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Resourceful Research
Motivation to read is fostered among children with care and attention to detail. Pizza and juice can help too, but we, the two authors, believe that children develop that precious lifelong habit of reading as a personal choice without the need for tasty external rewards and incentives. In this article we briefly offer strategies for encouraging reading motivation while reflecting on our participation in two community-based reading activities, primarily the Missouri Read and Feed Program, a collaboration of the International Literacy Association (ILA), the National Association of Title I Directors,and both the Missouri State Council and the St. Louis Suburban Council of the International Literacy/Reading Association and Harris-Stowe State University’s (HSSU) College of Education (COE). The primary goal of the program is to motivate the desire to read through the duality of book choice and ownership combined with targeted improved student reading and literacy skills in partnership with parents. The Read and Feed instructional program operates in compliance with existing school-based federally funded Title I programs. The University ensures the eligibility of those participating in the program.
During the fall semester, our University’s College of Education students volunteer in a similar community service activity in a non-profit organization, Community Women Against Hardship (CWAH). CWAH is located in midtown St. Louis. The “Literacy is a Family Affair” features teacher candidates participating in reading activities with children as the children select books, engage in directed written literacy activities, receive snacks, and parents engage in dialogue with professors and other volunteers, including trained reading specialists about the promotion of but feedback relative to our University’s school and community programs favored book choice and ownership as far greater motivators than having snacks.
We participated in a Read and Feed activity in June with 400 Kindergarten through 5th graders at an elementary summer school session in the Ferguson-Florissant School District. Each child in the building selected multiple books, quite often the one which they had experienced during a read-aloud plus at least one other of their own choosing. This sense of choice is a key recommendation we offer for encouraging reading motivation. Taking the books home allowed a partnership with parents, an often neglected key strategy of fostering reading motivation among children. Parents offer a window into a child’s literacy interests and abilities. Additionally, teachers and parents work together to provide encouragement and support for reading.
During community reading sessions, teacher candidates paired with children, helped children choose appropriate books, read to and with children, and modeled what it means to read with an authentic sense of pride and enjoyment. The candidates first received training from ILA members who are reading specialists. They learned the motivational value of the teacher when reading books aloud.
Fostering a Lasting Motivation to Read:
Lessons from Community Reading Programs
by
Dr
Dr. WIlliam Kerns and Dr. Betty Porter Walls
The candidates first received training from ILA members who are reading specialists.