I know, I know, I've written several times about motivation and learning. But having spent most of my teaching with remedial students, I've seen first-hand how motivation impacts a child's ability to learn and improve. Professor Sue Gambrell in Reading Rockets writes a strong article that states just this. To give her key points (and I'm copying straight from the article here), she advocates the following:
..Students' self-concepts and the value they place on reading are critical to their success
..Choice is widely acknowledged as a method for enhancing motivation.
..Read-aloud and discussion are effective ways to engage in mastery modeling.
..Providing balanced book collections at all grade levels is vital to engagement.
..Many schools, teachers and parent organizations use rewards in their reading programs (and it doesn't harm the child -- if given correctly).
But you knew these already, right?
