when you can read it to me." The words in the comic book are still words. Use
