Spark Student Motivation in Reading!

I love this linky from my BBB Joanne at Head Over Heels for Teaching! So many great ideas to get kids excited about school!

Boy, my class sure is full of readers! They have literally been reading up a storm. I think the choice that is part of Daily 5 has a lot to do with it. One kiddo told me the other day, "You're the first teacher that lets me pick my own books!" That choice is a huge motivator! Of course, teaching your kids how to choose good fit books takes time and effort, but I think it's well worth it! Check out my IPICK bookmark freebie in the sidebar!

Another kiddo couldn't believe that I actually stock graphic novels in my classroom library. Bone, Amulet, Kane Chronicles & Percy Jackson, Cardboard, etc. are all great graphic novel choices by the way! My kids wait in line for these. I require my kids to read the entire series in order qualify for a read bead though. And I've noticed a couple of kids who started with the Percy Jackson Graphic Novel and then moved on to the actual book!

The kids really are motivated to branch out to different genres when there's even a slight incentive. I've talked about my read beads recently, so I won't go into a lot of detail there. But I am doing something new along with them this year! My BBB Diane over at Fifth in the Middle created a perfect set of brag tags to go along with the read beads! I have my system set up so that every kid needs to read a certain number of books from each of the genres. Once the kids have have read that number, I award the tag! It serves double duty as a quick reminder of which genres the kids have covered, and which ones they still need to read books from!

How do you motivate kids to read? Check out the other ideas for motivating students in the linky too!

In other news, I just recovered from a looonnng drive from PA to GA to visit family for the holidays. I'm looking forward to relaxing a bit this break, but I definitely have some work to do too! And on a side note, happy anniversary to me! 6 years ago today I married my best friend, Killer B! Happy holidays!