READING REASONS:

MOTIVATIONAL MINI-LESSONS FOR MIDDLE AND HIGH SCHOOL

Presented by: Matt Lakis

Reading Reasons: Summary

Kelly Gallagher offers a series of mini-lessons specifically tailored to motivate middle and high school students to read, and in doing so, to help them understand the importance and relevance reading will take in their lives. Reading Reasons introduces and explains in detail nine specific real-world reasons why students should be life-time readers.

How to Motivate Students to Read:

Building Blocks: 1-6 Students need

1:

Access to print 2: A time and a place 3: Reading role models 4: Stop grading!! 5: Structured reading programs 6: Reasons

Reason 1: Reading is Rewarding

Book It! - Reading Programs

Dont

offer extrinsic rewards for things that are intrinsically rewarding

Celebrate the gems

Read-Alouds

Have them uncover their own pearls

Reading Is Rewarding: Application

1.

Ask your students, How many of you sometimes have a hard time deciding how to start an essay? Point out that this often happens to the best of writers. Explain that we should not judge a book by its cover or even by its first few pages, its interesting to keep note of how authors begin their books Share some interesting first lines from your favorite book

2.

3.

4.

As school year progresses have students keep track in their notebooks of their favorite first lines
Construct a classroom bulletin board entitled Favorite First Words

5.

Reason 2: Reading Builds a Mature Vocabulary

Sailor Analogy

Students NEED vocabulary for college or the workplace Daily Independent Reading builds vocab.

Build a Mature Vocab: Application

Directions: In small groups (3-4) please attempt to define this word or at least establish a partial meaning

pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoco niosis

Application (continued)
Context: Because of his closeness to Mount St. Helens, Joshua contracted pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis. Word Roots: Pneumono: related to lungs Ultra: super Micro: small Scopic: related to a viewing instrument Silico: the mineral silicon Volcano: eruption in the earth from which exposes molten rock, steam, and dust Coni: dust Osis: referring to a diseased condition

Application (continued)
Definition:
Pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosi s is a disease of the lungs caused by habitual inhalation of very fine silicon dust particles

*Who would probably be more capable of breaking down a word like thisa frequent reader or someone who reads rarely? Why?

Reason 3: Reading Makes You a Better Writer

We must write like readers and read like writers -South Basin Writing Project at Long Beach University Reading and writing are essentially similar processes of meaning construction From reading we acquire writing style

Reason 4: Reading is Hard, and Hard Is Necessary

Dont commit Readers welfare Its ok not to understand something the first you read

We can all be bad readers at sometime

Kelly Gallagher: Hamlet is hard You dont need to like a book, just value it.

Reason 5: Reading Makes You Smarter

Reading not only makes you smart, it keeps you smart as you age Reading habits between the ages of 6 and 18 appear to be crucial predictors of cognitive function decades later Chicagos Rush University Consider reading as a rust-proofing treatment of the brain

Reason 6: Reading Prepares You for the World of Work

Drastic disparity between the skills children are currently acquiring in school and the skills they will need to obtain good jobs Hard skills: basic math, problem solving, reading abilities at high level Soft skills: work in groups, effectively communicate through oral and written presentations

Reason 7: Reading Well Is Financially Rewarding

Show students the importance that reading has in their future financial lives.

Academic behavior = economic future

Average lifetime earnings for student without high school degree: $936,000 With a high school degree: $1,216,000 High school diploma = $280,000

*2000 census (not adjusted for inflation)

Reason 8: Reading Opens the Door to College and Beyond

SAT and ACT tests demand high-level readers Reading opens the door to college (acceptance) Also keeps that door from shutting on students once they are admitted (diploma)

Reason 9: Reading Arms You Against Oppression

School readiness as early as kindergarten plays a significant role in children developing into readers
Fall

behind? Get left behind

Amount of information available to human beings doubles every six months. Information age: weak readers will be left behind Look at the world critically!

Question

What do we do with all this information?

Share

with our peers Share with our students Share with our administrators Change our lessons

Overall review

I recommend it highly!
Easy

read Well organized Kelly Gallagher is actually funny Very practical (40 mini-lessons) Good reference

The Final Word

If you are riding a horse and it dies, get off

Jim Grant

If you make a student feel like a reader, hell become a reader Donald Graves