Encouraging students to read via rewards

[creativeteach]

With my new third grade class, there is a large handful of students that are not motivated to read. It has been very difficult to encourage them to read. I tried a "current events" assignment where they could bring in any article they found interesting and read it to the class, but that has not sparked much interest among the handful of anti-reading students.

I recently signed up for a free trial through the Weekly Reader for a new program called UBoost and just introduced the program to my class last week. I took out an hour last week of lab time for them to use the program, and so far, things look good. They essentially read Weekly Reader articles, and when they answer questions correctly based upon the information in the articles, they earn reward points. They have this virtual room where they can redeem points and customize appearances, and they talk about that a lot in class. I had one of my anti-reading students excitedly tell me that he was really close to earning a free meal at IHOP, which means he has actually been logging onto UBoost at home, reading and taking the quizzes!

I wanted to see if anyone is going to or has also used the free trial program in their classroom. How have your results been? How much time are you allocating per week for the UBoost program? Have you noticed a change in their reading comprehension test levels?

I would appreciate any feedback you have on the program, as well as other ways to motivate students to read!

[Unregistered]

hi,

i've been using the uboost program in my classroom for a few weeks and my students really love it!! The results in my class have actually been really good! One thing on the uboost site that i found really helpful was that you can see how your class is doing in terms of understanding the material being read. You can do that by signing in under the teacher account, clicking the more option on the my reports, and performance skills. For example, I can see that my students are grasping the concept of main ideas, vocabulary, and recalling details, but not so much in the compare and contrast area. Since it's broken down that way, I can see exactly what areas they need help in!

I usually give my kids about an hour in class to read and take the quiz. If they don't finish, i give them the option of doing it at home on their own time. If you have any other tips on using the program, let me know! i'm always looking for shortcuts! :)