Hey guys,
So in class today we quickly mentioned the intrinsic and extrinsic rewards children gain from different incentive reading programs. I had mentioned that my elementary school participates in a program that dedicates March as 'reading month' and the whole school has a class by class competition to see which class can read the most books and the class that does read the most gets a pizza party at the end of the month. I found this competition for extrinsic motivation and reward less than desirable as a kid, but many found that it helped them. The reaction to this kind of competitive reading is inconclusive at best. I find that having "sleepovers" or parties that are dedicated to having kids read in a relaxed setting where they can read with their friends for fun is more beneficial for a school to conduct as to build on a child's intrinsic motivation to want to read for pleasure.
My question is: what incentive programs or just reading programs did your schools have and did you think they were beneficial?
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5 comments:
As far as extrinsic motviation goes my school also participated in the Pizza Hut- Book It program, as well as reading charts where you got to put a sticker by your name for each book you completed. I never liked the reading charts because you could always see who was reading and how much, and I can imagine it being very discouraging and counter productive for the kids with the fewest stickers.
An intrinsically motivating reading event was when we had an entire day devoted to reading. We got to bring in sleeping bags and wear our pajamas to school in the morning and every student received a brand new book of their choice out of ten or so different books. In the afternoon we had a picnic outside and read our books, and I just remember how fun everyone had reading all day long. I think intrinsic motivation is the way to go if you want students to become life-long readers.
I remember in 7th grade my school did a reading program where the teachers and librarians picked out 10-12 books that they thought would be interesting and challenging for us to read. We were placed in groups of 5 or 6 and each person in the group had to read two books from the selection so that each book would have been read by at one person in the group. This went on for about a month or so and then we had a competition within our Language Arts classes to answer questions as a group about the books we had read. At the end of all of this the four class team that had the most points from the trivia competition won an assembly presentation for their team. (My team ended up winning, by the way.) It turned out to be a good program despite the extrinsic motivation because everyone really got into the books we were reading. Because everyone was reading the same books we started talking about them, sharing our favorite parts, and recommending them to each other. I ended up reading more than just the two books I was assigned to read and loved them all. It was an extrinsic motivation program, but because it allowed for collaboration and discussion it still helped motivate us to read just for reading's sake.
It's interesting that conversation occurred more spontaneously. Did you do this type of work as part of the "regular" curriculum as well?
Do you think you read differently, knowing that you would have a "trivia" quiz?
I was never the reader type in middle school! I was the student that NEEDED to be extrinsically motivated or else I would never pick up a book if my life depended on it! My teachers created a huge built up program called "Battle of the Books" and divided our entire grade into teams and assigned each team a large amount of age appropriate books. It was up to the team to divide the books amongst students in the group. As this program was being hyped, it was our responsibility to read our books assigned and prepare for the ultimate competition of questions! This honestly was my favorite program in school and forced me to read along with providing a friendly competition. Even though the reading was not for pleasure, it gave me a chance to pick up a book, and show myself that I could enjoy reading as a past time! So yes, I believe anything that motivates, whether intrinsic or extrinsic is fair game!
When I was in elementary school, Six Flags Theme Park had a deal that if you read for 600 minutes in a certain month, you would get a free pass to their amusement park. Parents would have to sign off on how many minutes you read per night, and if you reached the goal, you go to go ride the roller coasters for free.
I always read the 600 minutes- I love roller coasters. But as soon as the program was over, I stopped reading. It is a great way to get children to read, but one must wonder what kind of books the kids are reading. I know I read books that I had already read. I didn't really push myself to read harder books or books of a different genre.
I think these incentives are great, but one must wonder if we are pushing too much extrinsic learning, and if we are, how are we able to promote intrinsic reading?
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