Being a lifelong reader, my understanding of students who do not enjoy reading did not exist. Then I began reading some of the required informational text my students were required to read for testing purposes and thought to myself, "No wonder these kids hate reading. If all I ever had to read was this, I wouldn't read either."
I set about changing that in my classroom. I teach 8th Grade U.S. History in a small, rural town in central Florida. Many of my students are 1st or 2nd generation Americans with parents who still work the fields and are largely uneducated.