Fostering Reading for Enjoyment in Upper Elementary Students By Developing Connections to Reading and Increasing Self-Efficacy

Data shows that fewer students are choosing to read for pleasure. Fostering students’ intrinsic motivation to read and developing skills to personally connect with texts, along with authentic literacy instruction has shown to increase how often students choose to read and for how long they read. Upper elementary teachers should create inclusive libraries, help students connect with interesting texts, develop useful independent reading time, and implement authentic and cross-curricular learning activities as part of literacy instruction. This project will help teachers assess student motivation to read and match students with appropriate and interesting texts. This project also provides methods for teachers to model reading strategies during read-alouds, to develop purposeful, independent reading time in school, and to demonstrate examples of authentic and cross-curricular tasks. These strategies can be implemented as is and adapted for the specific needs of different classrooms and students