I Am a Shameless Briber of Readers!
I have returned from an incredibly inspiring reading conference. Some of the most notable literacy experts in the country presented. I attended many break-out sessions to increase my knowledge of great literacy practices. I even presented one myself entitled, ”Creating a School-Wide Culture of Literacy.”
One of the controversial topics that was addressed often was whether or not it was a good idea to “bribe” students to read. My school has reading challenges over the breaks that reward children for reading while not in school. For every break we have a challenge and the ante continues to go up. I will doanythingto get children to read. Anything.
We bring in authors to do assemblies with children. We have Minute-to-Win-It games for children who read over breaks. There are experience incentives such as “Principal for a Day” and soccer lessons with the high school coach. I beg anyone who can offer time with a child to donate an experience to reward children for reading.
We have an annual Vocabulary Parade where children dress up to represent their favorite word. Families decorate pumpkins to be the favorite book character. We bring the local library in to sign families up for library cards during parent teacher conferences and all adults in the building, everyone, has to keep current a sign that displays what is currently being read. This includes the custodian, cafeteria workers, and the office staff.
We spend all of our money on books, beautiful engaging and interesting books that we hope children cannot resist. We used Allington’s model for summer school whereupon we sendeverychild home with 15 self-selected books for the summer. We are not just interested in teaching reading-we are invested in creating LOVERS of reading!
For those critics that say, ”They are reading only for the incentives,” I would ask them what were the first three words you just said? They…are…reading!And with all of this reading that we are so shamelessly bribing them to do they just might find that perfect book that hooked them, they just might cross the threshold to become a strong reader. They just might acquire the skills to propel them further in their education and finally they just might develop a skill that will last for their entire lives. And who cares if they chose to read initially for the chance to put pie in their principal’s face? Not me? Bring on the whipped cream!
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Cathy, what are your thoughts on all of the research showing that kids learn to dislike the activity they’re being rewarded to do? That they will stop doing it as soon as the rewards disappear?
I know of the research for sure. We had many a reluctant reader turn into a lover of reading with all of the pushing we did to get students to read. I realize this is controversial. I will be interested in seeing the discussion.
Cathy
it’s certainly a fine line to walk! I’ll be interested to see if there’s any discussion as well.