Motivating Students Before They Read

            Karen Gibbs and Vickey Giles recently surveyed thousands of students in grades kindergarten through twelfth grade.  Gibbs addressed the preferences of students in Grades Kindergarten through fifth grade (Gibbs, 2004) while Giles examined the preferences for students in Grades 6 through 12 (Giles, 2005).  They asked these students to respond to a checklist of activities and strategies that had been identified in journals as motivational activities and strategies for prereading.  Students indicated which of these activities and strategies they found motivational on a Likert-type scale.  Their top 10 preferences for prereading activities and strategies are as follows in Figures 2.1 and 2.2

Figure 2.1  Favorite prereading activities and strategies for younger readers

• Being allowed to choose any book you want to read
• Reading in a comfortable place in your classroom like on the floor, in a bean bag chair, or in a rocking chair
• Being allowed to buy your own book through a school book fair
• Reading books for a contest
• Having the teacher read aloud in an exciting voice
• Having a classroom library
• Reading books to earn money for a charity
• Having the teacher read a book or chapter a day
• Having the teacher take you to the library
• Having the author come to the school

Figure 2.2 Favorite prereading activities and strategies for older readers

• Being allowed to choose any book you wanted to read
• Seeing the movie or television production of the book
• Having your teacher bring you to the library regularly
• Having a classroom library with many books on different subjects and reading levels easily available to you.
• Having the teacher read aloud a section or chapter from the book
• Being allowed to read books with lots of pictures in them

·      Having the teacher read aloud a few interesting pages from a book which you can read for yourself later

·      Having your teachers teach with books written especially for teenagers

·      Having a teacher or librarian suggest a book for you based on your interests

·      Being able to buy your own books through book clubs or book fairs or a book shop sponsored by your school

What do these lists share in common?  What conclusions might we draw for tweens?   How can we take this research and make it relevant for tweens who come into our libraries?  Four common elements suggest themselves from these lists.  First, having someone read aloud is motivational for students across the board in grades K through 12.  Whether the teacher reads aloud the entire book or simply entices readers with a few pages or chapters, students continue to find reading aloud a powerful motivational strategy in the classroom.  In many elementary schools, reading aloud is still part of a cherished tradition in the  classroom.  However, I have heard the strategy questioned when it is used in later grades.  If students are to be independent readers by third grade, goes the reasoning, why is it valuable still to read aloud beyond those first few years in school?   In 1985, the report from the commission examining reading in the United Stated reported in its publication, BECOMING A NATION OF  READERS (Anderson, Hiebert, Scott and Wilkinson, 1985, p. 23), that the single most effective  activity for building to eventual success in reading was reading aloud.  Further, the panel found plenty of evidence to support this assertion.  As Jim Trelease and others point out, reading aloud remains one of the most effective strategies to connecting kids to books because:   “The more you read, the better you get at it; the better you get at it, the more you like it; and the more you like it, the more you do it.   And the more you read, the more you know; and the more you know, the smarter you grow”  (Trelease, 2005, http://www.trelease-on-reading.com/rah_chpt1_p1.html). 

In the public library, we can see much the same.  Story times are still offered for youngsters.  However, there appears to be precious little reading aloud offered for tween patrons.  Storytimes and storytellers are the domain of children’s services.

A second element that the two lists share has to do with choice.  Students overwhelmingly indicate in each of these studies that having choice in terms of their reading material is something that would motivate them to want to read more.   This finding confirms the research being done by others in the field.  Janet Allen, Kylene Beers, and Nanci Atwell all advocate some type of choice in reading materials for our students.  My own research has suggested this as well.  When we ask kids what we can do to make them want to read more, they answer with emphasis, “Let me pick my own stuff to read.”  Even in my work with reluctant and struggling readers, students prefer to select their books on their own, even if it is from a narrowed selection of titles.  

At Moorhead Junior High School in Conroe Independent School District, a suburb north of Houston, librarian Lois Buckman uses a narrowed selection of books to assist her reluctant middle school students in their search for appropriate and energizing reading matter.  Her strategy is to locate a few book carts throughout the library.  Some carts are designated for student use in research for class assignments.  However, a few carts feature labels and signs indicating their contents.  Lois alternates the books on the cart over the course of the school year.  She might begin with some tried and true carts aimed at the types of books students want (these types of books will be discussed shortly).  New additions to the library might be featured one month;  a cart in October is sure to have Scary Stories;  February’s cart must have Love Stories as well as Love Sucks Stories. 

Reading aloud and booktalking are also valuable as students seek new material to read.   Booktalking, simply talking about books in order to “sell” the book to a reader, can take place in the library or in the classroom.  The best situation, of course, is to involve the librarian in booktalks no matter the location.  I booktalk books randomly.  I have been known to wander into a  library and select books from the shelves and conduct impromptu booktalks.  I do the same in bookstores and at conference exhibits (confession:  I am a booktalk junkie—if someone is willing to listen, I am willing to talk). However, the best booktalks, especially for newbies, uses some sort of hook or theme at its core.  Here are some themes and hooks that work best with this population.

      Animals as main characters-for those students who loved the animal fantasies of childhood, this theme picks up with a bit more sophisticated fare.  I would begin with some simple animal stories such as SHILOH by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor and perhaps build to the complex high fantasy world of Brian Jacques in his Redwall series.

      Bloody Books-I build from the least gory to the most gory when I can.   PHINEAS GAGE by John Fleischman is still a no-fail for me when I am booktalking, especially to boys.

      “What would happen if…” hook-many books answer this basic question.  What would happen if you discovered that your parents have paid someone to end your life?  (GROUNDING OF GROUP SIX by Julian Thompson).  What would happen if you were a cheerleader who lost her leg in a car accident? (IZZY WILLY-NILLY by Cynthia Voigt).  What might happen if you survived a plane crash with only a hatchet as equipment?  (HATCHET by Gary Paulsen).  As you can see, the possibilities are endless here.

Kids want to select what they will read.  Classroom libraries and regular trips to the school library (also mentioned in the research by Gibbs and Giles) help them find the books they are seeking.   Developing and maintaining a classroom library can be invaluable for keeping kids connected to books.  For example, if students complete the book they are reading, a classroom library offers them immediate access other selections.   As strong a tool as classroom libraries may be, there is still a need to students to regularly visit the school library.  There are thousands of choices in the school library and (hopefully) a certified school librarian to assist teachers and students in locating information and material.  Lance (2004) has studied the effects of having adequate school libraries staffed by certified personnel in numerous states.  His conclusion:  how well students perform on state assessments is correlated to the strength of the school library and its personnel.  In this age of information technology, access to the library is crucial for a number of reasons in addition to motivating students to read. 

      How does selection play out in a public library?  Are tweens permitted to check books out from any part of the collection?  Do displays help tweens find good new books to read?  Are there carts and shelves with “talkers”?  Are public librarians being invited (or inviting themselves) into the schools to share the wealth of materials, to booktalk, to sign up tweens for library cards?

      Finally, an element these two pieces of research have in common has to do with ownership of the books.  Students in all grades also noted that buying books through book clubs or a school run bookstore would make them want to read more.  Book clubs and book fairs are all about ownership and, to some extent, being able to check books out of the classroom and school and public  library is a part of this ownership issue as well. 

Much of my research with students indicates that those from less affluent circumstances own fewer books.  This finding is borne out by the work of my graduate students who work in schools across Texas and by noted experts such as Stephen Krashen.  Krashen notes that the greatest single predictor of success in school (reading success) is access to books.    In the more affluent suburbs of the major cities, students own their own library of books.  The reverse is the case for students who come from less affluent neighborhoods.  In these homes, books are scarce and ownership of books is a rarity.   The question becomes:  how can we boost ownership of books?   We must do whatever it takes to provide students with ownership of books, especially those books they treasure.