Reading Motivation: A Guide to Understanding and Supporting Children’s Willingness to Read

Reading Motivation: A Guide to Understanding and Supporting Children’s Willingness to Read explains the importance of paying careful attention to children’s developing motivation to read and offers a step-by-step guide for conducting rigorous and systematic case studies of children’s motivation to read in specific contexts (e.g., reading intervention programs). The methods described in this book have been used successfully to elicit the perspectives of children as young as five years of age. In addition to carefully considering the views of children, readers are encouraged to work with peers to carefully select, collect, and analyze multiple types of data from a variety of sources to answer questions about their students’ motivation in trustworthy ways. Separate chapters explain how to formatively and summatively analyze and interpret qualitative and quantitative data and how to present findings and make changes to programming in response to findings. A summary and a guided activity appear at the end of each chapter to support the reader in practicing the skills introduced in the chapter.

Praise for Reading Motivation

Who selects reading programs? Oftentimes, administrators and teachers; in short: adults. Problematizing the commonplace action of excluding children from co-designing curriculum and seeking to democratize reading, Reading Motivation urges teachers to recognize and honor children’s voices in the selection of reading programs in which they participate. Centering the individual child and their needs and interests, this book offers pathways for understanding the power of case studies to the teaching of reading. The case studies presented, positioned as tools for teachers to learn alongside students, offer important windows into the agency and ingenuity of young children as capable curriculum co-designers and motivated readers. In addition to rich examples, readers are invited to learn alongside the authors via activities, which support new and experienced educators in documenting children’s interests, ultimately impacting their motivation to read.

-- Mariana Souto-Manning PhD, president, Erikson Institute, Chicago, Illinois; former professor of education, Teachers College, Columbia University

At a time when policymakers, researchers, and educators are debating the best instructional approach to support reading acquisition, Joy Dangora Erickson reminds us that motivating students to read is an important ingredient in supporting students’ reading achievement—and more importantly, motivation is the key to promoting in students a lifelong love of reading. Reading Motivation: A Guide to Understanding and Supporting Children’s Willingness to Read is informed by current research and theory but it is also approachable and practical. It is an excellent resource for current and future elementary teachers alike as they consider how to optimally support their students’ literacy learning.

-- Seth A. Parsons, professor of education, George Mason University

Supporting young readers’ motivation is essential in developing reading instruction that is centered on students’ instructional and socioemotional needs and their linguistic and cultural strengths. Reading Motivation helps teachers understand the important role of motivation through descriptive case studies, connections of theory to practice, and practical activities to guide teachers in supporting young readers’ motivation. Erickson explores this important dimension of effective reading instruction in this valuable book appropriate for teachers of all levels.

-- Margaret Vaughn, associate professor of literacy, Washington State University

There has never been a better time to focus on the reading motivation needs of our youngest learners. This book is perfect for teams of teachers and interventionists to hear the voices of young readers as they strive to achieve in our classrooms. The case study approach detailed here privileges the voices of students and the methods are well suited to evaluating and refining the instruction offered to support them as they become fully invested and intrinsically motivated readers.

-- Jacquelynn Malloy, associate professor of education, Clemson University