Veteran teacher Rachel Harbison used vivid stories to involve kindergartners in sociodramatic play to motivate reading acquisition. Children learned through staged events that a mischievous Word Queen had planted "tricks" in the alphabet (i.e., the irregularities in English spelling) to prevent children from learning to read. The…

This mixed-methods research study focuses on students', teachers', and parents' perceptions of the influence therapy dogs in schools can have on reluctant readers' attitudes about reading and motivation to read at school and at home as well as exploring changes in the participants' oral fluency. Eight student participants read to our school…

Choice and interest have long been linked to motivation for learning to read and write; however, designing instruction with authentic premises for young children that harness these motivators can prove challenging. In this teaching tip, we describe one kindergarten classroom's experience engaging in Genius Hour, in which children were supported to…

The purpose of this meta-analytic review was to investigate the relation between motivation and reading achievement among students in kindergarten through 12th grade. A comprehensive search of peer-reviewed published research resulted in 132 articles with 185 independent samples and 1,154 reported effect sizes (Pearson's r). Results of our…

Although little attention has been paid to primary-age children's reading motivation in comparison to older readers, one disturbing trend has been repeatedly observed: reading motivation generally declines across the early elementary years. Given that children's perceptions of school experiences shape motivation, and motivation impacts…

In the action research project report, the teacher researchers found that many kindergarten and first-grade students did not have the reading readiness skills to be reading at their benchmark target. The purpose of the project was to improve the students overall reading ability. The dates of the project began on September 8 through December 20,…

As a part of the teacher licensure program at the graduate level at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC), the M.Ed. Licensure candidate is required to complete an action research project during a 3-semester-hour course that coincides with the 9-semester-hour student teaching experience. This course, Education 5900 Culminating…