Inspiring a Love of Reading Within a Science of Reading Framework

Hundreds of years ago, one approach to motivating young readers involved gingerbread. Letters were formed from the tasty treat; once children mastered letter recognition, they were allowed to eat them. The strategy feels almost comical now and raises thoughts about bribery in the classroom, but the underlying question is still familiar: How do we help children want to read?

Evidence-based reading instruction should intentionally develop both reading proficiency and reading engagement, and motivation can be built directly into evidence-based reading instruction rather than treated as something extra.

Here are instructional approaches that can grow elementary students’ love of reading alongside their proficiency.

Make the Learning Relevant

Students are more likely to engage in reading when they understand why the learning matters. This does not mean that students should read only about topics they already enjoy or select every text themselves. Relevance can come from interest, prior knowledge, curiosity, or simply recognizing a purpose for what they are being asked to read. In evidence-based literacy instruction, teachers make many instructional decisions about content, sequence, vocabulary, and text selection. The opportunity is to help students see the value in that learning—give them the “why” in the process.

In the primary grades, this might mean asking students what they already know or wonder before a knowledge-building read-aloud, connecting a new phonics pattern to words they can now read, or briefly discussing the meaning of a decodable text rather than treating it only as decoding practice. In third through fifth grades, teachers might use brief reading-interest or reading-identity inventories; invite students to generate questions they hope a unit will answer; or make explicit connections among new vocabulary, background knowledge, and increasingly complex texts.

Teachers may see evidence of growing relevance when students begin asking their own questions, making connections to previous learning, bringing up a topic again later, or expressing interest in reading more about it.

Build Purposeful Choice

Choice can increase students’ sense of ownership because they had a voice in it. This does not mean that teachers are giving up instructional purpose or sequence. In evidence-based literacy instruction, teachers still determine the skills that students need to learn, the knowledge they need to build, and the level of text that will appropriately support those goals. The opportunity is to provide students with meaningful choices within those boundaries.

In the primary grades, that might mean allowing students to choose between two decodable texts that practice the same phonics pattern, select which familiar passage to reread for fluency, or choose how to respond to a shared text. In third through fifth grades, teachers might offer a small text set around a common science or social studies topic, use book tastings to support independent reading choices, or allow students to select a subtopic to explore, once shared background knowledge has been established.

Teachers may notice that purposeful choice is working when students make selections with greater confidence, can explain why they chose a particular text or topic, or show greater persistence with a task they had some role in selecting.

Protect Time to Use Skills That Students Are Learning

Explicit instruction is essential, but students also need opportunities to use the reading skills they are developing. Protecting time for authentic reading should not replace systematic foundational-skills instruction; rather, it gives students opportunities to apply that instruction with increasing independence. The goal is a progression from learning a skill, to practicing it with support, to using it successfully as a reader.

What this looks like will vary across the elementary grades. In K–2, reading time may include rereading decodable or familiar texts, partner reading, echo or choral reading, and discussing rich read-alouds. As students become more proficient readers in grades 3–5, they can spend increasing amounts of time reading independently, rereading for fluency, exploring informational texts connected to classroom learning, or reading self-selected texts that are appropriately challenging. Evidence of growth may be as simple as students settling into reading more quickly, sustaining attention for longer periods, independently applying a recently taught skill, or choosing to continue reading when the required time has ended.

When every reading experience is limited to direct instruction, isolated practice, or a task that will immediately be assessed, students have fewer opportunities to experience themselves as readers. Explicit instruction gives students the tools; time spent actually reading allows them to put those tools to work.

Making Reading Social!

Reading is an individual act, but it does not have to be an isolated one. Students are often more willing to engage with text when reading leads to conversation, sharing, questioning, and connection with others. Social interaction can strengthen motivation while also supporting oral language, vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension.

In K–2 classrooms, this may include turn-and-talk opportunities during interactive read-alouds, partner rereading of familiar texts, sharing a newly learned word, or telling a classmate one important idea learned from a text. In grades 3–5, students can discuss informational texts, give brief book talks, recommend books to classmates, compare interpretations, or talk about how new information changed what they previously understood. 

Teachers can look for students beginning to initiate these interactions themselves: recommending a book without being prompted, referring back to something a classmate said, asking another student about a text, or carrying a reading conversation beyond the assigned discussion.

Help Students Experience Success

One of the strongest connections between reading proficiency and reading motivation is students’ sense of competence or efficacy. When students can see that they are becoming more capable readers, success itself can become motivating. Effective foundational reading instruction should create those experiences, but teachers can strengthen their impact by helping students notice and name their growth.

In K–2, this might mean drawing attention to a word that a student can now decode independently, rereading a familiar passage so the student can hear increased fluency, or celebrating mastery of a new sound-spelling pattern. In grades 3–5, teachers might use brief conferences, goal setting, or reflection to help students recognize which strategies are helping them understand increasingly complex texts and what is becoming easier over time.

This is different from motivating students primarily through points, prizes, or other external rewards, as the goal is for students to experience success as readers. This matters especially for students receiving intervention, who may encounter reading frequently through correction, assessment, and difficulty. They need intentional opportunities to experience growth and success as well. Strong reading instruction should help students not only read better, but increasingly see themselves as readers.

Keep Both Goals in View

Evidence-based reading instruction gives students the skills they need to become successful readers, but our long-term goal should extend beyond successful performance during the literacy block. We want students who can decode, read fluently, understand increasingly complex text, and also see reading as something useful, meaningful, and worth choosing.

Students need the tools to read, but they also need reasons to use those tools. Strong elementary literacy instruction can and should intentionally develop both.