FCHS teacher-coachwrites book to increasereading among teens

Being a coach and an English teacher, Tim Taylor knows the importance of motivation in achieving a win both on the field and in the classroom.

Taylor, who teaches applied literature and composition II at Fayette County High, has made it his passion to get students, especially teenagers, excited about reading. He admits that he has taken on a lofty task acknowledging that today’s teens, as he puts it, “would rather chew broken glass than scan words on a page.”

“It isn't that they don't read at all but rather that they don't read for enjoyment. Teens pretty much read what they have to when they have to. Reading for them is a chore, not a joy. I base these statements not on any statistics or research but rather on what I have observed in over a decade of teaching high school English,“ Taylor explained.

While it might be difficult to get most teenagers interested in reading books, Taylor says he has learned something else about them that educators can use to their advantage. He says teens will read if teachers engage them in literature that taps into their levels and areas of interest.

Using this realization, Taylor, then a teacher at Sandy Creek High, wrote his first book, “Players,” in the spring of 2001 with the teen audience in mind. The book is about the relationship between a senior football player and his girlfriend told in the first person from the guy’s perspective.

“I wanted to write a book that every teen would want to read and that every English teacher would want to teach. I wanted to create a novel that teens would not be able to put down once they began and that teachers in turn would appreciate for its literary quality,” he said.

Taylor knew his goal would not be easy to achieve but he had a plan: make the book a project in his American Literature classes. While the book’s plot, characters and themes are his own, his students served as both his editors and idea factory, providing feedback and fine-tuning the book to make it hit home with most teens.

“From start to finish, the whole novel took about six weeks to write. I would read each chapter to my classes and then edit each based upon their suggestions. My classes were my first indication that I was on the right track,” he said.

He was on the right track indeed. Students who admitted not liking to read because books didn’t hold their interest couldn’t put Taylor’s book down. Even other teachers in the school system were hearing about the book and using it in their classrooms. In all, Taylor estimates that 500 Fayette students have read and enjoyed the book in the past three years.

Being that the first book was such a big hit, Taylor decided write another one this year along the same lines but with all new characters and plot. His latest book, “Jammers,” traces the footsteps and inner thoughts of a 14-year-old African-American teen during her freshman year of high school. Basketball, relationships, gangs, drugs and prejudice are all very real elements in the main character’s life as she struggles to understand life and adjust to high school. The most important element in her life, however, is the relationship she has with her grandmother, a retired foot soldier from the early days of the civil rights movement. Her grandmother is a fictional contemporary of Rosa Parks.

Once again Taylor used his classes as a sounding board to make sure that he was portraying situations as they would actually occur in real life. Just like with Taylor’s first book, students at Fayette County High say they can’t get enough. Those who once hated to read can’t seem to put the book down.

“This book is amazing. I have never been so interested in a book that I couldn’t wait to read the next chapter. This book is great at explaining human emotion. You can really feel Emmy’s pain and you wonder how she feels about opportunities she has passed by. I love this book,” said senior Abigail Crooks.

In fact, Abigail says she has a new outlook on reading and has started going through books she has at home to reevaluate them for future reading material.

Although his books are receiving high praises from both students and teachers who are reading and using them in the classroom, Taylor has yet to find a publisher willing to market them to a segment of the population that seems to be longing for material that emulates their culture.

Taylor says he realizes there are many creative authors who are competing for an opportunity to publish their unique books but he believes that he has found an untapped market of buyers who will purchase what he is writing.

“The end product speaks for itself. Don't take my word for it. Place these books in the hands of a teen who, by his own admission, is a non-reader. Ask him to read just the first page. Then see if he can put it down,” said Taylor.

“I am confident that teens will read these books and that teachers will want to teach them. I just need someone to publish them.”