Quote: "It appears that young children want to read and are curious about books that are somewhat familiar....children in our study were curious about and more motivated to read books that were familiar. (Gambrell pg. 9)"
Thought: This really struck a cord with me because when I was little, I didn't like to read. It was too time consuming and difficult. However, I later had two experiences that got me to read. One, was when I was little, my mother read Narnia #1 to me. My brother began to read me #2, but got too busy. I really wanted to read the book, so I started trying to read it. It took me a couple tries, but once I did, I kept reading till I finished the whole series. The other experience was with the American Girl's books my family owned. I had always looked through the pictures, and made up my own stories. However, one random day when I was looking at my favorite one, I decided I wanted to know what the words actually were, so I started reading......and kept on reading. I think that if there are a lot of books around children, even ones too hard for them to read at first, curiosity will eventually convince many of them to read.
Question: While I know it takes more than just curiosity, how can I work with children who don't even want to read books about their favorite hobbies? I know children who will be given a book about a subject they love, but will just look at the pictures, and read the text underneath it. Can I get them to progress to reading all the text, if they feel like they already get all the information they want from pictures and subtitles, or do I just have to wait for them to decide to do it some random day like I did?
That is an excellent question. I have also wondered how to even motivate children that do not even want to read books that are familiar to them. I guess the best answer I can think of is to keep trying and being enthusiastic with reading in the classroom. Forcing the child to read books that even apply to their interests will still only push them further from wanting to read. I think that as teachers we can worry way too much about a child that is unmotivated. And, the more we worry the more they will sense pressure and shy away from us. I guess we just have to be positive, and do the best we can hoping that they will see all the other children enjoying reading and that they will try it out and enjoy it too!
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