Nurturing Love of Literacy

Motivation to read is a critical factor in a child's reading development.  Research shows that children who enjoy reading are likely to read more often.  Children who read more continue to improve reading skills and overall school performance.  Parents and teachers of struggling readers, however, report that fostering motivation to read and write can be a big challenge. Parents can help a child increase his or her motivation by creating incentives, building self-confidence, and encouraging a positive attitude. Here are some ideas to consider:

Be Mindful of Intrinsic vs. Extrinsic Rewards

Intrinsic Motivation
Intrinsic motivation describes a desire to do something for its own sake, not for external rewards.  Many researchers believe that strong support of children's intrinsic motivations, both in school and at home, is likely to lead to lifelong learning and long-term achievement. Children who are intrinsically motivated in school are also likely to have positive emotional experiences and higher self-esteem (Oldfather, 2002). Intrinsic motivations spring from the need to (1) feel independent and self-directed, (2) feel competent and able to do a task, or (3) feel connected to others and the world.  Intrinsic motivation in highest when children see and experience the value of reading and writing and reasons for these activities.

Extrinsic Motivation
Extrinsic motivation originates from outside the self, usually involving some kind of reward that goes beyond the activity itself.  In many schools, extrinsic motivation to read is developed or encouraged by the use of rewards or incentives. Book It and Accelerated Reader are two examples of programs that employ extrinsic motivation to encourage children to read. While extrinsic motivation programs may encourage students to read for a short period of time or to earn a specific reward, their long-term affect on motivation to read is uncertain.  Educators, parents, and researchers have long debated about the use of extrinsic rewards to encourage reading and writing.  Some researchers have suggested that parents and teachers may use extrinsic rewards at first to help boost motivation. If the rewards motivate children and convince children of their competence, the rewards may increase intrinsic motivation.  For example, awarding a child with a certificate when he or she has achieved a specific goal, such as completing a reading goal or demonstrating a certain amount of progress on a reading passage, may boost self-confidence, feelings of competence, and intrinsic motivation.

What We Can Do: Strategies to Foster Intrinsic Motivation

• Read aloud to your child.  Hearing books read aloud is an essential part of a child's literacy development. During this time, children are able to hear what good reading sounds like and to see what proficient readers do when they come to something confusing or a word they don’t know.  Children also become interested and motivated in reading books similar to one their parents or teachers read to them, or books by that same author.
• Help your child select appropriate books for independent reading. It is important that a child knows how to choose a book that is right for him or her. Description of the 5 Finger Rule for choosing a "just right" book.
• Encourage your child to read books about his or her interests.  Interest matters.  In her study of highly successful men and women who had struggled with severe reading problems as children, Rosalie Fink (1995/96) found that passionate interest in a favorite topic was the one common theme.  Each person had a "burning desire" to know more about a favorite topic, and through intense and avid reading practice within that topic, they developed increasingly sophisticated reading skills.  Interest played an extremely significant role in these readers' later success.  Read more about this study in this online article: Successful Careers: The Secrets of Adults with Dyslexia by Rosalie P. Fink http://www.careertrainer.com/Request.jsp?lView=ViewArticle&Article=OID%3A33637&Page=OID%3A33638
• Connect reading and writing to your family's interests and activities. Reading is more motivating and kids are more likely to enjoy reading and writing when they read texts about familiar topics.  Include your child when planning a trip, assembling furniture, sharing religious texts, or other activities that are part of your family life.

Cultivate Children's Feelings of Control, Competence, and Belonging

Struggling readers and writers tend to develop maladaptive patterns of motivation, such as avoiding academic tasks and acting out to "save face."  Especially after years of experiencing difficulty with literacy tasks, they may be very motivated to protect themselves from situations that they perceive as meaningless or threatening.  We can help struggling learners become motivated to engage in meaningful intellectual activities.  We can do this by fostering their sense of control, competence, and belonging.

What We Can Do: Instructional Strategies to Nurture Control, Competence, and Belonging

• Provide choice.  Resist the urge to tell your child that he or she can't read a book because it is too hard or too easy.  Instead, help your child learn to select three different levels of books: "easy," "just right," and "challenge" books.  (See the "5 Finger Rule" for details.)  Rereading "easy" books will help develop fluency or could be a perfect selection to share with a younger sibling. "Just right" books provide just enough challenge so that children will learn some new vocabulary words or find that they need to use some of the reading strategies.  "Challenge" books can be enjoyed with a parent's help, browsed through, or saved for later.  If your child selects a book that you think is too difficult and ask him or her if it is an easy, just right, or challenge book.  Then talk with your child about the best way to read the book (independently or with someone) so that it will be an enjoyable experience.
• Book access. Try to keep plenty of books in your home.  Make good use of your school library and public libraries. You can also purchase books inexpensively at garage sales, flea markets, thrift stores, and “half price” bookstores. Children who are surrounded by books and other reading materials and who are read to on a daily basis are more likely to embrace reading and writing in their own lives. 
• Encourage your child to reread familiar books. It is normal and perfectly okay for students to read easy books or to re-read a book they’ve read many times before. This helps students build fluency, and develop a sense of competence and confidence as a reader.

Recognize the Importance of Goal Orientation and Beliefs

A person's beliefs about intelligence and learning have an important affect on his or her motivation.  A child's "goal orientation" will determine how he or she values information and adult guidance.  A child who is learning-oriented tends to be focused on the process of learning and is eager to seek and apply new information and feedback from the teacher or peers.  A performance-oriented child, in contrast, tends to be more interested in the end result, such as a grade or completion of an assignment, and is focused on completing the requirements to attain a desired outcome.  For struggling learners, developing a goal orientation towards learning is especially important, particularly if they are not be able to perform on grade level. 

A person's beliefs about the nature of intelligence can also affect his or her motivation.  If a child believes that intelligence is fixed -- that some people are "smart" and some people are not, and there's nothing you can do about it -- he or she may interpret failure on a test or poor performance as 'proof' that he or she lacks intelligence.  On the other hand, if a child believes that an academic task requires them to use an ability that can be learned, such as a reading strategy, they are more likely to attribute failure to a lack of effort or a poor choice of strategies -- not a lack of intelligence (Molden & Dweck, 2000). If children perceive that a task somehow measures their fixed intelligence, they may feel vulnerable and concerned about investing in success.  This can lead to a tendency to pursue avoidance-oriented goals like off-task behavior and discipline problems. 

What We Can Do: Instructional Strategies to Support Learning-Oriented Goals and Beliefs

• Focus on developing the idea that learning is acquirable.  Place more emphasis on the process of learning and improvement than on the final result. Praise your child for effort rather than for his or her ability.  For example: "I bet you're proud of how hard you worked to revise your story" instead of "You wrote a good story."  Both are nice statements to hear, but the first one is more likely to foster intrinsic motivation and learning-oriented goals.
• Emphasize that understanding and application are more important than memorizing information to earn an A. Ask questions like "How did you figure that out?" and "How are you planning to go about this?" when working with your child. Questions like these will help your child become a more strategic learner. Encourage your child to set his or her own goals to measure growth. Praise effort and progress rather than earning a specific grade. Use these fix-up strategies with your child when he or she comes across a difficult word.
• Don't encourage competition in reading or writing.  Literacy development occurs at a different pace for every child.  When children begin to measure their success by how well they are doing compared to other children, they become more concerned with avoiding failure and embarrassment than with learning to read.  Resist the urge to compare your child's reading progress to other children.  Focus instead on helping your children measure their own individual growth by noting their progress over time.  For example: "Remember back when we read The Cat in the Hat together?  Now you can read it all by yourself to your little sister, with voices and everything!"
• Foster positive self-talk.  Give specific praise for actions your child takes to meet his or her goals.  Point out that he or she achieved those goals not by luck but by taking specific actions and using strategies. Point out accomplishments rather than focus on mistakes.   For an excellent resource about language in the classroom, check out Choice Words: How our language affects children's learning by Peter H. Johnston.

What NOT to do: Well-intentioned practices that may discourage motivation

• Avoid over-emphasizing drill-and-practice worksheet exercises. All children, especially struggling and reluctant readers, benefit from reading lots of different types of texts at their level. A lot of drill and worksheet activities is not likely to raise struggling readers' sagging motivational levels. There are a lot of programs available for purchase that are marketed to parents of struggling readers. You know your child best. Make reading fun! The best reading instruction that you can provide your child at home is to help him or her learn to enjoy reading.
• Don't limit book choice.  Children need to read books at an appropriate level (see 5 finger rule) in order to practice meaningful reading and avoid frustration.  Instead of telling children that they cannot read a book because it is too hard, teach your child to identify "easy," "just right," and "challenge" books. This strategy will empower kids to find "just right" books that they can enjoy reading on their own, and "challenge" books that you can read together.

Book Lists- Finding High Quality Children's Literature

Books that Engage Struggling or Reluctant Readers:

• Series Books: Junie B. Jones, Captain Underpants, Magic Tree House
• Comic books
• Books based on movies or television shows: Sponge Bob, Spiderman, etc.
• Joke books
• Funny poetry, such as:
• The Aliens Have Landed & When the Teacher Isn’t Looking by Kenn Nesbitt
• Bad Case of the Giggles and other books by Bruce Lansky
• A Pizza the Size of the Sun and other books by Jack Prelutsky
• Graphic Novels

Books for Parents on Motivating and Encouraging your Reader

Books About Motivation:

Choice Words: How our language affects children's learning by Peter H. Johnston (Stenhouse, 2004)
*Download Chapter 1 here:
http://www.stenhouse.com/pdfs/0389ch01.pdf

Success with Struggling Readers: The Benchmark School Approach by Irene West Gaskins (Guilford Press, 2005)
* Includes several chapters that explore the hows and whys of issues related to motivation and struggling readers.

Why Jane and John Couldn’t Read—And How They Learned:  A New Look at Striving Readers by Rosalie Fink (International Reading Association, 2006)
*Download Chapter 1 here:
http://www.reading.org/publications/bbv/books/bk592/abstracts/bk592-1-Fink.html

Websites

Motivating Kids to Read
http://www.rif.org/parents/motivate/default.mspx

American Library Association Kids & Families
http://www.ala.org/ala/alsc/projectspartners/KidsFamilies.htm

Tips for motivating children to read
http://www.csmonitor.com/2002/0821/p13s01-lifp.html

Five Tips for Parents of Reluctant Readers
http://school.familyeducation.com/reading/teaching-methods/38600.html

Successful Careers: The Secrets of Adults with Dyslexia by Rosalie P. Fink, Ph.D http://www.careertrainer.com/Request.jsp?lView=ViewArticle&Article=OID%3A33637&Page=OID%3A33638

References