This content reflects work done as part of the Indigenous Perspectives in School Librarianship (IPSL) grant funded by IMLS (RE-246303-OLS-20). Actual assignments may vary.

Module 2: Reading Motivation

One of the most common questions learners ask is “have you read every book in the library?” Librarians do not have the time to read each selection, and yet it is still important for librarians to locate and evaluate books that meet the needs of the community. This includes curriculum and educator needs, as well as inclusive choices that address learner interests and identity.

Module Objectives

Analyze the role of reading motivation in student achievement.

Think

  • Beers, K. & Probst, R.E. (2020). Part I: Change. In Forged by reading: The power of a literate life. New York, NY: Scholastic Publishing, Inc.
  • Arango, P. (2018). Motivation: Introduction to the Theory, Concepts, and Research. In: Orellana García, P., Baldwin Lind, P. (eds), Reading Achievement and Motivation in Boys and Girls. Literacy Studies, vol 15. Springer. https://doi-org.proxybz.lib.montana.edu/10.1007/978-3-319-75948-7_1

Additionally, choose one or more of the following:

Create

Add to your Annotated Booklist

Share

Post at least twice in the #2motivation channel in response to one or more of the following prompts. Cite evidence from the module reading(s) to support your assertions.

Option 1

“The humanities have not always yielded more humane people, in part, because we haven’t always taught our students to read with the possibility of change in mind. We’ve taught them to remember details and analyze literary techniques and the other niceties, but we haven’t always taught them to reflect on the implications of text for their own lives” (Beers & Probst, 2020, p. 21).

Reflect on the commercial reading curriculum that your school or district uses, or a curriculum you are familiar with. In what ways does it trivialize reading by what Beers & Probst call “niceties,” and in what ways does it encourage critical individualized thought. Have you ever had cause to question the way the curriculum teaches the experience of reading to students?

Option 2

“It has been said that books change us, and certainly they might, but perhaps it would be better if we thought not that books change us, but that books give us the opportunity to change ourselves. We, the readers, should remain responsible for who and what we become. If we let books change us, forge us into what their authors want us to become, we will have turned responsibility for our own lives over to others. We will think what someone else wants us to think, believe what someone else tells us to believe, value what someone else tells us to value, and we will have abandoned ourselves. We will then truly be metal under the smith’s hammer or clay in the potter’s hands” (Beers & Probst, 2020, p. 13).

Do you agree with the author’s premise? How might this change how you treat books and reading in the classroom? In the library?

Option 3

In 1938, Louise Rosenblatt explained in Literature as Exploration, that meaning emerges as the reader interacts—or to use her word—transacts with the text. Without the reader’s thoughts, memories, associations, and connections that come to mind while reading, the words remain merely ink spots on the page.

One question that often arises in the reading curriculum: What was the author’s meaning?  Louise explains that as an author this question always bothered her.  She wanted to have readers ask and answer - what meaning did you derive when interacting with the text? 

What questions do you ask when engaging learners with books? Do you determine the questions or are you reliant on a curriculum? Do you encourage them to find their own meaning? If not, how might this change their reading experience?

Option 4

Choose an idea from part one of the Forged by Reading, or one of your other reading choices, that struck you as important or meaningful and share a quote or summary of that idea. Write a question to help you engage with that text or idea and then answer your own question.

Grow

Complete the self-assessment checklist.