READING BEHAVIORS

AND PREFERENCES

OF 21ST CENTURY

YOUNG ADULTSMiriam College

Oct. 10, 2017

HELLO!Maria Rossana Z.

Maglalang

AJHS

Subject Area Coordinator

English

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What is on your

latest TBR list?

Axiomatic by Greg Egan

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What YA novels

do I recommend?

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What other YA

novels do I

recommend?

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APPS to TAP

Goodreads

Tumbler

Bookbub

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LIBRARIANS

ROCK!

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LIBRARIANS

ROCK!

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I am a Reading

Teacher!My talk will always go back to the importance of

reading on behavior

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A QUICK LOOK

◈What is YA?

◈What are the Reading preferences and

behaviors of young adults (boys and girls)?

◈What challenges do we face as reading

advocates?

◈How do we respond to these challenges?

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WHAT IS YA?What is the general target audience of Young Adult

Literature?

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A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND

WORDS

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CONTENT

Young protagonist

Teenager, or with

teenager’s perspectiveInitiation into adult world

Challenges

Entire spectrum of life

Post-

Apocalyptic/Dystopian

CHARACTERISTICS OF YA LITERATURE

FORMAT

Moderate length

First person POV

Series

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The Ordinary World

Call to Adventure

Refusal of the Call

Meeting of the Mentor

Crossing of the

Threshold

Tests, Allies, Enemies

HERO’S JOURNEYJOSEPH CAMPBELL

Approach

Ordeal

Reward

The Road Back

The Resurrection

Return with the Elixir

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THE HOBBIT

THE ORDINARY

WORLD

Bilbo is an

ordinary hobbit

from the Shire

ADVENTURE

He is

recruited to

be the thief

by the dwarfs.

REFUSALBilbo

initially did

not want to

go, he liked

his life at

the Shire.

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THE HOBBIT

MENTOR

Gandalf/Thorin

THRESHOLD

Bilbo catches

up with the

rest of the

dwarfs.

TESTS,

ALLIES,

ENEMIES

Bilbo finds

the ring

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THE HOBBIT

APPROACH

Bilbo and the

dwarfs face the

battle against

men, dwarfs, and

elves

ORDEAL

The final

battle

REWARD

Bilbo

leaves the

dwarfs

and

returns to

the Shire

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THE HOBBIT

RETURN

Bilbo returns to

the Shire and lives

his old life, with

the ring

ROAD

BACKBilbo raises

his nephew,

Frodo, and

writes his

book

RESURRECTION

Bilbo sees the

issue of the ring

with his nephew

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Harry PotterJK Rowling

Sorcerer’s Stone

Chamber of Secrets

Prisoner of Azkaban

Goblet of Fire

Order of the Phoenix

Half-Blood Prince

Deathly Hallows

DivergentVeronica Roth

Divergent

Insurgent

Allegiant

Hunger GamesSuzanne Collins

Hunger Games

Catching Fire

Mockingjay

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His Dark MaterialsPhillip Pullman

Northern Lights

The Subtle Knife

The Amber Spyglass

Percy JacksonRick Riordan

The Olympians

Heroes of Olympus

Trials of Apollo

Lord of the RingsJRR Tolkien

The Hobbit

Lord of the Rings

Two Towers

Return of the King

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Artemis FowlEoin Colfer

Arctic Incident

Eternity Code

Opal Deception

Lost Colony

Time Paradox

Atlantis Complex

The Last Guardian

ACOTARSarah J. Maas

Thorns and Roses

Wings and Ruin

Mist and Fury

Wings and Embers

Ms. PeregrineRansom Riggs

Home for Peculiar Children

Hollow City

Library of Souls

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REALITY

CHECKWhat are Young Adults actually reading?

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TRUTH OR FICTION?

◈Girls always read more than boys

◈Boys read more of non-fiction

◈Boys don’t like to read. At a certain age,

they stop reading.

What do you think?

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BOYS DO READ!

◈In the primary years, boys read as much

as girls do.

◈When they reach Middle School and on to

High School, the interest wanes a bit due to

additional activities and interests.

◈They read if they are inspired to do so.

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WHAT IS THE POINT?

◈Exposure to (varied) reading materials

encourages better literacy.

◈Reading makes one gain a better

perspective of the things around us.

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Is there a

significant

difference

in literacy?

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What

reading

behavior is

prevalent

these

days?

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A DIFFERENT PLATFORM

Ziming Liu, San Jose California 2005

◈– With an increasing amount of time spent reading electronic

documents, a screen‐based reading behavior is emerging. The

screen‐based reading behavior is characterized by more time

spent on browsing and scanning, keyword spotting, one‐time

reading, non‐linear reading, and reading more selectively, while

less time is spent on in‐depth reading, and concentrated

reading. Decreasing sustained attention is also noted.

Annotating and highlighting while reading is a common activity

in the printed environment. However, this “traditional” pattern

has not yet migrated to the digital environment when people

read electronic documents. 29

TRADITIONAL OR DIGITAL?

Berkeley 2017

◈It’s our belief that it’s important to incorporate digital reading

(or e-reading) practices into our college curricula, even as we

do so with a critical eye. It may well be irresponsible to do

otherwise. Even if some of us continue to require our students

to read mostly in print for some years to come, the pressures of

the digital on the practice of reading will continue to bear, and

likely increase, in ways that everyone will have to deal with. As

Hayles notes, students are immersed in the digital already. As

college instructors, we need to help them to read in these

environments. 30

Renaissance Learning Accelerated Readers

Program Survey 2014-2015

The study shows that students tend to choose books and

articles that are below their grade level. (That could be in part

because Accelerated Reader represents what they choose to

read, rather than what their teachers assign.)

On average, 12th graders chose books at a 7th grade level of

difficulty. Ninth graders chose books at the difficulty level that

would be expected for students midway through 5th grade. This

chart shows how rarely high school students choose to read

anything above a 9th grade level. Even by the time they're

seniors, only 19 percent of the books students choose to read

exceed the 9th grade level. 31

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR READING?

1. Click-bait: F pattern

2. Skimming and Scanning

3. TL, DR

4. Establishing a purpose for reading

5. Lengthy reads vs. Physical constraints

6. Distractions while reading

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WHAT IS READING?

1. Different types

2. Different skills

3. Different objectives

4. Different preferences

As long as they are reading (and

understanding), that’s great!

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IF YOU CAN’T AVOID IT, JOIN IT!

1. Emphasize the importance of a digital reading mindset

2. Help students to manage digital distractions while

reading and e-reading

3. Don’t assume traditional reading skills transfer to

digital reading

4. But many traditional reading

practices are still useful in a digital

space 34

OLD SCHOOL IS STILL BEST!

1. It is important to note sequence of

events.

2. Summarizing

3. Ask critical questions at every turn.

4. Reflection – WRITE!

5. Application – WRITE!

6. Action35

IF YOU CAN’T AVOID IT, JOIN IT!

5. Help students to develop reflective reading practices

6. Think carefully about how you’ll employ digital reading in and

out of the classroom

7. Remind students that reading, like writing, is a process

8. Vary reading strategies according to reading purposes and

environments

9. Discuss, model, and reinforce digital reading skills explicitly

10. Keep track of how you and your students read, and share

your findings!

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What do

HS boys

like to

read?

37FICTION!

Most boys like to read

FICTION

YA (Chaos Walking!)

Manga

Classics

(Dostoyevsky)

Mystery

Science Fiction

Speculative Fiction

NON-FICTION

History

Treatise (Communist

Manifesto!)

Articles on Sports

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http://www.scholastic.com/readingreport/what-kids-want.htm

Some data

to help us

understand

this better.

39Scholastic

CHALLENGES

◈SUSTAIN! How do we follow up on what

was done in the primary grades?

◈INSPIRE! How do we encourage those

who are willing to read?

◈LINK! How do we capitalize on their

interests in order to lead them to read?

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CHALLENGES

WRITE! WRITE! WRITE!

ENCOURAGE STORIES! POEMS!

BUILD BLOGS!

SUBMIT ENTRIES!

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THE REAL DEAL

◈INFORMATION OVERLOAD

◈TV-MOVIE-BOOK TIE-INS

◈READING OPTIONS

◈SHORT ATTENTION SPAN

◈DELINEATION BETWEEN YA AND

ADULT

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Why push

for reading

in a world

of fake

news?

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THANKS!mmaglalang@ateneo.edu