In an age where people are increasingly savvy on how to use their time it can be difficult to motive reluctant readers to pick up a book. Not everyone likes to read for fun and enjoyment. You may have a handful of students in your classroom that may give you a resounding NO when given reading assignments. It may feel like your students are acting like the video below.
There are ways to motivate a reluctant reader from saying NO to reading to saying YES.
1. Give your students a choice. Every student in your class may have different interests. Negotiate with your reluctant readers and let them choose what topic they want to read about. Maybe they would prefer reading about something they are naturally interested in. Maybe they are interested in cooking, animals, dinosaurs or sports.
2. Reading basics. Make sure that your reluctant readers have the basic building blocks to be able to read. Please who struggle with reading are less likely to read for fun. Check their decoding skills to make sure their phonics and phonological awareness is strong enough for them to grow into fluent readers. If it is not provide a research-based intervention to fill in the decoding gap.
3. Directional tracking. Reading the words from left-to-right can be a difficult task for struggling readers. Often, the words appear to move around, or the space between words is unclear. It helps to use a finger or a card underneath the words to help your eyes "track" and focus on each word and letter you are sounding out. This will train your eyes to focus on the word you are reading instead of skipping around, looking for other clues to simply guess at the word.
These are just a few simple ideas to motivate reluctant readers. In a previous post we discuss 5 Easy Steps to Reach Reluctant Readers. View this post for more tips.
What do you do in your classroom to motivate a reluctant reader?