Reading Incentives for Children
Encouraging children to read is essential for their educational progress and intellectual growth. Creating incentives for children to read books rewards their efforts. You can create your own incentives program to encourage reading. Libraries and some businesses also offer free reading incentives programs for children.
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Individual Encouragement
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Create an individualized incentive system for every child you work with. Ask each child what his interests are. Collect books or book titles that fit these interests. Give the child a list of books related to his interests. He will probably want to explore several titles relating to his interest, and so will be encouraged to read more. This type of incentive is mostly intrinsic. There are no material rewards for reading except reading itself. However, a young reader's topical enthusiasm can be enough to make this incentive effective.
Reward Systems
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Record the number of books or pages a child reads. Create a chart or log to mark reading progress milestones. These milestones are determined by the child's reading level. Advanced readers may receive a star, check mark or other indicator of progress on their charts for every 500 pages they read. Readers from the lower levels may mark their progress for every book they read. Assign rewards for certain milestones, like 200 pages or five books. Rewards for lower milestones might be pencils, erasers, sticker sheets or other small prizes. Larger prizes might be gift cards or even electronics.
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Outside Organized Programs
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Some businesses offer reading programs for children. Bookmans, a chain of secondhand bookstores based in Arizona, rewards participating schools with gift cards and money based on the average number of books read per student. The program culminates with parties at the bookstores with crafts, juice, cookies and story-reading. Pizza Hut allows teachers to set reading goals in their classrooms through its BOOK IT! program. Once children reach these goals they are given a certificate that can be exchanged at the restaurant for a free personal pizza. You can check to see if there are similar programs in your area.
Library Reading Programs
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Many public libraries offer reading programs, especially in the summertime. Children that participate keep a log of all the books they read. The library offers small prizes for reaching progress milestones. Sometimes a weekly activity or presentation is part of the program. Often the program ends with a larger activity, party or presentation. Children who did the most reading for their age group may receive a larger or more expensive prize. Prizes may also be given out through a drawing.
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References
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