Why Do I Have to Read This?: Literacy Strategies to Engage Our Most Reluctant Students

by Cris Tovani

“Why do I have to read this?” What teacher doesn’t dread this question? It usually comes from our most disengaged students like the class clown or the student who struggles to read and write at grade-level. Sometimes we hear it from a student who cries of boredom or one who is angry or apathetic. When we don’t know what else to try, it’s easy to become frustrated and give up on these challenging learners. But take heart! Author Cris Tovani has spent her career figuring out how to entice challenging students back into the process of learning. In  Why Do I Have to Read This?  Cris Tovani shares her best secrets, lessons learned from big fails, and her most effective literacy and planning strategies that hook these hard to get learners.  You will meet many of Cris’s students inside this book. As she describes some of her favorites, you may even recognize a few of your own. You will laugh at her stories and take comfort in her easily adaptable strategies that help students remove their masks of disengagement. Cris shows teachers how to plan by anticipating students’ needs. Her  C urriculum  Y ou  A nticipate structures of Topic, Task, Targets, Text, Tend to me, and Time will literally help you anticipate your curriculum.  Inside  Why Do I Have to Read This?  readers will Above all, Cris gives teachers energy to get back into the classroom and face students who wear masks of disengagement. She reminds us of the importance of connecting students to compelling topics, rich text, useful targets, and worthy tasks. She reminds us of the importance of tending to students’ basic needs and helps us consider how to best structure instructional time. After reading this book, teachers will have new ways to connect with students in a deep, authentic way. Written in a humorous, compassionate, and wise voice,  Why Do I Have to Read This?  will provide answers to the pressing questions we have when we try to teach and reach all of our students.

Genres: Education, Teaching, Nonfiction

229 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 10, 2023

Reviews

[Julie Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must read for anyone who teaches reading (or wants to/needs to). This book works for teaching any subject (reading in the content areas), and it's an important read even for people who have already read I Read It, but I Don't Get It: Comprehension Strategies for Adolescent Readers.

I loved everything about this PD, and I don't usually rate higher than 3 for PD as usually, it's pretty boring stuff. This was NOT. Tovani shares mortifying stories of disastrous lessons which take place in front of many colleagues (both known and strangers who are observing her for their own development) with unflinching honesty. She recants some of what she teaches us in her previous books because she's grown as a teacher. She now teaches us how to use a workshop model of teaching reading that is perfect for secondary teachers who work in districts where reading and writing workshop is the method used.

If you taught with the NY State Common Core learning modules for ELA, you will recognize a lot of what is being shown here. I LOVED those units, actually, and Tovani shows you how it works. If you care about your students and take the time to establish connections and provide immediate feedback, the method should work. I just found myself highlighting, nodding vigorously, shouting in agreement, and having fantasies of our students making tremendous strides in reading and writing (and learning any content from reading) as our teachers take on this approach with total buy in. Here's hoping!

My only gripe is that she constantly uses the phrase "get smarter" with her kids and with the reader, which makes me cringe every time. The rest of the book is good enough for me to forgive the choice of words.

I wholeheartedly recommend this book to teachers of any content area who understand that we all have a role in helping our students become better readers, writers, and learners regardless of the content we teach.

[Kelly · Rating 5 out of 5]

In a word, Tovani is amazing. She has street creds because she has taught from elementary to high school; she understands what it means to be a teacher with reluctant students. Because she's a teacher, she knows that learners who don't engage, don't want to read, and don't want to complete work usually have something else going on. She explains the three types of engagement (behavioral, emotional, and cognitive). That's why her first chapter is about school in general and not just about reading and writing. Offering anecdotal stories of her lessons with learners and even her own daughter, Tovani keeps it real. Reading this book felt like I was having a conversation with her, and I also felt like I could hear her thinking out loud.

The titles of each chapter show her sense of humor and ending each chapter with five CYA strategies again shows that she gets it. She knows the pressure teachers are under, the struggles that challenge us each day, and the obstacles that are sometimes in our way. Tovani provides plenty of strategies, examples, stories, and templates to help us.

Hooray for her information about learning targets and formative and summative assessment; she has many sample learning targets in the back of the book ready to use. And yay for sample reading and writing assignments. There are so many assignment templates and rubrics in the back of the book for all subject areas to use.

With chapters that discuss listening and speaking skills, standards (and how they fall short), elevating learners' reading and writing abilities, modeling, portfolios, and the importance of drafts, this book offers many ways for us to connect with our students and engage them in their learning.

[Lindsay Ercanbrack · Rating 5 out of 5]

Chris is a reading teacher genius! So many good strategies and specific instruction to help a variety of classroom issues. I was lucky to sit in on a cohort with her and hear her experiences about this book first-hand. Love her ideas for “think sheets” and how to make learning targets work better for students. A good PD option.

[Stacey Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I Read it But I Don't Get It was one of the first professional books that actually changed my practice and had a huge impact on the trajectory of my career. Twenty two years later and I think this book is just as good. The basics are the same, but the evolution into engagement and the importance of planning for the curriculum you anticipate is something that will support many in providing the supports to improve our craft. I look forward to planning with the 6 T's.

[Matt · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cris's latest book is a must read for all educators, not just secondary ELA teachers. She walks the reader through many of the challenges that teachers face, providing strategies and tools to approach every student with dignity and high expectations.

[Jennifer Griffioen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best professional read since 180 Days! This is not just for literacy or language arts teachers, Tovani has strategies for engaging reluctant students across all disciplines. Highly recommend!

[Sheila Bracken · Rating 4 out of 5]

Back in the spring I was watching "30+ Conversations on Teaching & Learning with Kelly Gallagher & Penny Kittle 2020-2021: Connecting and co-surviving during the COVID-19 pandemic" on YouTube, and Cris was being interviewed about this, her new, book. I've been a fan for a long time and even had the chance to chat with her at a conference a few years ago. She's an interesting person and an inspirational teacher in that she is constantly trying new things to help her students be better readers and writers in addition to helping other teachers who wish to do the same. She preaches preparation, risk-taking, and self-reflection as critical elements for engaging students. And she, like me, feels that more time should be spent having students engage in authentic reading and writing activities and less in teaching those skills in isolation, or assessing those skills merely for the purpose of gathering data.

In the book, Cris talks about the masks students wear in class--the mask of anger, the mask of apathy, the mask of class clown, the mask of invisibility, the mask of minimal effort--and how important it is for the teacher to recognize them, and then respond in a way that the students remove them in order to learn. She also talks about the Six Ts: topic, task, targets, text, tend to me, time, and shows how they apply in all areas of teaching and learning.

What I love about the book is that Cris does not use only those stories that make her look good. She includes those in which she failed spectacularly but also learned a vital lesson about herself, teaching in general, and her students. What I was less fond of were the ThinkSheets, Inner Voice Sheets, Synthesis Sheets, and Learning Target Rubrics she uses and included in the Appendix. I like the idea of the multifaceted thinking she's moving students toward, but feel that it could be done in their notebooks or completed digitally. Based on the following quote, I'd have to say that Cris would have no problem with me borrowing some of her ideas but looking elsewhere for others: "Great teachers are a lot like mixed martial arts fighters. They don't handcuff themselves to one philosophy or technique...they strategize and use moves from all different experts...to meet the demands of the situation." (p. 174) The Brackenator being compared to an MMA fighter? I like it! 4

[Tamatha Picolla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I've incorporated some of Tovani's techniques into my ELA classroom. In this book she tackles the different masks kids wear to avoid work and increase student engagement. Instead of learning targets that no one pays attention to, I use provocative questions as the learning target. The damage by Common Core assessments has been done and Tovani assists us by reminding us of why we became ELA teachers, and that our goal shouldn't be a test score, but rather a love of reading that lasts a lifetime. Think sheets are included.

[Veronica · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for a Literacy Book Club at my school. Although I admire Tovani for including stories of lessons and training sessions gone wrong, I don't know that I got much out of this book that will help me in the library. It is much more focused on classroom instruction. If you are looking for strategies and think sheets to use with students for ELA or another core class, like Social Studies, this might be the book for you.

[Amber · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took two classes with Cris during the pandemic and I am so grateful that my district superintendent values the ideas in this class. It includes simple strategies to motivate students that wear masks in class that can stop their learning. It gives a framework to reconsider content and delivery and all of the things kids carry to class.

[Debs Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came to this book via Kittle and Gallagher. Tovani was on their daily video. There were many books of hers to choose from and I picked this one. I would like to make it clear this is not just for English teachers - I don’t think that was clear from the title and cover, but that’s important to know. I think this would be an excellent resource for new or less experienced teachers - I will recommend this to my dept. But even as an experienced teacher who shares many philosophical beliefs with Tovani I felt reinvigorated in engaging reluctant or emerging readers in the classroom.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very similar to Tovani’s other books but still a good reminder.

[Hanako · Rating 4 out of 5]

This has a lot of practical strategies for how to engage ALL students.

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always love anything written by Cris Tovani. Her strategies are timeless and her perspective on students is spot on. I will be using this in upcoming PD with staff.

[Lori Emilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great strategies for teachers of Gr. 6 and up, ELA, or other disciplines. I'm looking forward to the book study our teachers are doing with this text this school year.