Is it possible that a child who loves books can stop liking to read? Unfortunately, yes. Research shows that this happens for many children in the US. Lately, this number has been growing.
In recent research, Erickson (2019) focused on elementary children´s perceptions of reading intervention programs using Expectancy-Value (E-V) theory, whose approach aims to understand the individual´s perceptions of reality. E-V theory seeks to explain and predict an individual's attitudes toward objects and actions. Erickson’s study examined how a camp guided reading intervention influenced the reading motivation of three primary-age, male readers who were not meeting grade-level reading benchmarks. The research examined what the children perceived to be the “cost” of a reading intervention, a key contributor to student´s motivation. The students pointed out that boredom and repetitiveness of texts caused a decline in their motivation for reading. The implication for practice is to pay attention to the anticipated cost perceived by students when preparing a reading intervention.
A different approach to face the lack of motivation among elementary students was tried by Shmulsky (2009). Worried by survey findings which show the decrease of reading motivation among adults in the US, Shmulsky built a "call for action" pilot project with first-graders in which they were invited to write and illustrate a book. Each of the participating students created their own book. With eight to 12 sentences, spread across four or six pages, they had to find an idea, define the main character which should be a child or an animal, and develop a narrative in which this character would encounter a problem or dilemma, and then try to solve it. Then, students wrote and drew the story. Before writing, discussions around other picture book narratives took place, first in groups of two or three, then, among the whole class. The books that resulted from this project were compiled and are proudly available at the school´s library.
Reading motivation increases in three situations: when children have choice and autonomy, when they find relevance in reading or writing and when they have opportunities for collaboration (Erickson, 2019). Choice and autonomy are crucial to getting children interested. When teachers ask students to read a specific book, something unexpected can happen: even great readers often don’t want to read what they’re told to read. I took a quick survey in the CLC, and it turns out that holds true for both me and Bethany, the director of the CLC. My teenage daughter also used to refuse to read books suggested by a teacher (she doesn´t know that I was alike as a child!).
At the Community Literacy Center, we think a lot about motivation and engagement. Some ways that we apply these lessons from Erickson and Shmulsky are:
At Book to Art, we invite children to share what they find relevant in the book during interactive read-alouds and to express themselves when making art projects. After the artwork time, they choose books to read with adults. The Write Free program is based entirely on teenagers choice for writing – we always have ideas for new projects, but the work is driven by the teens. We believe that autonomy is one of the most powerful tools in the learning process.
Joy Dangora Erickson (2019): Primary Readers’ Perceptions of a Camp Guided Reading Intervention: A Qualitative Case Study of Motivation and Engagement, Reading & Writing Quarterly, DOI: 10.1080/10573569.2018.1548952
Shmulsky, L. (2009). Art and Literacy. Arts and Activities. 146(3) 40-42.
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