Motivation
In order to help my students achieve reading success I need to first understand the factors that will motivate them to read, because they can not grow as readers if they do not read. Below are the five areas I have identified as most important in increasing reading motivation in the classroom, they are explained in the Prezi above. Several of them can be connected to products in different areas of this website.
- Relevance-Content area reading and lesson plans related to children's lives, such as the Explore NC unit I created, allow students to see the relevance reading has in all areas
- Choice-Having knowledge of a wide range of children's literature allows teachers to offer an element of choice to their students
- Success- Each of the assessments discussed on this site allow for teachers to plan appropriate instruction for the level of students, ensuring they experience success in the reading classroom. The Rigorous Reading Unit includes components to support the success of students when working in a complex text.
- Collaboration-This component was central to the Action Research project I completed which involved students experiencing collaboration in an online setting through the use of a blog.
- Time- If students are going to improve as readers, they need time to delve into books that the teacher has selected for them and that they have selected for themselves. This is included as a component of the Rigorous Reading unit.
Feeling Successful: One key to reading motivation
The graduate school experience has forced me to reflect on my self as a leader and to consider what made me successful so that I can pass that on to my students. This blog post, written in my first graduate school class, explains my early love for reading and the motivational impact of simply feeling successful in someone else's eyes.
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