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Simple Practices to Nurture Motivation to Read

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Simple Practices to Nurture Motivation to Read

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2009

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References

Click the "References" link above to hide these references.

Gambrell, L. (1996). Creating classrooms cultures that foster reading motivation. The Reading Teacher, 50, 4-25.

International Reading Association (1999). Providing books and other print materials forclassroom and school libraries (A position statement of the International Reading Association). Newark, DE: IRA.

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Simple Practices to Nurture the Motivation to Read

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Honoring books for self-selection, sharing the excitement of read-alouds, building a balanced book collection, making your passions public, and providing rewards that demonstrate the value of reading are just a few simple but transformative suggestions that can nurture the love of reading in your classroom.

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2013

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2005

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Reading Motivation: What the Research Says | LD Topics | LD OnLine

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Important factors for reading motivation include self-concept and value of reading, choice; time spent talking about books, and the use of incentives.

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What teachers Can Learn about Reading Motivation through conversations with children

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What teachers Can Learn about Reading Motivation through conversations with children

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2006

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Motivation to Read:  How does it Change for Struggling Readers with and without Disabilities

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Motivation to Read:  How does it Change for Struggling Readers with and without Disabilities

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2013

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2011

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Exploring Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation Among Good and Poor Readers

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Exploring Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivation Among Good and Poor Readers

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2012

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Print Version
Intrinsic Motivation

Intrinsic motivators include fascination with the subject, a sense of its relevance to life and the world, a sense of accomplishment in mastering it, and a sense of calling to it.

Students who are intrinsically motivated might say things like the following.

"Literature interests me."

"Learning math enables me to think clearly."

"I feel good when I succeed in class."

Advantages: Intrinsic motivation can be long-lasting and self-sustaining. Efforts to build this kind of motivation are also typically efforts at promoting student learning. Such efforts often focus on the subject rather than rewards or punishments.

Disadvantages: On the other hand, efforts at fostering intrinsic motivation can be slow to affect behavior and can require special and lengthy preparation. Students are individuals, so a variety of approaches may be needed to motivate different students. It is often helpful to know what interests one's students in order to connect these interests with the subject matter. This requires getting to know one's students. Also, it helps if the instructor is interested in the subject to begin with!

Source: Matt DeLong and Dale Winter, Learning to Teaching and Teaching to Learn Mathematics: Resources for Professional Development, Mathematical Association of America, 2002, page 163.

Extrinsic Motivation

Extrinsic motivators include parental expectations, expectations of other trusted role models, earning potential of a course of study, and grades (which keep scholarships coming).

Students who are extrinsically motivated might say things like the following.

"I need a B- in statistics to get into business school."

"If I flunk chemistry, I will lose my scholarship."

"Our instructor will bring us donuts if we do well on today's quiz."

Advantages: Extrinsic motivators more readily produce behavior changes and typically involve relatively little effort or preparation. Also, efforts at applying extrinsic motivators often do not require extensive knowledge of individual students.

Disadvantages: On the other hand, extrinsic motivators can often distract students from learning the subject at hand. It can be challenging to devise appropriate rewards and punishments for student behaviors. Often, one needs to escalate the rewards and punishments over time to maintain a certain effect level. Also, extrinsic motivators typically do not work over the long term. Once the rewards or punishments are removed, students lose their motivation.

Source: Matt DeLong and Dale Winter, Learning to Teaching and Teaching to Learn Mathematics: Resources for Professional Development, Mathematical Association of America, 2002, page 163.

Furthermore, research indicates that extrinsic rewards can have a negative impact on intrinsic motivation. In one series of experiments, psychologist Edward Deci had two groups of college students play with a puzzle called Soma. One group of students was paid for each puzzle they solved; the other wasn't. He found that the group that was paid to solve puzzles stopped solving puzzles as soon as the experiment-and the payment-ended. However, the group that wasn't paid kept solving the puzzles even after the experiment was over. They had found the puzzles intrinsically interesting. Deci argued that the group that had been paid to solve puzzles might have found the puzzles intrinsically interesting as well, but the extrinsic, monetary reward had reduced their intrinsic interest.

Source: Ken Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do, Harvard University Press, 2004, pages 32-33.

Effects of Motivation on Learning Styles

Deep learners respond well to the challenge of mastering a difficult and complex subject. These are intrinsically motivated students who are often a joy to teach!

Strategic learners are motivated primarily by rewards. They react well to competition and the opportunity to best others. They often make good grades but won't engage deeply with a subject unless there is a clear reward for doing so. They are sometimes called "bulimic learners," learning as much as they need to do well on a test or exam and then promptly forgetting the material once the assessment is over.Handle strategic learners by avoiding appeals to competition. Appeal to their intrinsic interest in the subject at hand. Design your assignments (tests, papers, projects, etc.) so that deep engagement with the subject is necessary for success on the assignments. Do so by requiring students to apply, synthesize, or evaluate material instead of merely comprehending or memorizing material.

Surface learners are often motivated by a desire to avoid failure. They typically avoid deep learning because it they see it as inherently risky behavior. They will often do what it takes to pass an exam or course, but they won't choose to go beyond the minimum required for fear of failure.Handle surface learners by helping them gain confidence in their abilities to learn and perform. "Scaffold" course material and assignments by designing a series of activities or assignments that build on each other over time in complexity and challenge. Encourage these learners often and help them reflect on what they've learned and what they've accomplished.

Source: Ken Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do, Harvard University Press, 2004, pages 40-41.

A Model of Intrinsic Motivation

James Middleton, Joan Littlefield, and Rich Lehrer have proposed the following model of intrinsic academic motivation.

First, given the opportunity to engage in a learning activity, a student determines if the activity is one that is known to be interesting. If so, the student engages in the activity.

If not, then the student evaluates the activity on two factors-the stimulation (e.g. challenge, curiosity, fantasy) it provides and the personal control (e.g. free choice, not too difficult) it affords.

If the student perceives the activity as stimulating and controllable, then the student tentatively labels the activity as interesting and engages in it. If either condition becomes insufficient, then the student disengages from the activity-unless some extrinsic motivator influences the student to continue.

If the activity is repeatedly deemed stimulating and controllable, then the student may deem the activity interesting. Then the student will be more likely to engage in the activity in the future.

If over time activities that are deemed interesting provide little stimulation or control, then the student will remove the activity from his or her mental list of interesting activities.

The challenge, then, is to provide teaching and learning activities that are both stimulating and offer students a degree of personal control.

Source: James A. Middleton, "A Study of Intrinsic Motivation in the Mathematics Classroom: A Personal Constructs Approach," Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, Vol. 26, No. 3, pages 255-257.

Strategies for Motivating Students

Following are some research-based strategies for motivating students to learn.

Become a role model for student interest. Deliver your presentations with energy and enthusiasm. As a display of your motivation, your passion motivates your students. Make the course personal, showing why you are interested in the material.

Get to know your students. You will be able to better tailor your instruction to the students' concerns and backgrounds, and your personal interest in them will inspire their personal loyalty to you. Display a strong interest in students' learning and a faith in their abilities.

Use examples freely. Many students want to be shown why a concept or technique is useful before they want to study it further. Inform students about how your course prepares students for future opportunities.

Use a variety of student-active teaching activities. These activities directly engage students in the material and give them opportunities to achieve a level of mastery.

Teach by discovery. Students find as satisfying as reasoning through a problem and discovering the underlying principle on their own.

Cooperative learning activities are particularly effective as they also provide positive social pressure.

Set realistic performance goals and help students achieve them by encouraging them to set their own reasonable goals. Design assignments that are appropriately challenging in view of the experience and aptitude of the class.

Place appropriate emphasis on testing and grading. Tests should be a means of showing what students have mastered, not what they have not. Avoid grading on the curve and give everyone the opportunity to achieve the highest standard and grades.

Be free with praise and constructive in criticism. Negative comments should pertain to particular performances, not the performer. Offer nonjudgmental feedback on students' work, stress opportunities to improve, look for ways to stimulate advancement, and avoid dividing students into sheep and goats.

Give students as much control over their own education as possible. Let students choose paper and project topics that interest them. Assess them in a variety of ways (tests, papers, projects, presentations, etc.) to give students more control over how they show their understanding to you. Give students options for how these assignments are weighted.

Sources:

Ken Bain, What the Best College Teachers Do, Harvard University Press, 2004, pages 32-42.

Linda Nilson, Teaching At Its Best: A Research-Based Resource for College Instructors, 2nd edition, Anker Publishing, 2003, pages 41-44.

Matt DeLong and Dale Winter, Learning to Teaching and Teaching to Learn Mathematics: Resources for Professional Development, Mathematical Association of America, 2002, pages 159-168.

Showing Students the Appeal of the Subject

When encouraging students to find your subject matter interesting, use cues to show students the appeal of the subject matter.

"We've used X in a lot of different ways. If you thought you'd seen them all, just wait for the next assignment."

"A lot of you have asked me about X. Well, finally we're going to find out why that's so."

Source: Matt DeLong and Dale Winter, Learning to Teaching and Teaching to Learn Mathematics: Resources for Professional Development, Mathematical Association of America, 2002, page 168.

This teaching guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

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Motivating Students. Print Version Intrinsic Motivation Extrinsic Motivation Effects of Motivation on Learning Styles A Model of Intrinsic Motivation Strategies for Motivating Students Showing Students the Appeal of a Subject Intrinsic Motivation Intrinsic motivators include fascination with the subject, a sense of its relevance to life and the world, a sense of accomplishment in mastering it, and...

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Ways Parents Can Increase Reading Motivation

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What Parents Can Do: Reading Tips From Kids

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Parents can make reading more motivating by letting children choose books and making reading a memorable family event. Find out what children themselves have to say about these guidelines for parents to increase motivation.

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Ways to interest students

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Hooking Struggling Readers: Using Books They Can and Want to Read

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One of the keys to helping struggling readers is to provide them with books that they can and want to read. Fiction for struggling readers must have realistic characters, readable and convincing text, and a sense of the readers' interests and needs. Non-fiction books, newspapers, magazines, even comic books can hook students on reading.

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2012 - Relates to students with special needs

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Parents and teachers are always balancing the question of whether a student with learning disabilities is doing the best work he can or if he is maybe, um... slacking off a bit because of a lack of motivation. Learning ways to cope with a child's lack of motivation is important to school success. Students who are naturally motivated to do their work are said to be intrinsically motivated. These students are satisfied with the feelings of accomplishment that come with doing quality work and applying themselves. Students who work because of the desire for external rewards are said to be externally motivated. These students are motivated by things such as good grades, tangible rewards, and parental approval.

While internal motivation is highly desirable, many students with learning disabilities have difficulty maintaining that kind of motivation. Often this is because their struggles with learning make it difficult for them to feel the same satisfaction with their work that other students may feel. However, there are some strategies parents and teachers can use that will increase a child's internal motivation. Some of these strategies are aimed at strengthening the student, and others are aimed at making the task or working conditions as favorable as possible.

Strategies aimed at strengthening the student's readiness to learn to include common sense strategies such as making sure the student has adequate rest, eats a balanced diet, and maintains a productive and balanced schedule with a good mix of school work, exercise, and break time. Naturally, a student who maintains these good habits will have more mental and physical energy that is necessary to maintain motivation for a task.

Other strategies involve modifying the task itself to spark the student's interest. For example, rather than writing about how a volcano functions, a student with a learning disability might be better motivated by creating a model or making a poster demonstrating how the volcano functions. Further, if that same child has a writing disability, working with other learning modalities may help the child learn and retain concepts more easily than by writing alone.

Externally, or extrinsically, motivated students may improve motivation when given some type of positive reinforcement for working on a task. Rewards such as verbal praise, earning points or tokens to cash in for reward, and earning social recognition are just a few of the ways an externally motivated student can be encouraged to stay motivated with a task.

While some educators and parents may feel that this type of reinforcement is somehow artificial or undesirable, the reality is that most of us work for some type of external reward. How many of us would work every day if we were not paid? The reality is that students with learning disabilities, just like everyone else, need a reward sometimes to get them moving on a task. This is especially true when the task involves an area of their disability. For example, a person with a reading disability like dyslexia may be more motivated to do reading assignments if they get some sort of external reward for the extra effort they must put into the task to be successful.

There are a number of additional factors affecting motivation that may impact a child's performance in school.

Overwhelmed at School. Some students are simply overwhelmed by the magnitude of a task and cannot even get started because of the amount of work that needs to be done. These students can be helped by breaking tasks into smaller sub-tasks. This can help the student see a project as a series of smaller, manageable units rather than one big overwhelming monster.

Some students are afraid of failure. They think they know their limitations and believe that their failures will lead to public embarrassment, so they just don't try. In some cases, these students will misbehave to shift the focus from their inability to do the task to something else, anything else, that won't embarrass them. These students can be helped by turning the possibility of failure into the opportunity for success. For example, allow the child to earn extra credit by correcting his mistakes. Allow them to choose from a menu of responses rather than having to generate their own responses to questions. Never ridicule a child for failure, and always treat mistakes as opportunities to learn. Students need to know that everyone fails at times and that fixing mistakes is what everyone does to move forward.

Children with learning disabilities can also be bored with the work they've been asked to do. This is especially true if a teacher underestimates the child's abilities and gives her work that is beneath her actual ability levels. This type of boredom can be addressed by ensuring that the child is working at her ability level and is given some challenging work to keep her interested.

Relevance is also important to fend off low motivation. Children need to see and believe that school work is meaningful to their lives. Teachers and parents can address this type of motivational problem by teaching children why what they are learning is important and by demonstrating how what they're learning can be immediately useful in their lives.

Problems in a child's life can also impact his motivation. Just like adults, children may be unable to do their work in school if something in their personal lives is causing them to have anxiety or depression. Children who are experiencing difficulty in this aspect of their lives may benefit from counseling.

Parents can be helpful in improving student motivation in many ways. Providing a nurturing and supportive home environment is one way. Setting clear expectations, providing guidance, and giving feedback on the child's work can also be helpful.

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Strategies and Tips for Helping Your Child Become More Motivated

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Parents and teachers are always balancing the question of whether a student with learning disabilities is doing the best work he can or if he is maybe, um... slacking off a bit because of a lack of motivation. Learning ways to cope with a child's lack of motivation is important to school success.

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Electronic Books to Increase Reading Motivation

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Electronic Books to Increase Reading Motivation

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Motivating and Engaging Students in Reading

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Motivating and Engaging Students in Reading

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2010

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This article has various ways to motivate students. Tracking improvement related to using effective feedback in our last course

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We all know the struggle. We teach and teach and reteach and work with individuals or small-groups and, despite our efforts, that one student just doesn't get it. Or we try one behavior management or modification technique after another and just can't get the desired behavior from that student. Learning difficulties or emotional trauma are unfortunately the cause of issues like these all too often. However, many times the root of the problem may simply be that we are not adequately motivating our students. Effectively motivating your students cannot erase every problem, but it can be a solution or preventative to many problems that students and teachers experience in the classroom.

Of course, what motivates one student might not motivate another. Some students are intrinsically motivated. These are students that are motivated from something within. Intrinsically motivated students might simply have a deep desire to succeed and are, therefore, motivated to do well in all that they do. In some cases, intrinsic motivation comes from utilizing a topic that a student is particularly interested in. If students are interested in the topic, then they are intrinsically motivated to listen and learn. Other students are extrinsically motivated. These students need some outside factor to boost motivation. Grades are extrinsic motivators for some students. Rewards and praise can also be effective extrinsic motivators. Regardless of the kind of motivator that students respond to, there are techniques that can be used to increase motivation for both intrinsically and extrinsically motivated students.

Establish Clear Goals and Expectations

First of all, we cannot expect high motivation if students do not fully understand the ultimate goal. Therefore, it is critically important that at the beginning of every lesson or unit teachers let students know exactly what they will be expected to do or know at the end. It also helps if there is a life application involved. For example, at the end of a money unit, you would expect students to be able to add various amounts of money. By providing a class store with small items to buy if they are able to accurately add the amounts of money, they are provided the opportunity to display that knowledge, and the goal/expectation provided motivation for their learning.

Focus on Growth

Another way to provide motivation for students is to establish and maintain a growth mindset. The ultimate level for the student's grade-level or age may be too overwhelming and seem unachievable. If you set small, achievable goals for the students and focus on whether or not the student has made strides toward that goal, students see more successes and are able to stay motivated throughout the process. Celebrate the growth along the way, no matter how small!

Rewards and Recognition

Some students are greatly motivated by rewards and/or recognition. One very commonly used method is to set up a reward system in your room. You can set rewards for the whole class, but students tend to stay more motivated if the rewards are based on individual growth and/or achievement. Types of rewards will vary based on the age of the students, but students can be rewarded for consistently good behavior, high achievement, or growth. A small chart can be placed on each student's desk to keep track of the positive behaviors you would like to reward. Again, this could be for all students or you can target the ones that are really struggling with motivation.

While tangible rewards can be effective, I find that recognition and praise may be even more so. Many students long for and respond to praise and recognition. By simply acknowledging accomplishments, some students are greatly motivated to keep up the good work.

Students' Interests

This is a method that will dip into that goldmine of intrinsic motivation. When learning is centered on students' interests, the motivation is already there. So maybe find out a favorite hobby of that student who struggles with motivation, and teach a unit incorporating that somehow. Of course, this may not always be possible, but you might be surprised at how far a little peak of interest can go. If you are teaching language arts, no problem. Find a book on the topic and spark that interest. Other areas may not be quite as easy, but where there is a will, there is a way. I had a student a few years ago that struggled terribly in math. He also completely lacked motivation to improve. This same student, at a very young age, could repair car motors and even take some of the machinery apart and put it back together. So, I incorporated cars as much as possible. Every word problem was about a car, tractor, or engine. When we used manipulatives, we used cars. He looked forward to math every day!

Develop Positive, Meaningful Relationships with Your Students

All of the above listed ideas are great and can go a long way to motivate students. However, there is no substitute, when it comes to motivation, for developing meaningful relationships with your students. To motivate your students you must know what makes them tick. How can you know that without really getting to know and understand them?

Students can also be motivated simply by the fact that they know you care for them and want them to succeed. When they know they are loved, they love you in return. When they love you, they love school. When they love school, they want to be there. When they want to be there, they are motivated to do their best! Talk to your students. Invest in them. Love them. This is the greatest motivator of all!

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How to Motivate Students in the Classroom - TeachHUB

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We all know the struggle. We teach and teach and reteach and work with individuals or small-groups and, despite our efforts, that one student just doesn't get it. Or we try one behavior management or modification technique after another and just can't get the desired behavior from that student.

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Using Rewards to Teach Students with Disabilities

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Using Rewards to Teach Students with Disabilities

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2003 - This article argues intrinsic vs. extrinsic motivation

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Fostering Motivation in Kids with Learning and Attention Problems

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Fostering Motivation in Kids with Learning and Attention Problems

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Steven is 11 and in the fifth grade. His reading problem causes him to read haltingly. On the day he knows he'll be asked to read out loud at school, he develops a stomachache.

Maria, age 9, is in the third grade. Her visual perception and fine motor problems interfere with her handwriting, so it takes her an hour to finish one worksheet at night, let alone two or three. The teacher asks her to write more legibly, but she's doing the best she can. She's losing interest in school.

John is 10, is in the fourth grade, and has been diagnosed as having AD/HD. His schoolwork is fine - when he remembers to bring books home and to turn in his assignments. The teacher says he's "unmotivated."

The truth is that none of these children is "unmotivated." In fact, they're highly motivated - to avoid public humiliation or failure.

While children with learning problems must work hard to do well in school, not all struggle emotionally. Why is one child motivated and another gives up before he tries?

What dampens motivation?

Much research has been done over the years on motivating children with learning disabilities (LD) or AD/HD. It tells us that the main reasons these children withdraw mentally from school is fear of failure, frustration with inconsistent performance (good one day, stumbling the next), lack of understanding the schoolwork, emotional problems, anger, or desire for attention - even negative attention.

The behavior that accompanies this dampened motivation may range from quitting ("school is boring"), avoiding any attempt ("I'm stupid; why try?"), clowning (for attention), denying ("I don't care about English"), being impulsive ("There! I'm done!"), or bullying (picking on someone smaller).

We also know that of the brain's various learning systems, if the emotional system is in turmoil, the cognitive system must expend energy on it before the brain can focus to learn. This means you must help your child talk about his feelings before you can figure out how to motivate him to do math or to write essays. Help him to see the pattern of his behavior and to understand why he doesn't feel motivated to succeed at school.

What fires motivation?

Babies are born with an inherent drive to learn. Your challenge as the parent of a child with learning or attention problems is to help him build what Drs. Robert Brooks and Sam Goldstein ( Raising Resilient Children: Fostering Strength, Hope, and Optimism in Your Child) call "islands of competence," to offset the frustrations and low self-esteem that can result from his learning struggles. The goal is to find subjects or activities where he is self-motivated to learn, enjoys the process of learning, and sees the value of what he learns.

Deborah Stipek, Ph.D, Dean of the Stanford University School of Education, is an expert in the subject of motivation in young children. She's also a mother, so her latest book, Motivated Minds/Raising Children to Love Learning, is full of practical advice.

Dr. Stipek says kids will be self-motivated to learn when they:

Feel competent about something

Have some choice and control over their learning

Believe that intelligence isn't fixed at birth

Feel loved and respected by their parents

Help your child discover his passions

One way to build a sense of competence in your child is to encourage his passions. There's an academic payoff to building competence this way. Dr. Stipek says, "The good news may seem paradoxical: research has shown that the indirect strategy of helping your child enjoy learning and see its value is the best way to improve your child's grades and raise his test scores."

If your child has a particular strength in school, such as being a math whiz, find ways outside of school to expose him to math in the real world - computers, hands-on science museums, and math camps.

If he struggles with most school subjects, look elsewhere for his passions. Pay attention to whatever makes your child perk up. Is it animals? Plants? Music? Art? Dinosaurs? Video games? Skateboards?

To play on these passions, help your child deepen his knowledge. For example, if your Internet provider allows you space for a family website, let the child help build one on his favorite subject. He could research and write about the foremost skateboard athletes in the world. Post his drawings of himself skateboarding the galaxy. List unanswered questions about skateboards. Let family and friends interact with the website, too - what else would they like to know from your in-house skateboard expert?

Give your child some choices

All of us thrive when we feel we're acting of our own volition. Children with learning and attention difficulties are no different. For example, when we offer them a choice between two acceptable alternatives, such as doing either their math or social studies homework first, they feel a sense of control over their own world. This leads to greater pride and self-motivation.

Dr. Mel Levine, author of the set of tapes called Developing Minds, says, "Help children develop a sense of control by presenting things they do not want to do as choices. For example, let a child decide whether to do homework before or after dinner. At school, consider letting a child who dislikes chorus participate in the spring performance by selling tickets."

Help your child develop persistence

Dr. Stipek reports on experiments that reveal a child's beliefs about intelligence affect his motivation to succeed. If he believes intelligence is fixed at birth and he missed out, he is liable to quit without trying. If, on the other hand, you help him to understand that persistence is more important than the luck of the draw, you promote a child who can learn to succeed on his own terms. This is the struggling child who changes from saying, "What's the use?" to "I've learned how to slow down and double-check my work."

Dr. Stipek says, "Emphasize notions of flexible intelligence. Tell your child, in every way you can, that brainpower is something you acquire. Make the following sayings (or their age-appropriate equivalents) your family mantras:

"Success is 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration."

"Geniuses are made, not born."

Let your child know you love and respect him

Every child needs to feel that his parents are on his side. You can demonstrate your love and respect for your child with learning problems by accepting, connecting, and supporting, no matter what. You still love him, even when he forgets his assignment. You're interested in the details of each day. And when he's upset, you help him to give words to feelings.

Respect your child by helping him understand not only his specific learning difficulties, but strategies for coping in school. For example, if your child cannot hold multiplication facts in long-term memory, he may not do well on a standardized math test. He needs both a strategy to practice his math skills and a strategy to take the test. He may need different ways to drill multiplication, such as tactile manipulation of objects, drawing pictures, or saying the tables out loud. He may also need more time on the test.

Help your child identify steps to success

Our culture reveres inborn talent and luck. Unfortunately, that can leave out the child who struggles in school. He begins to believe that no matter how hard he works, school success is outside of his control.

If you help him identify small, concrete steps to reach his learning goals, you can recognize each accomplishment along the way, nor matter how big or small. Then the effort of learning is valued as much as the outcome in school. Help your child learn to set attainable learning goals, such as studying a math concept from a variety of angles until he understands it. This might mean that you must be content with something like a C grade in Math - but an A+ in Effort.

It will be important to communicate regularly with your child's teacher so all of you (parents, teacher, and child) can work as a united team. With the teacher's help and ideas, your child's learning goals will be supported both at school and at home.

You also want your child to learn that making mistakes is a natural part of the process of learning. Thomas Edison, said to have tried 10,000 times to perfect the light bulb, said, "I didn't fail. I just discovered another way not to invent the electric light bulb."

Foster long-term motivation

Research tells us that parents who encourage a child's self-sufficiency often have children who are motivated from the inside, out. This means holding back a little before you jump in to help your struggling child. "Children with learning disabilities are especially vulnerable to developing perceptions of themselves as academically incompetent and to develop low expectations for success," Dr. Stipek says "In an effort to ensure success we sometimes provide more help than children with learning problems or AD/HD actually need. This takes away from their own pride in accomplishment and the enthusiasm that a sense of achievement and competence can produce."

Children with learning difficulties often have a marvelous ability to see the world in new ways. When you guide your child to pursue his interests, operate from his strengths, and not shy away from challenges, you help him build a positive cycle of accomplishment and self-motivation. Celebrate each hard-won stumbling step your child takes on the way to learning and developing strengths, so that in the long run, he can sustain his motivation - and passion - for learning.

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Fostering motivation in kids with learning and attention problems | Parenting

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Steven is 11 and in the fifth grade. His reading problem causes him to read haltingly. On the day he knows he'll be asked to read out loud at school, he develops a stomachache. Maria, age 9, is in the third grade.

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Teacher Practices that Increase Reading Motivation

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Teacher Practices that Increase Reading Motivation

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2009 - Though from the article: Ownership for the students is important

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Introduction

Almost all agree that some amount of reading is vital to becoming a good reader. Expertise does not arise without active participation. Some educators would advocate that the best way to become a proficient reader is by reading widely and frequently. But other educators suggest that gaining proficiency may not be so simple for many students who may need more contextual support.

Contextual support is extremely valuable for gaining reading proficiency, but we are suggesting that, while explicit instruction and appropriate texts are valuable, an often overlooked factor is motivational support. We propose that when the classroom encourages the powerful motivations for reading, students acquire proficiency steadily and predictably.

Intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation

When students read a passage or a book, they usually have a reason for doing it. Likewise when they avoid reading a text that they may be expected to read, they usually have a reason for their resistance. The most prominent reason for recreational reading is "I enjoy it." This reason refers to interest or intrinsic motivation, which means doing something for its own sake, and these motivations are internal to the student.

Students who consistently read for their own interest are often quite competent and are usually highly achieving readers. Wigfield and Guthrie (1997) documented that students who are intrinsically motivated spend 300% more time reading than students who have low intrinsic motivation for reading. Compared to 10 other motivations, intrinsic motivation for reading was most highly associated with whether or not students read widely and frequently on their own accord.

Another reason students read in school is external pressure. Often students say that their reason for reading is that "The teacher assigned it," or "I'll get in trouble if I don't." In this case the reason for reading is external motivation (Ryan & Connell, 1989). This reason is not chosen by the student and this reading will be avoided if possible. An extremely widespread research finding is that internal motivations (interest, intrinsic motivation) are positively correlated with reading achievement, and external motivations (pressure, requirements, rules) are not correlated with reading achievement (Guthrie & Coddington, 2009).

In elementary school external motivations are usually not negatively correlated with reading competence, but in secondary school the external reasons for reading become negatively related to achievement. By secondary school, students who read only for the reason of avoiding getting in trouble, or only to avoid feeling ashamed for failing, show low and declining achievement (Otis, Frederick, & Pelletier, 2005).

The reasons for reading, then, are crucial. Simply reading is insufficient. When internal motivations such as intrinsic motivation and interest energize students' reading, students interact with text deeply and gain relatively high amounts of knowledge or aesthetic experience (Schiefele, 1999). If students' reading interests are weak, their competency grows little and their quality as readers diminishes (Guthrie et al., 2007).

Motivation, reading achievement, and CORI

In this article, we present five motivations that have been widely found to foster achievement. In Tables 1 and Table 2 we display these motivations consisting of the following:

Associated with these, we share the reasons for reading when the motivation is affirming (positive) and the reasons for avoiding reading when the motivation is undermining (negative).

Most important, there are classroom practices that encourage these five reasons for reading, and each practice can be implemented in the short term or the long term. We present classroom practices that impact internal reasons for reading, according to empirical studies. We draw on a variety of research including studies of Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (CORI) (Guthrie, McRae, & Klauda, 2007) and a meta-analysis of 22 studies (Guthrie & Humenick, 2004).

What makes CORI and other motivational programs different from traditional reading instruction is the focus on increasing not only reading comprehension, but also reading engagement for students at all reading levels. This is achieved through the explicit inclusion of motivation support in the classroom. In CORI, teachers are trained in five motivational practices, and these are embedded in the curriculum. We will also refer to other research that confirms these practices.

Intrinsic motivation

Students who read for the sheer enjoyment of reading are intrinsically motivated. They are not reading for the external rewards sometimes offered by teachers, such as toys, food, candy, or grades. These students also choose to read during their free time both in and out of school, initiating reading without promises of either reward or punishment. Teachers can implement practices in the classroom that either support or undermine student intrinsic motivation.

Assuring Relevance Builds Intrinsic Motivation

When reading material is made relevant for students, they are more likely to become engaged and competent readers (Vansteenkiste, Lens, & Deci, 2006). When teachers encourage intrinsic motivation in students by making the reading activity in class relevant, students initiate and persist with the reading tasks.

To assure relevance, text and activities should be linked to real life experiences, hands on activities, a conceptual theme, and should be culturally relevant. This is the purpose of hands-on science activities in Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction that we have examined extensively (Guthrie et al., 2007). Activating the background knowledge of students before, during and after reading helps them to make connections between their own lives, their interests, and the text. For example, having a discussion about a child's recent trip to the city may help get students' minds set for an upcoming text about urban architecture.

For situations where students have little or no existing background knowledge, hands-on activities help to bring personal experience of a new concept to the class. Dissecting an owl pellet and observing the animal bones, skulls and hair found within is a good way to bring quick personal experience to a text about the survival mechanisms of the owl. These are some of the activities used in Grade 3 implementations of Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction (Guthrie et al., 2004).

This experience provided an enriched foundation for students' reading of a text about the survival mechanisms of the owl. Students are much more likely to pick up a book about owls and read it with engagement after such a hands-on activity, resulting in effective practice of cognitive reading strategies and gained conceptual knowledge (Guthrie, McRae & Klauda, 2007). The power of hands-on experiences that are tightly linked to book reading activities was shown in one investigation by Guthrie et al. (2006). Reading growth was higher for students in classrooms where there were a larger number of hands-on science activities (tightly linked to books), than in classrooms where fewer activities of this kind occurred.

As well as selecting texts that connect to students' interests and backgrounds, teachers encourage intrinsic motivation in students by making the reading activity in class relevant for students. Relevance gives them reason to initiate and persist with the reading task. Students are also more likely to be engaged in reading if there is an ongoing, relevant conceptual theme. Teachers who create units of study that focus on some conceptual theme based on student interest are encouraging students to enthusiastically read the expository and narrative texts over a prolonged period of time, sustaining engagement.

In different versions of CORI we have used the conceptual themes of survival of life in wetlands, plant and animal communities, or habitats for birds around the world. For third graders, concepts of survival were explored with subconcepts of feeding, locomotion, predation, defense, reproduction, respiration, communication, niche, competition, and adaptation to habitat (Barbosa & Alexander, 2004).

While providing experiences for students that activate and add to their background knowledge centered on a conceptual theme, teachers must be aware of the cultural backgrounds in their classrooms. This is especially important since studies have found differences in levels of intrinsic motivation between ethnic groups. Unrau and Schlackman (2006) studied urban middle school students' intrinsic motivation for reading. The middle school was located in Los Angeles, and the majority of the students (about 75%) were Hispanic and 20% were Asian.

The authors found that intrinsic motivation positively related to and predicted reading achievement for the Asian students, but they did not find this result for Hispanic students. With respect to intrinsic motivation, there was also a direct effect on reading achievement for Asian students but not for Hispanic students (Unrau & Schlackman, 2006). It is, therefore, important to consider what cultural values and what opportunities students are presented within the context of their homes and communities.

Including themes and texts from varied parts of the world enriches students' appreciation for and understanding of their culture as well as cultures outside their own. Teachers who include texts and references to the specific cultures represented in the classroom are more likely to engage students, especially those who do not normally see their backgrounds reflected in mainstream instruction and texts.

This helps to bring some of their own personal background knowledge to the reading activity, thereby increasing comprehension. With repeated experiences of relevance in the classroom, students increase their interest, and their reasons for reading increasingly become enjoyment rather than external pressure.

Non-relevance Undermines Intrinsic Motivation

When teachers do not assure the relevance of text or reading activity, students tend to avoid reading (Assor, Kaplan, & Roth, 2002). For example, students may experience low relevance when there are multiple unrelated topics within one lesson, with few or no links to background knowledge. Teaching texts and topics that have no basis or connection to students' background knowledge disengages students and gives them a reason not to read the text.

If they are consistently given texts and reading activities that are outside of their own experiences, with no regard to student interest or preferences, there is little reason for students to initiate reading the text, and even less chance that students will become immersed in the reading. Over time, the readings will be seen as tedious chores. Disliking the texts, students will tend to avoid reading (Oldfather, 2002).

Ownership

Students who feel ownership of their reading are more likely to become engaged in that experience. Too often, teachers create an environment in the classroom that emphasizes the teacher's authority and ownership of the space, the materials, the curriculum, and by extension, the learning that takes place. Once students are placed at the center of the learning experience and are encouraged to think of reading as their own personal asset, they will see the value of investing their time and energy in reading.

Affording Choices Strengthens Ownership

There are opportunities throughout the school day to offer meaningful choices to students. These choices can be manifested in several ways that effectively give students a sense of ownership that becomes one of the reasons to read.

The main factors to consider when providing choice are whether the choice is meaningful, whether it is relevant to the activity, and whether the level of choice is appropriate for the student. If the choices provided by the teacher meet these criteria, the result is an increased sense of ownership that the student feels towards reading, as well as increased self-regulation and investment in the acquisition of reading strategies. Experiments show that giving choices of what to read or how long to spend on specific texts increases students' sense of being "in charge" and their time spent reading (Reynolds & Symons, 2001).

For choices to be meaningful, they should be based on students' personal goals and interests (Assor, Kaplan, & Roth, 2002). A simple but impactful choice is that of text selection.

Students have individual interests and preferences when it comes to text genre, format, and topic. Even if the topic has been set by the teacher, a variety of texts can be offered that appeal to students, giving them a sense of responsibility; once they choose a particular text, there is now a responsibility to read and follow through with that choice. One research team observed teachers in a brief, 10-minute lesson on how to solve a problem. Afterward, they asked students about their motivation and their sense of being in charge of their learning.

Students were demotivated when the teacher did the following: talked constantly, gave detailed directions, asked controlling questions, gave deadlines, criticized students, and gave answers before students finished. In contrast, students reported feeling engaged and motivated for the tasks when teachers did these things: listened, asked what students wanted, provided a rationale for work, picked up on student questions, gave encouraging feedback, and recognized challenges (Reeve & Jang, 2006).

In another study, Vansteenkiste and colleagues (2006) worked with students who were moderately or highly obese. He gave these students a text on nutrition. One group was asked to read this for their own interest and personal benefit. Another group was asked to read quickly to get a high score on a test. The former group, whose personal needs were addressed in the reading, felt a sense of ownership of the text. They comprehended deeply and understood the implications of the text for them. The second group, who read for external goals only, gained superficial knowledge of a few facts, but missed the central messages of the text.

Effective teachers scaffold choices so that at first there are limited options, and eventually, students are making multiple choices within a lesson such as topic and text selection, partner or group selection, or making decisions about the end product. It is vital, however, that students are not given choices that are overwhelming either in breadth or depth. If students have a particularly hard time with decoding text, for example, an appropriate approach would be for the teacher to select the topic and provide two texts from which the student can make a choice.

Students who are more independent could choose from five texts, and especially proficient students might have a choice of topic as well as text. The goal is to move students gradually to the point where they are making multiple choices within a lesson, such as topic and text selection, partner or group selection, and decisions about the end product. If students are expected to make multiple choices initially, they will be overwhelmed and unlikely to accomplish the desired goals of lessons.

In discussion of scaffolding for student choice, Antonio and Guthrie (2008) suggested that teachers consider:

1. Offering simple choices at first

2. Helping students practice making good choices

3. Providing feedback about their choices

4. Using team choices for younger students

5. Offering information that clarifies good choices

6. Affording choices within a task (e.g., ordering, sequence, topic). in effective scaffolding for choice, a teacher initially shares responsibility with the students and gradually shifts the decision-making into the students' hands

In an interview study with secondary teachers, Flowerday and Schraw (2000) found that teachers offer choices on:

1. Topic of study

2. Reading materials

3. Method of assessment

4. Order of activities

5. Social arrangements

6. Procedural sequences

These teachers said that their purposes were to increase students' interest and commitment to the learning and reading activities.

In an environment such as CORI, where students are consistently given meaningful options and then guided to make appropriate choices, students subsequently experience an increase in reading comprehension and increased self regulation (Guthrie et al., 2004). This contributes to greater attention to reading tasks and commitment to completion of these tasks. Throughout the process of reading, and once it is complete, students emerge with a sense of ownership of the reading strategies they have learned and practiced, ownership of the knowledge they have attained, and accountability for the further development of the strategies and knowledge that have been developed through their choices.

Excessive Control Undermines Ownership

A teacher who controls every aspect of reading instruction is sending the clear message to students that their opinions and preferences do not matter. When students do not have any options in designing their learning, they become passive spectators to the teacher's agenda.

As a result, students have no sense of ownership of the strategies being taught, the text used, or the knowledge presented, and have no reason to read that text. When it comes time to share the results of the learning experience, students feel no accountability. For many students, this lack of accountability means a failure to complete tasks and the likelihood that information is forgotten as soon as the experience is over.

Based on observations of classrooms, Assor, Kaplan, Kanat-Maymon, and Roth (2005) found that excessive control included frequent directives, interfering with preferred pace of learning, and suppressing critical thinking. Such over-control resulted in behaviors of anger, anxiety, and resentment toward the teacher among fourth and fifth grade students.

Readers need to establish and maintain a state of flow, or engagement while reading. If readers are constantly interrupted, or made to start and stop at the teacher's will, there is no feeling of ownership or personal responsibility for the reading assignment (Assor et al., 2005). Students who sense that their opinions and preferences are not heard and not valued are made to feel unimportant and powerless in the classroom.

This can transfer to the view that the reading activity itself is unimportant (Seifert & O'Keefe, 2001). There is no need for maintenance of self-regulation if the teacher is making all of the decisions. Students may follow along passively, without any decision-making processes taking place, and without the benefit of the trial and error involved in developing effective learning processes.

Lack of ownership also diminishes the selection and use of reading strategies (Reynolds & Symons, 2001). When teachers give a trivial choice such as which pen color to use, students know the choice is irrelevant to their learning and provides no connection between that student and reading. Students who are not allowed to make choices about which strategy to use or how to use it are being taught to view reading in a very limited manner, where there is only one way to approach a problem and no alternatives are presented. With little ownership, students' reasons for reading become external. They may say "The teacher wants it done," or "I'm only reading because I have to." These external reasons are likely to lead to superficial use of strategies and lower proficiency in challenging tasks.

Self-efficacy

Students who believe they can read well are going to read often. When students have high self-efficacy in reading, the potentially daunting task of reading a text that is challenging becomes surmountable. They work towards goals and enjoy the feeling of success that comes with tackling a difficult passage. Self-efficacy in students is related to cognitive engagement and persistence at challenging tasks (Pintrich & De Groot, 1990).

Maintaining Success Improves Self-efficacy

Teachers who support their students' perception that they are capable of reading well are setting the students up for success as a major reason to become engaged in reading (Wigfield, Guthrie, Tonks, & Perencevich, 2004). When teachers guide students to repeat tasks until they are proficient, students enjoy increases in self-efficacy. Teachers who support student self-efficacy also evaluate student work based on effort and accuracy. This promotes student willingness to place effort on challenging texts and reading tasks, which then has a reciprocal effect of the student experiencing meaningful success.

In classrooms that promote student self-efficacy, the success of students is linked to challenging tasks. In a study of third graders' motivation, Miller and Meece (1999) found that students prefer challenging reading and writing tasks. The students were interviewed after completing tasks such as essays, research papers, and analysis of characters in a class novel. The interviews revealed that even when students found a task easy, they did not necessarily have an interest in completing the task, finding it boring. When presented with a challenging task, however, students stated that they enjoyed making up responses and preferred these types of tasks.

In order to include challenge in their lessons, teachers should identify the current level of the student in decoding, comprehension, and writing, and then create challenging tasks that build upon and extend the student's current capacities. This means providing decodable text for students that is slightly above their reading level, but within a level of comfort where the student is able to become engaged and read fluently with little interruption. The focus here should be on solidifying existing decoding skills while building vocabulary and conceptual knowledge, giving the student a sense of accomplishing a meaningful task that is challenging.

Once the student has successfully attained the reading strategy or concept at hand, and has shown proficiency in decoding that text, the difficulty of the text may be increased, always challenging the student but never overwhelming them. This approach fosters self-efficacy and encourages reading engagement (Linnenbrink & Pintrich, 2003).

The assessment of the student should be based on effort and persistence with challenging text. Text that is well below the level of the student has already been mastered, and the student gains very little if there is no conceptual knowledge to be learned. Evaluating reading ability with this kind of text does not accurately represent the student's reading level or growth, even though the student appears successful. On the other hand, a student who is applying effort to the reading task and who experiences challenge is more likely to experience growth in reading ability, and the assessment of student success should be based in this context of appropriate challenge.

Allowing Frequent Failure Undermines Self-efficacy

When students perceive that reading tasks are insurmountable, they are less likely to put forth effort or even to attempt new and challenging reading tasks (Schunk, 2003). This leads to teacher evaluations that rate the student as poor readers, which in turn further discourages students from attempting reading activities.

A focus on task completion, rather than a focus on students' learning, lies at the heart of practices that undermine self-efficacy, as shown by Schunk (2003) in a review of studies designed to increase self-efficacy in reading and learning. Such a task focus occurs most often when students are expected to read a textbook that is too difficult. For example, many textbooks in content areas contain excessive vocabulary, are relatively incoherent, and are disconnected from students' background knowledge. For secondary students, this threat to self-efficacy prevents them from believing that school is worthwhile (Otis et al., 2005).

Focusing on content coverage and completion of the tasks in a lesson plan or teachers' guide can hinder the self-efficacy of students who are developing readers, as well as proficient readers. In the case of developing readers, students who are given tasks that are too difficult and asked to repeat the tasks repeatedly, without additional instruction, are likely to be disengaged (Chapman & Tunmer, 1995). Vestiges of students' self-efficacy for reading drops even more. This experience of repeated failure causes the students to detach from the reading task and in a broader sense, from reading (Coddington & Guthrie, in press). The most frequent reason for not reading is the belief that "I cannot read it." Repeated experiences of excessive difficulty humiliate students, and naturally, they become avoidant.

Teachers may unintentionally undermine self-efficacy when reading lessons are focused on a task, such as a skill exercise, with no consideration given to whether students are gaining success and competence. Students who do not feel challenged are less motivated and have lower self-efficacy (Miller & Meece, 1999). When nothing but completion of the task is required, and students are given the message that their success is irrelevant, they may complete the task to the teacher's specifications, but it is possible neither knowledge nor strategy has been acquired. Students then learn to go through the motions of completing tasks without any purpose or benefit, translating success to performance rather than mastery of a goal.

Social motivation

Sharing reading is a social experience, whether students are reading in unison, discussing a novel, or working together to decode and define a new word. One of the aspects of school that children enjoy is spending time with friends. When given the opportunity to interact with friend during class time, students will approach the given task with more enthusiasm.

Arranging Collaboration Fosters Social Motivation

Students are social beings, and this is apparent both in and out of the classroom. Just as they crave social interaction on the playground, when in the classroom, discussion and collaboration are natural parts of a student's learning and development, and students will readily embrace collaboration with peers as a reason to read.

When teachers support this need for collaboration by allowing students to share ideas and build knowledge together, a sense of belongingness to the classroom community is established, and the extension and elaboration of existing knowledge is facilitated (Wentzel, 2005). Students gain the perspective of others while debating topics in the classroom, extending their initial views. Students who work together on a reading task are combining their background knowledge and skill sets, learning from each other, and building a shared understanding of the material (Chinn, Anderson, & Waggoner, 2001).

In a study by Almasi (1995), fourth graders average and below average readers were observed and interviewed while engaging in discussion of stories during reading class. Students were placed in either peer-led or teacher-led groups, and given stories to read based on student interest and reading level. The resulting text related discussions between students in the peer-led discussions were more elaborate than the discussions that were teacher-led.

In the peer-led groups, students shared their opinions and background knowledge, leading to new interpretations of the text. The students in the teacher-led groups were not actively engaged in discussing incongruities in the text, as the teacher was the dominant member of the group and posed explicit questions, guiding students through the analysis of the text. Student engagement is supported when students are encouraged to read aloud together, create questions together, and extract meaning from text together (Chinn, Anderson, & Waggoner, 2001).

In a literature review of motivation and engagement among Caucasian and African American students, it was found from multiple, experimental studies that African American students benefit from collaborative structures for interacting with text more than Caucasian students. Not only do African American students prefer collaborative to individual learning, but their text comprehension is enhanced relatively highly in collaborative learning activities that are well structured (Guthrie, Rueda, Gambrell, & Morrison, in press). Even sharing prior knowledge is motivating for students, when they are allowed to find common experiences with their peers, making them feel a sense of belonging within the classroom community.

When they learn that a classmate has experienced something that they have never seen or even thought of before, this creates a respect for and curiosity about fellow students. Once this kind of rapport is established, and dialogue has taken place about the given topic, students are more likely to engage in reading text communally and recall the resulting knowledge, as seen in a study of African American fifth graders (Dill & Boykin, 2000).

Grouping students of varying reading levels can also be motivating, as the struggling students gain the perspective of more experienced readers, and the advanced readers clarify their own understanding through explaining concepts and reading strategies to their peers (Sikorski, 2004). For example, modeling and scaffolding students to say appropriately, "I disagree with you," or "I want to add two points to what you are saying," enables learners to become more interactively effective.

Students working individually may be more likely to acquire misconceptions and hold limited perspectives on a text than students in an open discussion. Working individually, students also miss the chance. This also relaxes the dependence on the teacher, and students feel a greater sense of independence when creating meaning with peers instead of always receiving help from the authority figure.

This extension of knowledge and perception leads to the elaboration of text. The initial concepts are read and decoded by the students, but then these concepts are extended beyond the boundaries of the text to include multiple interpretations and a complex structure of prior knowledge, perspective and emerging knowledge that has been build collaboratively. It is important for teachers to model and facilitate elaborative speech in their lessons in order for students to build their skill at collaboration (Webb & Farivar, 1994).

Individual Work Undermines Social Motivation

Some teachers feel that a classroom that is quiet and filled with students working individually and independently at all times is a controlled and well maintained class. The silence in the room is not an indicator of student engagement nor is it necessarily conducive to complex learning processes such as building an argument or combining multifaceted knowledge to form new knowledge.

Students in this environment tend to feel isolated and do not sense a connection between themselves and a larger unit of scholars. Isolated learners may adhere to faulty logic or inaccurate interpretations without realizing the alternatives, or focus solely on one "correct" interpretation or conclusion (Applebee, Langer, Nystrand, & Gamoran, 2003).

These students also miss the chance to build social skills that include negotiation, persuasion, and synthesis of one's perspectives with those of peers, which is something researchers have found students enjoy when given the opportunity (Clark, Anderson, Kuo, Kim, Archodidou, & Nguyen-Jahiel, 2003).

Mastery Motivation

Students' goals in the classroom vary from wanting to perform well in order to earn a grade, to wanting to master and become experts in some new reading strategy or conceptual topic. The quest for deep understanding or conquering reading skills is mastery motivation.

Thematic Units Cultivate Mastery Motivation

By emphasizing mastery goals as a reason to read, teachers are contributing to both student motivation and reading comprehension (Grolnick & Ryan, 1987; Pintrich, 2000).

Teachers who provide concepts that are complex, and persist over an extended period of time, are supporting the acquisition of deep conceptual knowledge. Goal orientation has been shown to be related to reading achievement (Guthrie et al., 2006). One way to scaffold mastery goals is to place large conceptual learning goals on the blackboard, bulletin board, or chart. As the lessons progress, key information is added and additional concepts are linked to the visible display. A teacher might scaffold mastery goal learning by beginning a large concept map and adding to it during the course of a thematic unit. This focuses students on deep understanding, rather than test scores or pages covered in a text.

Placing an emphasis on mastery of new material, not just the performance of tasks typifies a teacher with a focus on mastery goal orientation. In her classroom, concepts are introduced and then related to each other to form a complex web of knowledge. Students are able to explore topics in depth and at length, and come away with understanding of text that can then enhance future reading experiences.

Even at the lower elementary grades, students are capable of learning multiple concepts and making connections between those concepts. Although at first they may appear more challenging, decodable texts that include conceptual knowledge are more likely to sustain student interest and foster curiosity, thereby creating engaged readers. Teacher attention to mastery goals for students are facilitating this conceptual learning (Meece, Anderman, & Anderman, 2006). Making a lesson conceptual also facilitates integration of domains such as science or social studies.

The concepts within reading lessons should also span several days or even weeks. This allows students to gain a sense of becoming experts in a given topic or concept. Introducing the concept in a way that accounts for students' prior knowledge can in itself take multiple lessons to accomplish. Then, providing students with hands-on experiences and exposure to multiple texts should be the core piece of the unit, and again may span several days or weeks. Teachers can conclude with a culminating project that lets students express their gained conceptual knowledge.

There is also a connection between other motivational practices and mastery orientation. In a study by Meece and Miller (1999), teachers who supported student choice, intrinsic motivation, collaboration and self-efficacy were effective in promoting mastery goals in their third grade classrooms. This finding was based on an intervention study that increased opportunities for students to complete challenging assignments in a small group setting. Ratings of performance and work avoidant goals decreased, and mastery goals remained stable for the students in classrooms where teachers were rated as having high implementation of the intervention.

Disconnected Units Undermine Mastery Motivation

In lessons that emphasize factual knowledge and disjointed topics that lack consistency, students are taught to avoid mastery and focus instead on short term gains that do not result in the meaningful building of strategies or knowledge (Seifert & O'Keefe, 2001). It is important for teachers to be cognizant of the goal orientation of their classrooms, as students experience fluctuations in orientation as they move into the upper elementary school years (Meece & Miller, 1999).

Student engagement is diminished when the topics change daily, and students are left with no clear conceptual reason to read the text. Teachers who jump quickly from one unrelated topic to another are not giving students the chance to reflect on or digest new information. Even if the teacher is choosing appropriate conceptual themes, this is not effective unless students are given the time to manipulate these concepts and integrate them with existing knowledge. When students are made to read unrelated texts and then questioned in an oversimplified manner, such as asking them to recite dates that have been memorized or other surface knowledge without any connection to larger systems, their disposition for deep understanding is discouraged.

Finally, students may learn new reading strategies while reading text just for factual information or to receive a grade for their performance. This does not mean that they are engaged readers or that they are mastering anything more than a skill set to be used within a specific context. Teachers who emphasize performance instead of mastery tend to stress formal assessments and grades, rather than engagement (Patrick, Anderman, Ryan, Edelin, & Midgley, 2001).

Limiting the reading strategy use to shallow themes teaches students to think in a very restricted way about reading and its purpose. Once a strategy has been employed and comprehension gained from text, if that meaning is trivial, then the student is not compelled to initiate use of the strategy in the future, nor are they excited about beginning a new text, since there is no meaningful knowledge to be gained.

Reading identity

Reading identity refers to the extent that an individual values reading as personally important, and views success in reading as an important goal. Regrettably, very little is known about educational conditions that foster the development of reading identity. However, it is well established that high achievers tend to identify with school and feel a sense of belonging in the classroom (Voelkl, 1997). Students who identify themselves as readers are the ones who are more likely to read and to gain knowledge from reading. Teachers support this by explaining that texts are important and functional, and that reading is relevant for student long-term interest and personal development. Under the best conditions, students connect reading skill and life outcomes such as career attainment and personal success.

Although there is little research on this issue, we suggest that when teachers model their own personal identification as readers and make explicit the fact that they value reading, students may perceive reading as beneficial and worthwhile. When teachers support students' identity as readers, students have a commitment to complete the act of reading, not just to the satisfaction of the teacher, but to their own personal standard of excellence. This may result in a sense of accomplishment once a reading task is mastered that goes beyond the teacher and lesson, as the student is fulfilling his own personal sense of responsibility to excel at reading.

As students progress through school, their identity as learners and readers can progressively deteriorate. Young children typically give high ratings to reading and learning (Coddington & Guthrie, in press). However, as students approach the end of the elementary grades, many students cease to aspire to higher achievement or proficiency in tasks such as reading in any subject matter (Wigfield & Eccles, 2002).

As they enter middle school, some students detach their sense of self-worth from school success. This is especially true for African American or Hispanic students. Beginning in grades seven and eight, many of these minority students reject reading achievement and view it as unimportant. Taylor and Graham (2007) showed that African American and Hispanic students cease to value achievement in middle school. As Osborne (1997) documented for a national sample, African American males increasingly disidentify with academics through middle and high school.

Their sense of self-worth progressively detaches from their level of achievement. They do not experience any benefit that justifies putting effort into reading. School is not viewed as an avenue for advancement or success, but is merely a requirement imposed on them. Nussbaum and Steele (2007) found that African American students often disengage themselves from evaluations in order to prevent unfavorable appraisals of their achievements.

Although there is little evidence on this issue, it is likely that when teachers encourage students to make connections with reading and to apply their personal experiences in the classroom, students may increase their engagement with text. Teachers' interpersonal relationships with students are also likely to impact their engagement favorably, which may foster their process of identification in the long term.

Next steps for educators

One remarkable quality about the motivations presented here consisting of interest, ownership, self-efficacy, social interaction, and mastery goals is that they are associated with more and better reading at all grade levels K through 12.

These motivations are also associated with more and better reading in classroom contexts that are created in the short term or the long term. If a teacher supports students' ownership by giving many choices in one lesson, the students are likely to respond positively with more motivation for reading. More profoundly, however, if a curriculum embeds choices across the school year and daily instruction underscores students' self-directed learning, students' ownership of reading will grow substantially and drive achievement upward.

As a first step in short-term planning, educators can take stock of their current teaching. For each of the motivations presented in this article educators can ask:

1. Do I support this motivation already?

2. How often do I do this?

3. When do I support this motivation?

4. How well does my support work?

5. How can I support this motivation more?

6. How can I support this motivation more effectively?

7. How can I connect this practice to my current teaching more deeply?

Many teachers are already connecting reading to students' real-world experiences and background knowledge to some degree. However, using these questions to reflect on teaching and to expand their support for relevance will improve the amount and depth of students' reading.

For an entire course or a discipline in school such as reading instruction, educators can ask:

1. How does the course increase student motivations already?

2. How often does the course support these motivations explicitly?

3. When does the course do this?

4. How well do the instructional supports for motivation work?

5. How can we do this more frequently?

6. How can we do this better?

7. How can the course connect to the motivation practices described here more thoroughly?

A first step for thinking about supporting motivation more fully is self-appraisal. One starting point for self-appraisal is to use conversational questionnaires about motivation in the classroom. Useful inquiries can be made into the students' viewpoint (student questionnaire). Educators can explore the teachers' viewpoint (teacher questionnaire). One set of questionnaires is available in Engaging Adolescents in Reading by Guthrie (2008).

Regardless of which tools for self-improvement may be used, the implications of this article are that educators can advance the breadth and depth of students' reading by explicitly and systematically nourishing their practices that affirm students' motivations as readers.

Table 1: Classroom Practices that Affirm Motivation

Teacher practices

Motivations

Reasons to read when practice is affirming

Table 2: Classroom Practices that Undermine Motivation

Teacher practices

Student outcomes

Reasons to avoid reading when practice is undermining

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Teacher Practices that Impact Reading Motivation

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Almost all agree that some amount of reading is vital to becoming a good reader. Expertise does not arise without active participation. Some educators would advocate that the best way to become a proficient reader is by reading widely and frequently.

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Motivating Students to Read Issues and Practices

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Motivating Students to Read Issues and Practices

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2005 - Thought from the article: Extrinsic motivation can prevent intrinsic motivation

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Motivating Students to Read Issues and Practices - SEDL Letter, Reaching Our Reading Goals, Volume XVll, Number 1, June 2005

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SEDL merged with the American Institutes for Research (AIR) on January 1, 2015. This archived website contains the work of SEDL legacy projects and rich resources from the past 50 years.