Motivation

I think that motivation and self-efficacy are key for engaging students with reading. I personally fall into the category of loving reading until i hit late elementary school and middle school. Then you couldn't get me to read anything unless it was funny or had pictures and as little words possible. I think part of that problem with me losing my interest could be common among many other students. I never found any motivation to read anything because everything i was assigned to read for school was so boring, or I had no way to relate to it. It was not until I was given a book about baseball (something that sparked my interest) that I actually found reading to be enjoyable, and even fun. The textbook talks about "students' motivation for reading and learning with texts increases when they perceive that text is relevant to their own lives". I think it is important to give students options when assigning books to read for a class like the text describes. For example, in high school I was forced to "read" the book Rebecca with the class, and needless to say that was not something that interested me. I remember not having anything to say during discussion, and the discussion didn't even spark my interest to read part of it. However, whenever we were able to pick which books we wanted to read for English class, I had no problem sharing what my book was about and participating in discussion. I think this strategy would be more effective because I know I would relate to anyone in the class who found absolutely no interest in the book.

Another strategy I think could be very useful is the story chain and story prediction the textbooks show. I think that could be a good way to motivate students to read if you pick the right words in the story chain. Looking at the example given from Gulliver's Travels, the story chain sounds exciting enough for me to want to read it. I think this would also be a great strategy to use when you are just beginning a lesson, similar to a non-stop write activity because it would focus students on what the next topic would be, and it just a good way to get your mind on gear for what is to be discussed. I think this would be great in a history classroom particularly for topics that tend to be a little dry. I would love to use this in my classroom especially because I think of history as one big story as it is.