Motivating students to read:
What can teachers do to turn reading from a chore into an adventure?
We live in a world of distractions for young and older students. Their lives are busy with endless schedules of activities, sports, technologies, family dynamics, etc. For some young people, it’s difficult to motivate them to enter the school doors consistently. Students come to us with different levels of reading abilities and resources. According to The Nation’s Report Card, only one in three students in the U.S. is proficient in reading. But this article isn’t about how students learn to read or instructional strategies that we need to engage students in teaching them to read. It’s about what teachers can do to turn reading into an adventure or enjoyable activity instead of a chore, regardless of a student’s grade or performance level.
What can teachers do to motivate students to read and discover the magic of a story?
- Differentiating instruction so that all students can use multiple brain pathways in the reading or English classrooms is crucial in motivating them to read and improve. Check out Edutopia’s article on strategies for motivating students to read. Wilson and Conyers (2017) describe one motivational activity as, “Enacting a Favorite Character.” For this activity, students recreate a character from a favorite story with a one to two minute monologue and costume. As a special educator, one of my favorite success stories was with a non-fluent reader using Reader’s Theater. The 4th-grade students were listening to Blood on the River by Elisa Carbone. This historical fiction book aligns with Virginia’s History Standards of Learning related to Jamestown. The students created their scripts and performed for their peers. The group’s most unmotivated, robotic reader was assigned to “become” John Smith. This young man became John Smith for a day with practice and explicit fluency instruction. His robotic voice disappeared, and a different attitude toward reading emerged.
- In 2024, Edutopia shared a strategy with adolescents entitled “60-Second Strategy: Role Reading.” This brief recording of Fatima Belouahis’ classroom in Copenhagen, Denmark, demonstrates where she uses this small group activity to help scaffold her ninth graders’ comprehension of challenging texts. Students who work as a team and feel supported when reading complex texts are motivated to tackle the challenge.
- Boy and Girls Club of America (2023) suggests creating cozy spaces for reading within classrooms, offering safe, inclusive spaces for after-school book clubs for adolescents, and using audiobooks at home or on the go to motivate students and promote a love for reading.
Providing a child opportunities to read while engaging multiple brain pathways is one of the best gifts we can give them. Motivating kids to read develops their imagination, vocabulary, and critical thinking skills. It also helps them de-stress and broaden their worldview. No matter how old they are, it’s never too late to help young people fall in love with reading books!
References
Boys and Girls Club of America (2023). Raising a reader: 5 Novel ideas for motivating kids to read. Boys and Girls Clubs of America. https://www.bgca.org/news-stories/2023/November/raising-a-reader-5-novel-ideas-for-motivating-kids-to-read
Edutopia. (2024, February 21). 60-Second strategy: Role reading [Video]. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/video/60-second-strategy-role-reading
National Assessment of Educational Progress. (n.d.). NAEP report card: 2022 NAEP reading assessment. The Nation’s Report Card. https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/highlights/reading/2022/
Wilson, D. & Conyers, M. (2017). Motivating students to read. Edutopia. https://www.edutopia.org/blog/motivating-students-read-donna-wilson-marcus-conyers
For more information, contact Diane Lewis (dplewis@vcu.edu), Program Specialist, T/TAC at VCU.
Categories Inclusive Practices, Reading