The Imposter: A Motivational Strategy to Encourage Reading in Adolescents

The Imposter is a strategy that encourages a focused approach to reading among adolescents. Contradictions or other types of conceptual flaws are inserted into a reading passage. The reader, knowing that flaws are hidden in the text, attempts to discover the errors. The reader then justifies his or her identification of flaws based on the concepts developed in the reading. In other words, the reader must demonstrate why the identified aspect or passage does not fit with the rest of the text. This article suggests several guidelines for implementing the strategy. The Imposter has wide applicability in subject matter text as well as across reading levels. Four examples are given—including readings from mathematics, chemistry, art, and English literature—which demonstrate not only the content and reading level of the passage, but also the degree of subtlety involved in the inserted flaw.