MOTIVATES AND ENGAGES When students are free to choose what they read and have ready access to a wide assortment of interesting books, they become more engaged and motivated readers (Allington & Gabriel, 2012; Guthrie, Klauda, & Ho, 2013). Reading becomes an activity they want to do, setting in motion an upward spiral in which avid reading leads to higher achievement and even more reading (Guthrie, 2008). In fact, the most motivated readers spend nearly three times as long with a book every day than the least motivated (Wigfield & Guthrie, 1997). Motivation matters more than family background when it comes to reading achievement; students with high reading engagement but lower parental education and income are better readers than students with low reading motivation and the same socioeconomic background (Guthrie, 2008). Intrinsic motivation has a positive impact on achievement. Using a sample of more than 4,000 rising fourth and fifth graders in high-poverty U.S. schools, researchers measured the effects of intrinsic and extrinsic reading motivation on comprehension and the amount of leisure reading done outside school. They found that intrinsic reading motivation positively predicted both reading volume and comprehension. Extrinsic motivations, such as the desire to earn good grades or win a competition, had a statistically significant negative effect on both reading volume and achievement (Troyer, Kim, Hale, Wantchekon, & Armstrong, 2019).
SCHOLASTIC LITERACY PRO FOUNDATION PAPER 9
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