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Edutopia is a free source of information, inspiration, and practical strategies for learning and teaching in preK-12 education. We are published by the George Lucas Educational Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization.

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How to Encourage Children to Read | Reading Lessons

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How to inspire every child to be a lifelong reader | Alvin Irby

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References

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

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Cordova, D., & Lepper, M. (1996). Intrinsic motivation and the process of learning. Beneficial effects of contextualization, personalization, and choice. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 715-730.

Fawson, P.C., & Fawson, C. (1994). Conditional philanthropy: A study of corporate sponsorship of reading programs. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the International Reading Association, Toronto, Canada.

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

Gambrell, L., Palmer, B., Codling, R., & Mazzoni. S. (1996). Assessing motivation to read. The Reading Teacher,

Guthrie, J., & Wigfield, A. (2000). Engagement and motivation in reading. In M. Kamil & P. Mosenthal, D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading research. Mahwah, N.J.:Earlbaum. 49(7), 518-533.

Iyengar, S., & Lepper, M. (1999). Rethinking the value of choice: A cultural perspective on intrinsic motivation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 349-366.

Marinak, B. & Gambrell, L. (2007). Boy's voices: I can read, I choose not to. Paper presented at the annual meeting of the College Reading Association, Salt Lake City, Utah, November 2, 2007.

Marinak, B. & Gambrell, L. (2008). Intrinsic motivation and rewards: What sustains young children's engagement with text? Literacy Research and Instruction. 47(1), 9-26.

McGee, L., & Richgels, D. (2003). Designing early literacy programs: Strategies for at-risk preschoolers and kindergarten children. ERIC Document ED 478237

Mohr, K. (2006). Children's choices for recreational reading: A three-part investigation of selection preferences, rationales, and processes. Journal of Literacy Research, 38 (1), 81-104.

Pappas, C. (1993). Is narrative "primary"?: Some insights from kindergartners' pretend readings of stories and inform books. Journal of Reading Behavior, 25, 97-129

Worthy, J. & McKool, S. (1996). Students who say they hate to read: The importance of opportunity, choice, and access. In D.J. Leu, C.K. Kinzer, & K.A. Hinchman (Eds.), Literacies for the 21st century: Research and practice. 45th yearbook of the National Reading Conference (pp. 245-256). Chicago: National Reading Conference.

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Reading Motivation: What the Research Says

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Click the "References" link above to hide these references. Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall. Cordova, D., & Lepper, M. (1996). Intrinsic motivation and the process of learning. Beneficial effects of contextualization, personalization, and choice. Journal of Educational Psychology, 88, 715-730.

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As a teacher, you regularly think about goal setting for students. From improving skills and meeting standards to being kind and putting the darn caps back on the glue sticks, there's always something to strive towards. Have you tapped into the power of setting goals with students, though? Research spanning decades shows that setting students goals improves both motivation and achievement. Goal setting encourages a growth mindset. It also supports the development of skills students need to be prepared for their future careers.

There's no shortage of teachers doing innovative work around goal setting for students. We've compiled some of our favorite resources into this handy guide for you.

What is a goal, anyways?

For younger students, you may need to start by distinguishing between a goal and a wish. I wish for a giant bowl of ice cream every evening around 8 PM, but my goal this year is to stay hydrated by drinking 100 ounces of water each day. Sigh. A read aloud like Froggy Rides a Bike by Jonathan London can help make this distinction clear. Froggy wishes he could own a cool trick bicycle, but his goal is to learn to ride a bike-which it turns out he's able to achieve with persistence and despite a few classic "more red in the face than green" moments.

For all students, it's helpful to share books that portray goal setting. In early elementary grades, Peter's effort in Whistle for Willie by Ezra Jack Keats is a classic example of persistently working towards a specific goal. Squirrel's New Year's Resolution by Pat Miller presents a nice variety of goals, from learning to read to helping someone each day. However, upper elementary and middle school, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, Young Reader's Edition by William Kamkwamba and Bryan Mealer chronicles William's work to relieve his village from drought. It includes the sub-goals he works towards along the way, such as researching viable solutions and figuring out how to build a windmill.

A great picture book option for older students is Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds: The Sammy Lee Story by Paula Yoo. This title is a biography of a diver who set and reached many goals, both physical and academic, along the way to becoming an Olympian.

Be SMART about it

Helping students hone their goal setting skills makes it more likely they will meet them. SMART goals have been a popular tool for years and many teachers have successfully implemented versions of this practice with their students. Consider these tactics:

Unpack the goal-setting process with students

SOURCE: Scholastic Top Teaching Blog

This lesson plan from Scholastic includes a free downloadable poster and graphic organizer. We love the brainstorm activity and interactive whiteboard sort for distinguishing specific and vague goals. These could easily be adapted for younger students based on the examples you choose.

You can also check out our free goal-setting printable here.

Start small

SOURCE: 3rd Grade Thoughts

This blog post from 3rd Grade Thoughts includes a simple-but-powerful anchor chart and a straightforward system for students to publicly identify short-term goals. Students in this classroom work on " WOW goals " to be completed "Within One Week."

Encourage nonacademic goals, too

In this lesson plan about character-based goals, students work with partners to discuss goals related to specific virtues such as respect, enthusiasm, and patience. They make specific plans to upgrade their behavior and evaluate their own progress.

Don't stop now: keep track and reflect

Raise your hand if you sometimes add items to your to-do list just for the satisfaction of crossing them off. Progress monitoring systems are motivating, and they are a crucial component of goal-setting work. Consider:

Visual tracking systems

SOURCE: The Brown Bag Teacher

This post from The Brown Bag Teacher describes a star chart for keeping track of filled-out reading logs. This system displays progress in a concrete way and could easily be adapted to other goals.

Goal-setting apps

There's an app for that! This roundup of goal setting and tracking apps from Emerging Ed Tech gives you plenty of options for taking that to do list up a notch.

Sharing assessment data with students

This video from EL Education demonstrates how teachers can make the assessment data you're collecting anyways more meaningful to students. This teacher discusses DRA data with students to help them reflect upon their progress and establish updated goals.

It's time to celebrate!

Who doesn't love a chance to be recognized for an achievement? Acknowledging students' attainment of goals is an important component of classroom goal setting. Consider these ideas:

Make celebration a habit

Nurture a "hooray" classroom culture by adopting the perspective of teacher Kevin Parr, who noticed an uptick in student motivation when he simply made a daily effort to provide more nonverbal and verbal recognition.

Recognize students in writing and in public

Send students "Happy Mail", as described by Responsive Classroom. Use written awards or notes to give individualized and authentic positive feedback and publicly share them for added recognition.

Introduce fun classroom traditions

If your school allows balloons, we love Dr. Michele Borba's suggestion to put small rewards-or reward "coupons"-inside balloons and write a goal on the outside of each one. Make a big deal out of popping a balloon when a goal is met.
How do you go about goal setting for students in your classroom? Come and share in our WeAreTeachers HELPLINE group on Facebook. Plus, check out this goal-setting bulletin board kit.

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How to Do Goal Setting With Your Students This School Year

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As a teacher, you regularly think about goal setting for students. From improving skills and meeting standards to being kind and putting the darn caps back on the glue sticks, there's always something to strive towards. Have you tapped into the power of setting goals with students, though?

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What is the purpose of checking for understanding? - Classcraft Blog

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Checking for understanding is the first line of defense educators have for making sure their teaching is hitting the mark and helping students.

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by abepiusc 47,551 views

Quizzes. Tests. Projects. We're all familiar with the formal ways to assess student learning at the end of a unit, but what about at the end of a class?

When is it a good time to move on? When should we stay in this topic and review a bit slower? We can ask our students. "Does this make sense?" We may get a few brave students willing to say no, but mostly it will be silence which we will then take as boredom and likely move on. But, did they get it? Here are some ways to check for your students' comprehension of the lesson objectives:

Try These 10 Creative Ways to Check for Student Comprehension

1. Keep a Learning Journal

Throughout the year, have students keep a comprehension journal. At the end of a particularly challenging lesson or at the end of a unit, give them time at the end of a lesson to write down their understanding of the lesson of the day. Periodically collect these and review to see if students are understanding what you need them to before deciding what to do the next day. These journals can be used as often or as little as you like. Using a journal will help keep all of their information in one place and can serve as a way for them to go back and review what they've learned throughout the term. Students can also exchange journals with each other from time to time and give feedback to one another.

2. Exit Slip

A more simplified comprehension check is an exit slip. Before students leave, ask them to jot down a few things they learned in the lesson or to summarize the important points of the days' lesson. Encourage them also to list any questions they might have. You can then look over these exit slips to determine if and what you need to review or if you can move on.

3. Daily Warm ups - Bell Ringers

A way to get students working right a way is to have a review question from the previous day on the board, document camera, computer etc... ready for students to do as they come in. Consider a short fill in the blank, example, or other question that you might have on an exam for them to practice. Discuss it in class after everyone arrives to activate the information they learned yesterday and prepare them for the day's lesson. Not only will you have a bridge from the previous lesson, but you will be able to transition quickly into your teaching without trying to get all your students to settle down or focus.

4. Pair and Teach

Teaching someone else new information is a great way to review and solidify what you have learned. At the end of class or at the beginning of the next day, pair students together and have one student be "the teacher." They should review the lesson with their partner by explaining and summarizing all of the main points. The partner must think of at least two questions to ask their "teacher." Have students switch partners and then switch roles so each student gets to be the teacher and practice explaining.

If you don't have time in class, get students' parents or friends involved and tell your students that they must find someone not in the class to explain the day's lesson. Have this person sign their notebook to show that they did their homework.

5. Tell me How You Feel

Give students five cards with their names on the back of each card to keep in their notebooks. Each card should have a corresponding ranking (either a number or a smiley face) that indicates their comprehension/comfort level with this particular topic (e.g., a scale from 1 = totally confused to 5= easy; ready to move on). After any particular lesson, ask students to choose one card that describes how they feel about that particular lesson and leave it face down on your desk as they leave the room. No one will have to know which number they gave so students can feel comfortable enough to be honest about their comprehension level. The next day you can return the cards and use them again whenever you need to.

6. Guided Questioning

The simplest and most effective way is to randomly ask students questions to sum up or review at the end of class. Use popsicle sticks or something with students' names written on it so that you can be sure to get each and every student. Ask students for examples and be sure they can explain why the answered the way they did.

7. Let Students Write Notes on the Board

At the end of class or at the beginning of the following class, give each student a board marker and an opportunity to write something that they learned on the board. This can be a fact, rule, or an example. For instance, if we have been studying adjective clauses, Student X might write "A clause = Subject + Verb;" Student Y may write "You use 'who' for people and 'which' for things;" and Student Z may write "I know the student who wrote this sentence."

After all students have had a chance, you have a board full of information about what you learned and your students feel as though they have contributed greatly. This is a great time for student collaboration as they help each other write their facts on the board, and you can observe which students are struggling. After all of the facts have been written, as a class you can review and correct any misrepresented information.

Variation: For a faster approach, arrange the students in a circle and toss around a ball or soft object. When the ball comes to them, students must say their fact or example out loud.

8. Concept Mapping

Students learn best when they can associate new material to things they have already learned. Have students reflect on the new topic they've learned and ask them to group it or relate it to a previously studied topic or something else they know about English. For example, if they have been learning adjective clauses, they might say how similar adjective clauses look to WH questions because they both use who/where/when/which/whose. Give students create Venn diagrams or concept maps to link related topics or highlight differences between them.

9. Reflection at Home

Often students think they understand while they are in class in the presence of their teacher, but when they go home, they find they didn't understand everything while trying to do their homework. Have students reflect at home to get a more realistic idea of what they comprehended. They could do a learning journal or you can involve technology. Create anonymous surveys (using sites like surveymonkey.com or the class management site Edmodo) and ask students how they feel about their grasp of the topic.

10. Error Correction / Problem-solving

Pose a problem or editing task on the board or for homework. Instruct students that when they answer, they need to give a step-by-step analysis of what they were thinking when they chose the correct answer, similar to showing your work when doing a math problem. For example, I gave my students this fill in the blank question about adjective clauses: I like Mr. Smith _______________ works down the street. Their task was to choose the correct relative pronoun and punctuation to fill in the blank. An analysis I might expect from a student would look something like this " Mr. Smith is a person => who or that. Mr. Smith is a name => non-essential adjective clause. Non-essential clauses= who (NO that) and comma because it's extra information so it needs extra punctuation. Final answer= , who."
This works best if they can explain their solution orally by voice recording (using sites like Voice Thread and their cell phones, iPads, or taking a video on their computer) or talking with students one-on-one. However, if students don't have the technology to record themselves, encourage them to write it out in bullet form.

Even the best-planned lessons can become ineffective if the students don't comprehend the material.

Knowing where each of your students is struggling is the key to helping them be successful, even if you're teaching a large class. Try a few of these ways in your next lesson to see how the material has been received!

P.S. If you enjoyed this article, please help spread it by clicking one of those sharing buttons below. And if you are interested in more, you should follow our Facebook page where we share more about creative, non-boring ways to teach English.

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10 Creative Ways to Check for Student Comprehension

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by abepiusc 47,551 views When is it a good time to move on? When should we stay in this topic and review a bit slower? We can ask our students. "Does this make sense?" We may get a few brave students willing to say no, but mostly it will be silence which we will then take as boredom and likely move on.

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It is a simple fact that the more your child reads, the better they read. Encourage your child to read more with this bingo reading activity and you will be helping them to become more confident and more proficient readers.

Some children need no encouragement to read, but others (mine included) do need some prodding now and again to 'remind' them to pick up a book and read.

My children keep reading logs of books which they have read and this helps to incentivise them to read more. However, I am always keen to try new ways to keep them reading and this activity is a fun and gentle way to encourage your child to read more.

In this bingo reading game your child chooses which of the suggested reading activities they want to do. Once they have completed it, they can colour in the square. When they have coloured in five squares in a row they have a Bingo! You can stop there, or encourage your child to continue with the other activities until all the squares are coloured in.

How quickly can your child get five-in-a-row? Can they complete all 24 activities?

Download a copy of the Bingo reading activity chart here.

You can adapt the activities according to the reading level of your child. Early readers can read short, simple books or listen to adults reading. More confident readers can read pictures books, or chapters of longer books.

As well as encouraging your child to read more, these activities will also help to practice key reading comprehension skills such as questioning, visualisation and summarising. It is important for your child to develop these skills so that they understand more fully what they are reading.

I hope this helps to keep your child reading!

You may also like:

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It is a simple fact that the more your child reads, the better they read. Encourage your child to read more with this bingo reading activity and you will be helping them to become more confident and more proficient readers.

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My Reading Incentive Ideas for Home

There are so many ways to motivate a reluctant reader (which also includes a struggling reader) at home, the trick is to find THE ONE that works!

I've written a few posts about reluctant readers. My posts on how to help a reluctant reader, how to get a reluctant reader to read, how to help your struggling reader at home, etc, all have great ideas to check out, but this post is on specific incentives to try with your child!

It takes some patience to motivate a reluctant reader at home, but one of these four incentives may just do the trick! This post is on a few ideas for reading rewards as different ideas work with different kids. The first incentive is done in some classrooms so I thought it would be a perfect (and easy) visual incentive to do at home. The others are additional ideas that may just do the trick!

And don't forget about the power of competition! If there's a sibling, or a neighbor that wants to use the same incentive, game on!

Before you Begin the Incentive Ideas

You can purchase the items from this page or use similar items you have at home. You may also come up with your own idea, that's completely different! Do whatever works!!!

I highly suggest having your child be a part of making suggestions for how to use this jar (or the other incentive props) and have your child be a part of the decision making for both the goals and rewards.

I would promote this incentive by telling your child that you found a fun idea to get the family reading, etc. And it definitely would be great if you could actually read while your child is doing their extra reading. I am assuming that your child has to read 20 minutes a night, so this incentive would be beyond the 20 minutes. That's just my suggestion, you know your child!

The goal of these incentives are to get your child reading more so they start to enjoy it more and then they read more!! And maybe you won't need the incentives after some time has gone by, or maybe you will want to change the ideas so they're easier for you.

The Marble Jar Incentive

For this incentive, all you simply do is add a marble to the jar every time your child completes a part of a goal. Write the reward ( ideas follow below) on the jar, and every time the marbles meet the lines, your child gets the reward. My jar (at the top of this page) has 4 lines with 4 different rewards - you can have as many as you want. The first reward I put on my jar would just be 1 row of marbles which is how you want to start - EASY so they'll have quick gratification.

My 2 cents:
Try to pick an obtainable goal - kids need quick gratification or they may lose interest. Play around with a quick easily attainable goal versus a goal that takes longer.

THE GOALS - Here are a few of goals to use with this jar (and the other incentives below):

Put in a marble for every minute over the normal 20-minutes of nightly reading.
Place a marble in the jar for every page read after the 20-minute nightly reading.
Place a marble in the jar when your child finishes a book.
Drop a marble in the jar when your child tries a different genre.
Put in a marble in the jar if your child writes a quick summary of the book.

You can also decide on more than one marble for each time your child finishes part of a goal. Writing these goals down on a piece of paper, a poster, etc. may be a good idea so that there are no questions. You may decide on multiple goals, for example:

Put a marble in the jar for every page your child reads after their 20 minutes. And in addition, if they finish a book or try a different genre, add extra marbles. You make the rules - I'm just throwing out suggestions.

You can also use my Reading Challenge document from another post for ideas and give your child a marble (or more) for each item completed. If you'd like the document so that you can print it or edit it, email me at mrs.dehm@gmail.com.

THE REWARDS - There are tons of rewards you can pick, for example:

Let your child stay up a half hour past their bedtime.
Give your child a dinner at a restaurant and they pick of a restaurant.
Give your child a coupon for ice cream.
Go to the movies.
Give a $20 bill for a shopping outing.
Have them pick out a new book.
Plan a popcorn party.
Host a game night.
Make a library date.
Make a date to make brownies.
Plan a sleepover.
Have a pillow fight.

A Few Other Ideas for Reading Incentives

Add a smiley face sticker to this incentive chart for any of the goals completed from above and then give your child any of the rewards from the above rewards list when they finish the whole card, the whole role, etc. You make the rules however you see fit.

2. Use the puncher to punch the punch card for any of the goals that have been completed from the above list. Then give your child any of the rewards from the above list when they finish the whole card, half the card, etc.

3. GIve your child a raffle ticket for each goal they finish and give them a reward from the reward list above.

If you want to start out this incentive with buying a new book, check out my page on book suggestions of all different genres. This post goes over ideas for reluctant readers.

And Check Out These Great posts and pages:

There are ways to motivate a reluctant reader at home. I hope these incentives help! Getting kids to read and to love reading is not a simple task, and it takes a different amount of time for each child.

I'd love to hear from you so let me know if there's something I can help you with (and for you to let me know if you tried any of these incentives)! Please leave a comment or question below or email me at mrs.dehm@gmail.com.

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How to Motivate a Reluctant Reader at Home! - Reading Love

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There are so many ways to motivate a reluctant reader (which also includes a struggling reader) at home, the trick is to find THE ONE that works! I've written a few posts about reluctant readers.

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https://www.weareteachers.com/28-reading-incentives-that-really-work/