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Inspiring Young Readers
Questions and Answers
Q. Does children's motivation to read change over time?
A: Yes, and the news is not good. As children of both sexes and all ethnicities get older and progress through the grades, their attitudes about reading and their motivation to read decline. Several researchers (e.g., Mazzoni, Gambrell, McKenna, Ellsworth, and Kear) have documented the fact that reading engagement and motivation decrease across grades 1 through 6. Even more distressing, is the dramatic drop in reading engagement that occurs as children move from elementary to middle or junior high school. As Dillon and O'Brien ("Motivation and engagement in reading," 2002) observe: "Research indicates that fewer and fewer students are engaged in literacy tasks and that the experience of school actually decreases their engagement. By the time students reach adolescence, they are more disengaged than when they were younger-their engagement drops as they move through school."
Several explanations have been offered for this decrease in reading motivation as children age. One contributing factor is that as children age they grow more sophisticated in evaluating the feedback they receive and thus re-evaluate their reading abilities. Feeling less competent, they may become less motivated to spend time reading.
Most explanations, though, lay the blame with the schools. As students progress through the grades, they are faced with an increased emphasis on competition, high-stakes testing, and a performance-oriented assessment system. Reading for pleasure has little room to thrive in such an atmosphere.
Q: What can schools do to reverse this disturbing trend?
A: First and foremost, schools have to examine the messages that they are giving children. If they want to have students who are motivated to read, they need to create a school culture that supports students reading independently—and not just to get good grades and high test scores. Reading for reading's sake needs to be a learning objective.
Linda Gambrell of Clemson University has identified four features that are associated with building children's motivation to read:
- Access to books in the classroom. Gambrell reports that "increasing the number of books available to children in the classroom can have a positive effect on the amount and quality of the literacy experiences in the classroom as well as the home environment…Book access is a significant factor in literacy development and…greater attention should be devoted to assuring that high-quality classroom libraries are a priority in schools."
- Opportunities to self-select books. Choice is integral to motivation in general and reading motivation in particular. Gambrell reports that in motivation research done with 1st, 3rd, and 5th grade children, 80% of children report that the fiction and nonfiction books they most enjoyed were self-selected.
- Familiarity with books. Gambrell's research points to the fact that young children want to read and are curious about books with which they are somewhat familiar. Familiarity breeds reading motivation. "When children in our study talked about books they 'most enjoyed' reading, they frequently mentioned that they got interested in a book because they had 'heard about it from a friend,' 'read other books about the character,' 'knew the author,' or had 'read other books in the series.'
- Social interaction with others about books. Children in all grade levels are enthusiastic about interacting with others about the books they read. Book clubs, discussion groups, literature circles, and teacher read-alouds are all motivating to children.
Q: How can teachers motivate students to want to read?
A: Teachers have the power to motivate students. Researchers have determined that the following teacher-related behaviors are related to high reading motivation:
Home Communication. Effective teachers are more likely to call home, send notes to parents, and distribute handouts about what is going on in the classroom.
- Student Engagement. The most effective teachers create environments and activities in which nearly all students are on task and engaged.
- Time Spent in Small Group Instruction. Compared to students of the least effective teachers, students of the most effective teachers spend considerably more time per day in small group instruction in reading.
- Time Spent in Independent Reading. Students in the most effective classrooms spend more time engaged in independent reading than do students of less effective teachers.
- Approaches to Instruction. The most effective teachers structure the classroom so that students do a lot of reading successfully-that is, they read with fluency and comprehension. The teachers in these effective classrooms give explicit instruction in the use of effective strategies and model what competent readers do in decoding, composition, and self-regulation. Tasks are more likely to involve reading whole books or working on group projects that integrate content areas (e.g., science, social studies, math) and often involve student choice in the selection of topics and tasks. Finally, the teachers in these classrooms use assessments that focus more on personal effort and improvement rather than exclusively on achievement.
Q: What can families do to help motivate children to read?
A: Parents have a vital role to play. Here are some suggestions for motivating children to read:
- Set-up a family library or a children's library. Let children choose the books to include.
- Give children's books as gifts. Pop-up books, flap books, and read-alongs (books with audio cassettes) provide good reading fun. Books that come with toys, stuffed animals, dolls, or kits extend the reading time into play time.
- Establish a family silent reading time. Make this an important family routine; this lets children see their parents reading, helps them understand that their parents value reading, and provides a quiet time to enjoy books and family.
- Visit the library and check-out books on a regular basis. Go to bookstore and library story times.
- Read to children (before they can read for themselves and after they've learned to read). Help children discover different authors, topics, genre, and forms of writing that they might enjoy.
- Help children find books related to their interests and hobbies. These books will be intrinsically motivating and interesting for them.
- Allow children to subscribe to a children's magazine. This is mail they'll look forward to every month.
- Allow children to choose their own books. Allow them to read easy books that are enjoyable to them. Some children will enjoy read-along audio cassettes.
- Cook together. Ask children to read the recipe or help prepare a shopping list.
- Write notes to children. A sweet note packed in a child's lunch box makes reading a pleasure.
- Write a family book together. Use the computer to write a family history that can be taken out and read together at holidays.
- Keep a log of nature walks or family excursions. Read these adventures together to relive them.
- Read the newspaper together. Help children view reading as a regular part of family life.
- Don't pressure children to read. Instead, show them all that reading has to offer. Be a positive model of a lifelong reader.
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