Motivation
Key Concepts
Understand that research indicates that among older readers, motivation is substantially correlated to comprehension.
Those students who see themselves as competent readers are more willing to read more widely and more often. Students' willingness to engage with text fosters more engagement with ideas as they read and so helps to improve their reading comprehension. Improving students' motivation is important not only for struggling readers, who often lose an early enthusiasm for reading due to repeated experiences of failure and embarrassment, but also for most older readers, who tend to lose interest in reading as texts become more academic and demanding.Teacher should assess students’ motivation informally.
With the use of specific assessment tools, four different types of readers can be identified as related to motivation: avid readers, ambivalent readers, apathetic readers, and averse readers. Information on individual motivation types appears to be predictive of reading comprehension. Teachers can use this information to help develop a plan for increasing student motivation.Teachers should incorporate strategies for increasing student motivation within classroom instruction.
Strategies for building student motivation include providing choice for independent reading materials and demonstration of learning, opportunities for collaboration with peers, leveraging interest and relevancy within the materials that are used and activities that are conducted, and goal setting.
Professional Development Presentation
Apply the Concepts
Practice Activities
Resources
1. Center on Instruction: Academic Literacy Instruction for Adolescents
2. Reading Motivation: What the Research Says
The WETA (W-E-T-A) Reading Rockets website offers an article on Reading Motivation that gives an excellent overview of the research base on reading motivation and various instructional practices designed to foster and increase it.
Reading Motivation: What the Research Says3. Adlit.org: Motivation and Engagement
Adlit.org has a webpage on Motivation and Engagement that lists all the articles it has available touching on this topic. Most are quite good and range from the very focused to the very broad.
Motivation and Engagement4. Designing Collaborative Learning Contexts
BNET offers a free copy of the 2002 Theory into Practice article “Designing Collaborative Learning Contexts” that reviews the research on collaborative contexts for learning with a focus on reading.
Designing Collaborative Learning Contexts5. SEDL: Collaborative Strategic Reading
The Southwest Educational Development Laboratory offers an excellent summary of using Collaborative Strategic Reading in teaching reading comprehension strategies. The site includes information on the program’s professional development and cost requirements and a review of research describing the practice and evidence of its effectiveness.
Collaborative Strategic Reading6. What’s Technology Got to Do with It?
What’s Technology Got to Do with It? is an article from Adlit.org on the ways in which technology can support adolescent learners, including as a means of improving motivation.
What’s Technology Got to Do with It?7. Why Integrate Technology into the Curriculum?
Why Integrate Technology into the Curriculum? is an interactive resource page from Edutopia on the benefits and nuts-and-bolts of integrating technology into instruction. The site includes many real-life examples of teachers and schools using technology in innovative ways to motivate and support new learning.
Why Integrate Technology into the Curriculum?8. Guys Read
Finally, Guys Read is a website established by children’s author Jon Scieszka (Chesskuh). In additional to being an author who often appeals to boys, Scieszka has assembled a number of resources that aim to get boys reading and to compete against the idea of reading as a “girlie” thing to do. Resources include links and book lists.
Guys Read