How to motivate your students to read

We know that the more time kids spend reading, the better they will do in school and in life!

There’s not much we can do to help kids read at home, except hope that they do.  But we can make sure they read during school!!

I shared 4 ways I structure my independent reading time on this blog post. This helps my readers stay actively engaged during silent reading time, but sometimes it’s hard to keep them motivated to actually read for 25-30 minutes each day.  So I like to start each year talking about real reading vs fake reading.

We also talk about stamina and how we have to build up to reading 25 minutes.  I don’t expect my students to be able to read the entire time the first time we do this.  It’s something we practice all year.  

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But I came across the great idea from my friend Joanne from Head Over Heels For Teaching that has been a big hit this year!  Flashlight Friday!  We set a goal each week of how long we want to read.  Because let’s be honest, some weeks are busier than others and we don’t always have the time.  If we meet our goal, we celebrate with Flashlight Friday.

I bought these finger lights from the Dollar Tree. They come 5 to a pack.

On Friday, during our silent reading time, we turn the lights off and everyone reads with their finger light!

It has quickly become one of our favorite times of the week!  What do you do to motivate your students to read?