Two years ago, I was practically begging a student to read a novel in my high-school English class. This isn't an unusual problem. The girl, who's a relatively bright, college-bound athlete, told me that she "just gets too distracted after five minutes" of reading. When she promised that she would listen to the audiobook of the novel on the team bus that afternoon, I was less than enthused. "Reading is like getting in physical shape," I told her. "This time, try to read for seven minutes and then take a break." But a few minutes later, I could see she had spaced out again. I considered the implausibility of students such as her reading the novel for homework, outside my quiet classroom.
In contrast, I recently discovered my students voluntarily reading a story together, all at the same time. And they were inspired by an unlikely medium-podcasts-which is obviously ironic, as many people like podcasts precisely because they don't have the time or inclination to sit down and read. In fact, Serial has an explicit warning at the beginning of their transcripts: "Serial is produced for the ear and designed to be heard, not read." Of course, teenagers are infamous for enjoying exactly what they're told not to do, but I was nevertheless surprised that while listening to an episode of Serial in class, their collective eyes fixed on the transcripts displayed on a screen at the front of the room. And I was startled-happily so-by their shouts when I was tardy in scrolling down.
