Re: How do we get them to enjoy reading?

I think of it like this - let's say you had a huge boot you
had to wear on one foot. How much would you enjoy running?
Likely not much. How much would you enjoy a brisk walk? Or
walking at all if when you did it, you had to haul around
this big boot?
Your statement of 'once they get it' confuses me. Once they
get what? The phoenetic code?
Reading for those who are struggling readers is NEVER like
watching a movie - it never flows. My husband is dyslexic as
is my son. I'm a natural phoenetic reader and reading for me
flows like a film but for those who read slowly and often
laboriously, reading never feels like a movie. Reading for
them always feels effort-laden.

> How do you make them see that it is way more than
> decoding the words?

The struggle to decode depletes the process of all enjoyment -
like walking with the boot on. For them, puzzling through
the words and/or sighting them laboriously one by one makes
reading - well, one of my students described it this way -
'reading feels like my brain is chopping wood.'

> I saw a few 7th graders in a classroom who were sitting
> there with the books in their hands but they were not
> reading them. They were going through the motions. I saw one
> student with the book, "The Skin I'm In" which is a title I
> have been wanting to take out of the library and read
> myself. But this student was not into it. How can we get
> even remedial readers to experience the page-turning effect
> where you can't wait to see what's next?

See the above for your answer.