Impacts of Incentives on Struggling Readers

Abstract

Reading is a complex process that requires many skills in order to make meaning of text. Therefore, when children struggle to read, it is not a simple fix. This study examined what impact an incentive program had on third- through fifth-grade struggling readers’ motivation to participate in reading interventions and their perceptions of themselves as readers with the hope of increasing achievement and students’ motivation to read. The findings of this study showed that the incentive program increased students’ motivation to participate in the reading interventions but did not show significant improvement in students’ self-perception as readers. A third unexpected finding came about as a result of analyzing the pre-survey data. Struggling readers’ negative attitudes toward participating in a reading intervention were not communicated through responses on the pre-survey or were not as negative as initially believed to be by the teacher.