Model Pupils

I was teaching English to a group of boys. They were all non-readers. Non-reading high school age students are an interesting lot of people. They have learned so many strategies to survive without reading that it is amazing. Their brains work in so many other ways than the average reader.

Most of these boys were the type of people who could take apart an engine and put it back together with their eyes closed. I knew that their strategies for Non-reading were pretty well established and teaching them to read would require ingenuity on my part.

I chose to work with them from subject areas that they were already comfortable with. CARS!

I brought in a couple of model cars. One was a red pick up truck and another was a black sedan.

I asked the boys if they knew how to put the models together. They all had a way of doing it. NONE of them planned to read the directions.

So I pulled out the directions for putting these little models together and I began by writing direction 1 on the board and showing them step by step what the words on the directions were. The boys were interested in this. They loved making the models and they made them well as we followed the directions as a group.

My focus became following directions. Although I was required to do the usual spelling stuff and all I took the words from the directions we were reading.

These boys were old enough to know they could not read and they did not need to be forced to sit and look at books about Spot and Sally. They needed to work on what made sense to them.

It became a weekly reward that if they finished their reading assignment they could choose a model from my box and sit and put the model together. My classroom was filling up with model cars!

I brought in the directions to my VCR and the class and I worked to figure out how to work it. We built a couple of cabinets that I still have in my home. My students and I made kites that we learned to do by watching a movie that gave us directions. We learned reading skills by using our hands. This kept my students interested in learning to read.

They may never pick up a book and read it on their own unless it is a magazine that they are interested in. However, they are all survivors.

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