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On April 5, 2025, Rex was on travel so Kasie welcomed Jodie Truesdale into the studio. Here are the show notes:

Theme for the day

Teaching Young People Storytelling

Agenda

• Introduction of special guest
• The basics on teaching English
• The canon and its value (or not)
• The bigger value of an English degree

Segment 1

Rex is on his grand tour of the East Coast so today I’ve invited a longtime listener and former English teacher into the studio to talk about teaching young people to love literature. Jody Truesdale is a graduate of the Citadel with 20+ years classroom experience, mostly focused on reluctant readers. He also coached football, wrestling, and golf and after retiring from education two years ago, he’s now running a sales territory.

When you went to college were you planning to teach English?

What professors did you have that were particularly influential?

Did you always love reading?

What was the best part of being an English teacher?

Segment 2

A basic google search on “how to make reluctant readers love books” tells us to do these things:

• Make reading fun
• Use technology
• Choose books at the appropriate level
• Lead by example
• Take turns reading aloud to one another
• Let them choose the books
• Read everyday
• Combine books with movies

Interestingly, all the blogs and articles about this talk about young readers, like elementary school. Do we just give up on them by the time they get to high school?

Here’s a link with these tips:

• Pair reading with play
• Make sure their vision is okay
• Opt for shorter books
• Introduce them to a new series

What are some ways your high school curriculum was well-suited for reluctant readers?

What are some ways the high school curriculum fails reluctant readers?

Segment 3

Lets talk about the canon. These are the books everyone is expected to read. They include:

• To Kill a Mockingbird
• Animal Farm
• Lord of the Flies
• Great Expectations
• The Great Gatsby
• Frankenstein
• 1984
• Fahrenheit 451
• Of Mice and Men
• Pride and Prejudice
• Night
• The Outsiders

Some of these have ended up on removal lists lately. And some more modern titles have been added like:

• The Book Thief
• The Alchemist
• The Perks of Being a Wallflower

What are we looking for with these books? Why do we assign them?

How hard is it to get students interested in Jane Austen or Charles Dickens?

Is it the author and style of reading that puts them off?

Or is it the time and place that they’re disinterested in?

Segment 4

I used to underestimate how long a reading assignment would take. Instead of reading a little bit each day, I’d wait until the last minute and try to read the whole book in one night. It never worked out.

We had incentives for the most books read over the school year (in elementary school) and I was determined to read the most but there was a kid in my class who actually read them all. His parents must have turned off the TV and made him read.

Even though I love reading now, I remember being told what to read always making it hard for me to be interested in the book. In the challenge Rex and I did for one another, the books he suggested I read sat on my table for eight months untouched. I just couldn’t bring myself to read them.