Reading Incentives and Ways to Encourage Kids to Read

Reading incentives may not be the best choice to get children to read, unless they already love reading. Our local library has a reading program for kids every summer. If the children reach the reading goal, they get a new book. This works well for students who want books, but those who don’t want to read, are not enticed to participate. Other places offer toys or candy. The problem with these incentives is they are telling the students reading is so bad they need to be paid to do it.  Research shows that once the rewards stop, so does the reading (Willingham, 2014).

When my son was little, getting him to read was a chore. He participated in the reading incentive programs, but only until he reached the minimum goal for a prize. I finally found a way to get him interested in reading. I found a book series that I thought he would like, and only read him book one. If he wanted the rest of the series, he needed to read it for himself.  This strategy worked in ways no incentive program ever had.

          Libraries can help motivate students in several ways. First, there is the incentive program. For students who like reading, this gives them a goal to read more until they get the prize. Another way is their story time. Our library reads a story to the children once a week. This shows the children how wonderful stories are, and entices them to read so they can have more. My favorite program the library offers is the book club. Kids get together once a week and discuss a book they have chosen to read. Kids are more likely to read a book recommended by their peers than by adults. These are just a few of the ways a library can get children reading.

Reference:

Willingham, Daniel (2014). How to Trick Your Kids into Reading All Summer Long. Retrieve at: http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2014/07/how-to-kick-start-summer-reading/373737/