Finding a Passion for Reading

This week I choice to read: What Motivates Students to Read?  For Literacy Personalities by Jill E. Cole.  The title of this immediately caught my attention because I was a student that was never really interested in reading or writing; I did what I had to do.  After I started reading the article I realized I was much like Mark.  I could tell that my teachers tried to get my interested in reading but it just was not working and still to this day, I have little motivation to read a book for leisure.  This may be because I am so busy and do not feel like I have time or because reading was difficult for me growing up.  If I do find a book that looks like it might be interesting to read, I read the first few pages and if that does not grasp my attention, I am done.  Because of this, I thought it would be great to find a way to help students like myself and this article seemed like one that would be beneficial.  

When it comes to reading, like anything else in education, students need to be looked at as individuals rather than as a class.  I believe this is something that is easier said than done for many teachers.  Teachers sometimes forget that students have different reasons for doing things.  Like this article pointed out, it is essential to find out what motivates each student to read and learn.  While I attended school, I noticed that some of my classmates strived to just make it while others wanted to go above and beyond.  What causes these different aspirations within different students?

Throughout the year teachers learn more and more about their students.  In doing this, they take this into consideration to help their student learn to their fullest potential.  I liked Cole’s suggestions because she realizes it is important to take into consideration each student’s interests while teaching the class as a whole.  

My favorite suggestion was taking in the opinions of the students.  This is an easy suggestion but something I believe does not happen often because is it is already difficult to fulfill all the requirements that teachers have.  I also have no recollection of it ever happening in my education and it is also something I did not originally think of doing.  While it something that can be difficult, I do believe there are ways to have students have more control over their education.  

Having students have control of their education would be most beneficial to students who already have little motivation to learn.  These students will feel ownership over their own learning which is the biggest motivator of all.  Often, learning feels like a chore because they either have no interest or they are being told what to do.  For students like Mark, I believe this would ultimately help them in their education.

It is essential for elementary teachers to show students that they can have fun reading and writing.  Students learn to either hate or love learning early on and the more students learn to love learning early on, the better off they will be when it comes to graduating, attending college, and enjoying things such as reading outside of the classroom.