Motivating Children to Read: Techniques and Resources, Study Guides, Projects, Research of School management&administration

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LIBM 6330

Information Resources and Search Strategies

PATHFINDER PROJECT

Motivational Reading Techniques

by Lisa K. Polk

November 19, 2005

A. Scope Statement:

Motivating children to read in the public school library is the topic for this pathfinder. This pathfinder project was begun with dread but ended with inspirational paths for me to use, both electronically and materially, in my new career as a school library media specialist. I have become more informed about techniques that encourage children to pick up a book and read it for enjoyment. Throwing books onto a display cart and saying they are good to read is like putting boiled okra on a kid’s plate and expecting him to lap it up like candy. It just won’t happen without some encouragement and prompting. Most teachers don’t have the time in their schedule to devote much time to sustained silent reading or DEAR (drop everything and read) time. Administrators are pushing benchmarks and “The Test” on teachers. On the other hand, parents are working until late hours, hurrying home to get supper ready, helping with homework. They look up and it is 9:30 and the kids need baths and to get to bed to begin the rat race again tomorrow. Reading for enjoyment is pushed aside for the “boob tube” or a video game. Children who don’t practice the skill of reading find it hard to enjoy. Reading has to be practiced and promoted for a child to become a self- assured reader. It sometimes takes a special teacher or librarian to spark the thirst for reading and I hope that I can light that in just one child during my career.

B. Standard Subject Headings

Library of Congress subject headings:

• Motivational reading techniques
• Encouraging reading

Dewey subject headings:

• Reading
• Reading aloud

C. Keyword Search Statements:

• Reading AND “school librar*”
• School AND librar* AND reading

Serafini, Frank, and Giorgis, Cyndi (2003). Reading Aloud and Beyond- Fostering the Intellectual Life with Older Readers Heinemann, a division of Reed Elsevier, Inc. 361 Hanover Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801-3912. This book makes a case for educators reading aloud to students and engaging them in meaningful discussions focusing on the content of the book. There are instructional suggestions and useful guidelines for teachers attempting to build their literacy curriculum. The strategies are flexible enough to be adapted to your class schedule and instructional style. These strategies have all been tested by the authors and are recommended according to their successes. This book is a must for a library media specialist and even has an extensive bibliography of preferred books for different age groups. Torreyson Library Z711.4 S95 1995.

E. Additional Print Format Titles:

Bishop, Dinah L. (1992). The Motivational Techniques and the Characteristics of the Collection That Encourage Leisure Reading EMLS professional paper, Torreyson Library. This professional paper is located in the Torreyson Library archives. I was not on campus at a time when I could access the archives. Torreyson Library LB1537.D47 1992 archives.

Hennessy, Janean M. (1996). Motivational Techniques Utilized by Arkansas Secondary Library Media Specialists to Encourage Reading. EMLS professional paper, Torreyson Library. This professional paper is located in the Torreyson Library archives. I was not able to access this paper. Torreyson Library LB1632.H46 1996 archives.

Luna, Michelle; Urbanski, AnneMarie; White, Susan (2002). Motivating Students to Read for Enjoyment. Dissertations/Theses, EBSCO database. This paper stated that having parents involvement, teachers modeling good reading habits, and easy accessibility to books as direct motivators for reading for pleasure. Sharing what they read fueled the students’ desire for reading. This paper was viewed in full text using EBSCO. (Due to the length (71 pages), I did not include the whole paper. There is an excellent list of references printed in my backup folder along with the abstract and index.)

Wojciechowski, Linda; Zweig, Deborah (2003). Motivating Student Reading Through Read-Alouds and Home-School Independent Reading. Dissertations/Theses, EBSCO database. This report describes negative reading habits related to parents and teachers not modeling reading. To motivate the students a teacher read aloud was implemented and a program called WEB (Wonderfully Exciting Books). There are questionnaires, teacher observation checklist, student reading logs, rubric, interview questions, and an annotated list of books suitable for reading aloud. This paper was viewed in full text using EBSCO. (Due to the length (66 pages), I did not include the whole paper. There is an excellent reference list printed in my backup folder along with the abstract and index.)

E. Reference Works by Type: I could not find a true “reference” book for my topic, but believe that for my purpose, this book would be one that I would like to have to refer to when there was need for a reading strategy. Mr. Rasinski is well respected in the “reading” world and his credentials are superb!

Rasinski, Timothy V. (2003). The Fluent Reader: Oral Reading Strategies for Building Word Recognition Fluency, and Comprehension. Scholastic, Inc., 2931 E. McCarty, Jefferson City, MO 65102. This book is an excellent reference book for the librarian and teacher. No matter what the class population or grade level, there is a practice here for the teacher or LMS to put into use. Mr. Rasinski is respected in the reading education world. He is the past co-editor of The Reading Teacher, board member of the International Reading Association, and co-editor of the Journal of Literacy Research.

G. Biographical and/or Geographical Sources:

Biographical Source: One of the major advocates of motivating children to read is Jim Trelease. He has a wonderful web site at http://www.trelease-on- reading.com/. There is a biography of Mr. Trelease at the site along with links to his lecture calendar, books, author profiles, excerpts from his books, book lists, his take on censorship and children’s literature, and his favorite web links. Mr. Trelease graduated from Amherst and worked for 20 years as a journalist and artist before turning author and education

were interviewed in sixth and ninth grades to determine attitudes toward reading. A group of 14 students who loved to read and 14 who did not were interviewed. The study showed that demonstration of a love for reading and making age- and interest-appropriate books easily available, scheduling time for family reading, and encouraging interest through conversations about the books are cited as the main factors that foster a love of reading. The need for parents or other family members to be actively interested in the process is stressed. I was not able to access the full text article.

Toor, Ruth; Weisburg, Hilda K. (2003). Kids Learn When Your Lessons Start With Ten. Knowledge Quest, Vol. 32 Number 1, page 48. This article clarifies the importance of the library media center in the student’s reading achievement. There are ten concepts that LMSs can use to incorporate information literacy concepts into the curriculum through collaboration with teachers. Organization of libraries, arrangement of information and access, and setting criteria for the acceptability of information are the main highlights of this article. The benefits of voluntary reading are also mentioned. This article was viewed in full text using EBSCO.

J. Audiovisual Materials and/or Computer Software

Computer Software:

Reading Blaster: ages 4-6 (CD-ROM). Knowledge Adventure, Torrance, CA, (1999). The appeal of a game that entertains as well as instructs is a plus for any parent, teacher, or librarian. Children need variety to hold their interest and this software is available for several different age groups. Features: Over 100 templates for easy-to-publish projects – from greeting card and journal to alphabet books and storybooks; drawing and writing tools to encourage children to express themselves through words and pictures; a “read aloud” feature that lets children record their stories and hear them back; special tips that help children become better writers. Windows 98 Central Arkansas Library System, CDROM 372.41 READING.

Audiovisual Material:

Jim Trelease has a video of his lectures that he sells to parents and educators. The parent video is 34 minutes shorter than the teacher’s video (97 minutes). He advocates reading aloud to children 15-20 minutes each day. His lectures are booked 1 year in advance. The video is pricey ($200.00), but cheaper than hiring an in-service speaker, perhaps. The quarterly PTA meeting would be a great time to show the parent video. In the video he stresses research done on reading aloud, no matter the age of the child. He correlates the state reading level with the amount of library support. Also included in the video is a demonstration of how to engage the children and provides a bibliography of all books recommended. http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/video_2.html.

NICHD has a video entitled Teaching Children to Read – Second Edition (2000) is available for free. It is a 20 minute video that highlights the findings of the National Reading Panel, who conducted the research of the best ways to teach children to read. This video is only available in VHS. To order a copy, go to http://www.edpubs.org/webstore/Content/search.asp.

K. Government Publications:

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) published a report NICHD Reading Research: From Research to Practice found at http://www.nichd.nih.gov/reading.htm. Studies revealed that phonemic awareness and phonics while necessary to learn to read, are not sufficient alone. Children must also be able to apply the skills quickly, to understand the words they read, and to relate what they read to their own lives and experiences. Stress is made on learning the skills early because older readers not having these skills will be poor readers. In 1997 the NICHD and the US Department of Education established a National Reading Panel to find the best ways of teaching children to read. The panel found that a combination of techniques is effective for teaching children to read:

• Phonemic awareness
• Phonics
• Fluency
• Guided oral reading
• Teaching vocabulary words
• Reading comprehension strategies

Write IRA P. O. Box 6021 Newark, DE 19714-6021. http://www.reading.org/

M. Internet Sources:

Reading is Fundamental, Inc. http://www.rif.org This internet site is for a United States non-profit children’s literacy organization. There are links for children, parents, and teachers. You can find lesson plans, book suggestions, a contest for your students, and literacy programs to encourage reading for fun. I was very impressed with this site and will bookmark it for the future.

The Internet School Library Media Center web site had an interesting motivational idea page for Children’s Book Week and National Library Week at http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/bookweek.htm. Author projects, guessing the number of books in the library, designing a bicycle bumper sticker, voting on a favorite book, creating new book covers, and even a school library sleepover.

Children’s Books Resources for Reluctant Readers site at http://childrensbooks.about.com/cs/reluctantreaders/a/reluctantreader.ht m has articles for parents and teachers. Here again reading aloud is emphasized. There are links to holiday selections, book clubs, books by genre, a buyer’s guide, and book reviews. This site was not very appealing to the eye (lots of small ads), but was chocked full of information and links.

Jim Trelease’s web site at http://www.trelease-on-reading.com is very informative on motivating children to read. Mr. Trelease is a paid lecturer and accomplished author selling his wares, but offers lots of material for parents and educators to light a fire under a reluctant reader. I like the way he takes the education of the child and puts the responsibility partially on the parent, the original teacher. Today parents think that Johnny can’t read because of the teacher, never taking any responsibility for having a role in their education. Trelease’s educational links are excellent and even offer author profiles and an author trivia quiz. He has a complete list of suggested books for reading aloud to children of all ages.

PBS has a web site called Reading Rockets. Struggling readers are the target of an article featured by Diane Henry Leipzig (2001). She gives “portraits” of several children for parents and educators to match to their struggling reader then diagnoses the apparent problem and gives advice and direction to helping. Reading Rocks! is a video featured to motivate and inspire the struggling reader for $19.95 in VHS. This site also has links to organizations and websites, even literacy and professional organizations. The reading initiatives were informative and gave me some more sites to check out such as Read Across America and Reach Out and Read. This site is located at http://www.readingrockets.org/.

Verizon Literacy Network has a good site at http://www.verizonreads.net/. Verizon support several literacy programs including BookPALS. BookPALS is an acronym for Performing Artists for Literacy in Schools. They produce Storyline Online, in which celebrities read stories, interactive lessons, and activity guides. Verizon is funding the next five new celebrity-read stories. BookPALS can be accessed at www.bookpals.net/about/html.

N. Best Findings: My favorite finding was the web site for Jim Trelease. He was the first true reading advocate that I located. He seems to be one of those “in your face” type of guys that companies hire for motivational speaking with his energy focused on reading. His availability in multiple formats appeals to me the most. Reading is Fundamental was another good find with lots of activities and ideas for the librarian and teacher. Spice is necessary when working with children and this provided channeling and reinforcement. The list of links provided me with more places to look for related materials.

O. Reflections: After thoroughly searching high and low for information for this assignment, I believe that I have enough ammunition to motivate struggling readers for at least the next few years and have gained some insight of the grave need for helping children learn to read.

Before this assignment I thought I had some children in my class who didn’t have the mental capability to achieve, but now believe that maybe their home environment greatly affected their reading achievement. Almost all of the literature I read points to parents reading at home to their

Reference List

American Library Association (ALA) 50 E. Huron, Chicago, IL 60611, 800- 545-2433 http://www.ala.org/

Bauer, Karen and Drew, Rosa (1992). Alternatives to Worksheets. Creative Teaching Press, Inc., Cypress, CA 90630.

Bishop, Dinah L. (1992). The Motivational Techniques and the Characteristics of the Collection That Encourage Leisure Reading EMLS professional paper, Torreyson Library.

Block, Collins; Mangieri, John N. (2002). Recreational Reading: 20 Years Later. Reading Teacher, March, 2002, Vol. 55 Issue 6, page 572-580.

BookPALS www.bookpals.net/about/html.

Children’s Books Resources for Reluctant Readers http://childrensbooks.about.com/cs/reluctantreaders/a/reluctantreader.ht m

Everhart, Nancy; Angelos, Susan; McGriff, Nancy. (2002). Long-Term Tracking of Student Participants’ Reading Achievement in Reading Motivation Programs. Knowledge Quest, Vol. 30 Number 5, pages 43-46.

Hennessy, Janean M. (1996). Motivational Techniques Utilized by Arkansas Secondary Library Media Specialists to Encourage Reading. EMLS professional paper, Torreyson Library.

The Internet School Library Media Center http://falcon.jmu.edu/~ramseyil/bookweek.htm.

The International Reading Association (IRA) P. O. Box 6021 Newark, DE 19714-6021. http://www.reading.org/

Jennings, Paul (2003). The Reading Bug: and How You Can Help Your Child Catch It. Penguin, London.

Luna, Michelle; Urbanski, AnneMarie; White, Susan (2002). Motivating Students to Read for Enjoyment. Dissertations/Theses, EBSCO database.

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) NICHD Reading Research: From Research to Practice retrieved from http://www.nichd.nih.gov/reading.htm.

The National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Teaching Children to Read – Second Edition (2000) retrieved from http://www.nichd.nih.gov/reading.htm.

Overview of Reading and Literacy Initiatives statement by Dr. G. Reid Lyon on April 28, 1998 before the Committee on Labor and Human Resources document was retrieved from http://www.nichd.nih.gov/crmc/cdb/r_overview.htm

Rasinski, Timothy V. (2003). The Fluent Reader: Oral Reading Strategies for Building Word Recognition Fluency, and Comprehension. Scholastic, Inc., 2931 E. McCarty, Jefferson City, MO 65102.

Reading Blaster: ages 4-6 (CD-ROM). Knowledge Adventure, Torrance, CA, (1999).

Reading is Fundamental, Inc. http://www.rif.org

Reading Rockets http://www.readingrockets.org/.

Serafini, Frank, and Giorgis, Cyndi (2003). Reading Aloud and Beyond- Fostering the Intellectual Life with Older Readers Heinemann, a division of Reed Elsevier, Inc. 361 Hanover Street, Portsmouth, NH 03801-3912.

Strommen, Linda Teran; Mates, Barbara Fowles. (2004). Learning To Love Reading: Interviews with Older Children and Teens. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Vol. 48, Number 3, Pages 188-200.