Summer Reading Motivation

I know that summer is far from our minds at the moment, but I always cringe when I think about how little my students are going to actually read over the summer. An even bigger cringe comes when I think about how much reading achievement they will lose if they do not read much for months. Luckily, I found an article that discusses ways to motivate students to read over the summer! 

The article states that the first step is to get parents on board. Most students are not going to voluntarily go along with summer reading if they do not have to do so.  The teacher must tell the parents about the expectations for their children over the summer. Teachers might choose to give students a reading log with assigned books to complete over the summer and have them return it when school starts. I know that reading motivation has a great deal to do with interest, and most students are going to benefit from getting a blank reading log. They can then choose books they want to read, which might be an easier task for them in the summer. It will not seem so daunting if they can choose books that interest them, and by doing this they are also growing as readers in the summer instead of losing anything! 

Using a reading log gives students a chance to visualize how many books they need to read, and it gives them more responsibility.  I think it would be a great idea to assign a certain number of books to read per week (so that they do not try to cram all their reading into a few days and then don’t do anything the rest of the summer). Since many teachers will probably not be giving grades on the reading log, they might want to think of incentives to give to students when summer is over.  Teachers might also encourage students to join their local reading program at the library. That way students are given more opportunities to read and less opportunities to lose growth they gained during the school year. For the full article go to Brighthub.com/Education. 

Smith, A. (2010, June 18). Creating Summer Reading Motivation. Retrieved October 27, 2010, from Bright Hub!: http://www.brighthub.com/education/k-12/articles/74615.aspx

Authoring with Video (AWV)

I often find that writing in the first few months of first grade comes easily to students, and they often are able to come up with ideas and write a great deal.  As the months go by, students start to lack motivation in their writing and have more difficulty as they write.  I am certain there is a similar trend in all grade levels for many students. I have discovered a great and exciting resource to use to motivate student writing! 

Authoring with Video (AWV) is an exciting new idea to try in the classroom.  Students are shown short video clips with no sound and asked to write the dialogue for the scene. The software used for the program even allows students to type their narration right into the computer underneath the scene. This gives students the sensation of adding text to a story. Students are also given the opportunity to write or type their thoughts in and then go back and revise them later. This lets them focus on the content and then go back and make sure their writing looks right.  The overall reaction from students is that AWV allows them to be more creative and encourages them to write more.

An exciting component of AWV is that it can be incorporated into Writer’s Workshop. If you do Writer's Workshop in the classroom like I do, this is a great thing!  According to the article, many influential people in the writing world (Calkins, Elbow, Ray) have described that the best way for students to learn to write is to have good writing modeled for them. AWV also has videos that model good writing for students, and students are given more freedom than traditional Writer's Workshop might allow for some reluctant writers. They are able to write more using the program than they would be able to with journal pages with only a few lines given for students to write on. I know I am guilty of this in my classroom, and I often have students ask for more paper when writing because they are only given so many lines.

The article goes on to discuss teaching ideas and units that could be implemented using AWV. As for schools being able to utilize AWV, they must subscribe to use the resources and video clips. The National Center for Accessible Media has the manuals to download and sample videos to share. This is an intriguing idea that would be great for writing motivation. The whole article can be read on Reading Rockets.

Strassman, B. K., and O’Connell, T. (2007). Authoring With Video. The Reading Teacher, 61(4), pp. 330–333

I often notice in the early weeks of first grade, that students have a hard time reading silently. They often want to spend their ten minutes of silent reading talking or sharing their book with others. In the past, I have dealt with this by walking around the room and watching students as they read. I soon found this to be a waste of teaching time when I could have been pulling guided reading groups back to my desk. I did find that giving students reading partners after ten minutes of reading did help to stop most of their talking because they were able to share with a friend later. It got me wondering though, what would most students want to change about reading in the classroom? What motivates them?

After reading the article, “Creating classroom cultures that foster reading motivation” by Linda B Gambrell, I found some answers that I would like to share. Gambrell found that when she asked students how they would like to change reading in the classroom, they asked for more time, to be read to more often, and to choose their own books. This demonstrates how students really do want to read, but they need a little guidance and more time given by the teacher.  Motivation is the first sign of an engaged reader. If the reader is not motivated, they are not engaged readers. 

I was very interested in the study done in the first grade environment. The study showed Running Start in use and that first graders were much more motivated when they were in a classroom with many different types of print, demonstrations and modeling was done by the teacher, there were discussions about peers, and they were given the choice of what books to pick and when they read these books. The teacher is responsible to picking books that he/she knows her students will enjoy. Students were also given incentives if they met their reading goals. This study was done in different first classrooms with different demographics, and the results showed an increase in interest in reading because of an increase in motivation. Similar results were shown in the third through fifth grade studies using the Motivation to Read Profile.

Here are some tips the article gives us about fostering reading motivation in the classroom.

1.     The teacher must be the reading model for the students. Therefore, the teacher must show enthusiasm and have a love for sharing the experience with students.

2.       A classroom full of books. Books need to fill the classroom. This includes books of different genres.

3.       Choice. Students are allowed to pick their reading material. They will do this based on interest.

4.      Discussions. Students want the opportunity to share and discuss with others. This also peaks interest about books when children share with one another.

5.     Becoming familiar with books. Children like to read books that they are familiar with.

6.     Incentives. Make sure they are reading related: reading with partner/parent or aloud to the class or another audience.

Gambrell, L. B. (1996). Creating Classroom Cultures that Foster Reading Motivation. The Reading Teacher , 14-25.

Creating Classroom Cultures that Foster Reading Motivation 

Welcome and thanks for joining me!

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog and care about your students and/or children! Motivation Station is a place where I will post resources and discuss different reading and writing motivational strategies to use in the classroom and at home. Please feel free to take advantage of the resources, comment, and share your own ideas! I (as well as many others) would greatly appreciate it. The greatest ideas in education often come from others!

In a world where children are constantly entertained by movies, video games, and computer games, it is sometimes quite difficult to maintain interest in the classroom. I sometimes feel that I should be in the front of the room juggling and doing cartwheels to keep students motivated and excited about  learning. That is why it is always great to get some fresh motivational ideas to keep students excited about learning without straining too many muscles! 

I am going to start this first blog off with a fun motivational resource. As times are changing, and most of us are entering into the 21st century technology department, we want to make sure we are making the most of technology in the classroom. I suggest a visit to Book Adventure. This is a free reading motivation website for students in grades K-8. It is created and maintained by Sylvan Learning Center. Students are able to create their own book lists (books they have read and books they want to read) by choosing them from a list of over 7,000 titles. They can also take quizzes on those books and earn points that they can trade in towards literary prizes. We all know children are motivated by prizes! You can have students log in and create their own book reports. There are also links to dictionaries and almanacs for students to use. Students will love the fact that they can go on this site at school and at home. They can also compare their reading lists to others in their class.  There are also links for parents and teachers. Teachers can look and read their students reports, and even grade them if they are so inclined. Students can also create teams where they can read books and compete against other classes, students, or schools. Many students will be motivated by this websites, and I think even the younger grades would be able to use this site with a little guidance. I have never used this site with my first grade students, but I definitely am willing to try it later in the year! Thoughts? Anyone put this site to use in their classroom?