Motivation Continued . . .

Last time, I commented on motivation and how important it was to have in the classroom. This week, I read a couple of research articles that had me thinking even more about it. One of the articles wanted to see if early reading failure in students decreased their reading motivation, over time. To me, I thought that was a simple enough answer . .  . yes. How can a child that is struggling to read be motivated and excited about something they fail to do?  After reading the results, the study actually found that it had more to do with their motivation to begin with, that resulted in their motivation over time. Regardless if the child was a strong reader or not, if they were motivated at a young age, they were more likely to be motivated a few years later, and vice-versa. So the big question now is, how do we get ALL children motivated to read at a young age?

As a first grade teacher, I have students at both ends of the reading level spectrum. I have a couple that came in not knowing all their kindergarten words and reading at the Reading Behavior level (knowing their concepts of print, but not really being able to “read”). On the other hand, I have students reading at the end of a second grade level.  With my lowest level students, I needed to find ways to get them up to grade level. We have done drill sandwiches with their kindergarten words, and practiced writing the words repeatedly, which has helped immensely.  They know that when they get all of the words correct, they earn stickers.  These students worked very hard, and after two weeks of hard drilling, they now know all of their words they should have learned last year. The next step is to get them reading texts, at a first grade level. The early levels of reading in first grade are still working on high frequency words, but from the first grade curriculum. Drill sandwiches, boardgames, word sorts that start to work on endings and blends, etc., will be the motivational piece to get them to increase their reading level. They understand that this is important, because there are many exciting books to choose from, especially the higher up you go. For me, I believe I can motivate my readers, because there are many activities that are fun, but also instructional.  However, since the students can get bored easily, I am always looking for new drills, or activities to use with my class. 

What do you find to be the most useful in your classroom?