Why is motivation so important?
Highly motivated children read three times as much outside of school as their less motivated peers (Wigfield & Guthrie, 1997).
Motivated students tend to be more successful academically in all domains in the long run.
What happens to unmotivated students?
Unfortunately, poor readers who are most likely to benefit from frequent reading practice, are often unmotivated to read. (Chapman, 1988; Lepola, Vauras, & Maki, 2000).
Poor readers lack of motivation is increasingly suggested as an underlying cause of long term reading difficulties (Bake, 2000).
Know what motivates your students
Edmunds & Bauserman, 2006
The Motivation Cycle
Lack of motivation can be detected as early as 1st or 2nd grade (Chapman, Tunmer, & Prochnow 2000, McKenna, Kear & Ellsworth, 1995, Lepola, Poskiparta, Laakkonen, & Niemi, 2005).
When students are not motivated to read based on past failures they are likely to continue in that pattern of reading failure later in school.
Children lose motivation to read because of the repeated failure to acquire requisite skills.
Motivation is a preeminent predictor of frequent reading. When students are not motivated to read based on past failures they are likely to continue in that pattern of reading failure later in school.
This cycle especially affects students with disabilities.
How to Prevent the Cycle
Identification of poor motivation
How do your students see themselves as readers?
Competency Beliefs - Estimates of how good they are at reading.
Self concept- How well I think I do
Self-Efficacy- Task specific ability
Younger children who feel successful should have higher concept/competence and show greater motivation to read. Early declines in competency/concept beliefs are red flags and can precede declines in motivation.
Goal Orientations
The purposes children have for reading.
Deals with the whys of behavior.
Why do we read why would you want to be a good reader?
Differences in children’s goal orientations are indicators of classroom behavior and reading performance.
Students with maladaptive goal orientations avoid reading tasks. They tend to exhibit behaviors that are ego-defensive, socially dependent, or task avoidant.
Research Based Strategies
Motivation Surveys
These will help you identify “at risk” students and intervene for students who show signs of decline.
Interest Inventories
Interest inventories enable you to tailor reading instruction to topics that your students want to know more about.
Interest inventories also allow you to give students options for choices they enjoy.
Reader’s Theater
Students perform by reading scripts created from a variety of topics and curriculum.
Provides opportunities for students to practice speaking and reading in the target language.
Create a Low Risk Environment
Provide as many opportunities for them to succeed in Spanish literacy as possible. Continuing to provide a low risk environment for students as they practice literacy is helpful as well.
Even though they may be struggling readers, encourage them where they are.
Research has shown that student motivation increases when students know that teachers are their allies (Guthrie, 2008).
Book Reviews
Have students prepare a review of a book to share with peers.
This could be done daily on the morning announcements
Daily during morning meeting
Using pre-recorded videos by students set up like youtube reviews or reading rainbow segments.
Relate Reading to Practical Uses
A student may not be motivated to read a textbook, but they engage in literacy practices every day. Ex. Texting, Graphic Novels, Emails
Highlight ways that reading especially in Spanish is useful.
Provide authentic opportunities to practice literacy.
March Madness Bracket
Have students read books of their choice to suggest to include in a competition bracket. Once books are chosen, students must read the books in the bracket to participate in choosing which books move on in the tournament until one book wins.
Reading Photo Wall
Have students take pictures of themselves reading in creative ways and places outside of school. Create a wall collage where students can showoff themselves reading in cool ways. Here is a great example.
Incorporating Students Into Stories Using Technology
The use of technology is a great way to allow students to literally see themselves presented in literature. Digital books allow students names to be included in stories, as well as their pictures into illustrations.
Try These resources:
I am always interested in learning new ways to get my students excited about reading. What ways are you currently motivating your students to read?
#edchat #edtech #education #lrnchat #spanishimmersion #duallanguage #biliterate #spanishclassroom #spanishimmerisonpreschool #spanishliteracy #maestradekinder #lareinadekinder #DeeperLearning #Curriculum
Resources
Brozo, W. G., & Flynt, E. S. (2008). Motivating students to read in the content classroom: six evidence-based principles. The Reading Teacher, 62(2), 172+.
Ciampa, K. (2012). improving grade one students' reading motivation with online electronic storybooks. Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, 21(1), 5+. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com.libproxy.furman.edu/apps/doc/A435695243/PROF?u=furmanulib&sid=PROF&xid=14d79911
Edmunds, K. M., & Bauserman, K. L. (2006). What teachers can learn about reading motivation through conversations with children: in this article, a group of students explain what really motivates them to read. The Reading Teacher, 59(5), 414+.
Lause, J. (2004). Using reading workshop to inspire lifelong readers. English Journal, 93(5), 24+. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com.libproxy.furman.edu/apps/doc/A122386879/PROF?u=furmanulib&sid=PROF&xid=6d795165
Morgan, P. L., & Fuchs, D. (2007). Is there a bidirectional relationship between children's reading skills and reading motivation? Rodríguez-Valls, Fernando. "Círculos literarios, cooperativas de lectura: leer para transformar." Lectura Y Vida, vol. 29, no. 2, 2008, p. 56+.
Moses, Ekuwah. "Cues from Ekuwah Moses." Weekly Reading Inventory. January 01, 1970. Accessed April 17, 2018. http://ekuwah.blogspot.com/2015/01/weekly-reading-inventory.html.
Pompetti-Szul, I. C. (2007, Spring). Second language literacy through literature. Academic Exchange Quarterly, 11(1), 98+. Retrieved from http://go.galegroup.com.libproxy.furman.edu/ps/i.do?p=PROF&sw=w&u=furmanulib&v=2.1&it=r&id=GALE%7CA165912651&asid=5a7051017b2d278d84469acbe0553d48
Putman, Michael, and Carolyn Walker. "Motivating children to read and write: using informal learning environments as contexts for literacy instruction." Journal of Research in Childhood Education, vol. 24, no. 2, 2010, p. 140+.
Worthy, J., & Prater, K. (2002). "I thought about it all night": Readers Theatre for reading fluency and motivation. (The Intermediate Grades). The Reading Teacher, 56(3), 294+. Retrieved from http://link.galegroup.com.libproxy.furman.edu/apps/doc/A94326713/PROF?u=furmanulib&sid=PROF&xid=be89d4d9
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