I think the message is received by students that rewards are needed because reading
is not enjoyable / fun on its own merits. While many schools offer rewards for
reading because it helps those students who are not motivated to work toward a goal
or to even begin reading, I think that students should be taught that reading can
be a wonderful activity that can be shared with others (book clubs, groups, poetry
jams), as well as a solitary activity that allows them to enjoy ideas that they are
personally interested in learning or discovering.
While many students do not enjoy reading because they have not been taught how to
enjoy the sometimes solitary activity that is not interactive or physically
stimulating, I think it is our responsibility to provide students with the
opportunities to make reading less than solitary and increasingly stimulating
through library programming and activities that provide reading growth and
interaction with those better readers who enjoy sharing their excitement about
books.
Providing students with activities that include author visits is also a great way
to make reading more personal---when students ask authors questions about their
writing, their books, and their past. Reading is the cornerstone to all
educational growth. By providing students with that cornerstone through library
activities, programs, and author connections, we are rewarding them all at once,
regardless of their abilities at that particular time. Library activities that
share programming opportunities for all students "level the playing field" for
everyone participating rather than creating competition between students, books and
often, unattainable tangible rewards that discourage struggling readers. The
library then becomes less of a judgemental environment that requires all students
to meet a standard and more of an exciting environment that encourages all students
to enjoy any item offered.
Finally, if rewards are offered to students for reading, I would suggest that those
rewards be books. Because many students who don't read often don't have materials
at home (personal libraries), providing them with books that they are interested in
reading is the first step in creating a more literate environment that teaches the
student that reading IS a reward on its own merit. Be sure to provide a variety of
reward-books that are not necessarily the "best in literature"--- that would
include the so-called "junk literature" that we all enjoy reading for fun but may
hide because they don't meet literary standards that others place on reading
(provide popular teen magazines, comic books, series books, and graphic novels).
Make reading fun by providing a wide-range of materials that don't link to a grade,
a point system, an electronic reading program, or a teacher's list. All of these
"reward books" teach students that reading is something personal that can be
enjoyed outside of the system that has (in my opinion) made something enjoyable
just one more activity that needs to be completed for the sake of a grade / point /
test.
Good luck!
Shonda Brisco, MLIS
US / Technology Librarian
Fort Worth Country Day School
Fort Worth, TX
sbrisco@fwcds.org
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