Reading Strategies

I'm sharing a strategy that I'm using with one of my struggling readers. I hope some of you will find it useful!

One of my students LOVES reading but she also LOVES to guess the words, which she is really great at. I was finding that she was "reading" the words while making direct eye contact with me. I was constantly reminding her to cover the word and sound out the letters one at a time. She really didn't like me telling her to sound it out, and often got frustrated.

So, today I told her we'd be playing a reading "game". I gave her five stickers and told her that every time she guessed a word, I would steal a sticker. I wouldn't take a sticker if she attempted to sound out a word and got it wrong. However, if the word is "tree" and she says "ball", then I would remind her to look at the first letter for a clue and then take a sticker. She really loved the idea and she was REALLY motivated to sound out the word instead of guessing.

You could differentiate this by giving students more or less stickers, depending on their reading level or how easily they get frustrated. If they're not into stickers, something small like gum or iPad minutes could also work!

Bookopoly

I have been on a bit of a gamification kick lately, especially since I am just finishing up a big inquiry project on the topic for my course right now. If you are interested in reading more about gamification, this is a link to a bunch of articles I collected during my research:
https://www.diigo.com/outliner/7fthyf/Gamification?key=btmqbfhx0

My latest creation is a board game that I have dubbed Bookopoly (which apparently is actually a thing...so much for being creative!) As you might notice, it is designed to look like the classic game of Monopoly.  My students have been struggling with their AR reading this year, and it has been really hard to motivate them to read their books. Hopefully engaging them in a fun game will help kick their reading into high gear! One important aspect of this game is that it is designed to allow students of all reading levels to be successful!

Click on me to see the property tile template

On my Bookopoly board, each property tile is named after a location in a kids book (well, mostly anyway!), and has a specific XP value assigned to it. Just like Monopoly, they get more expensive as you go around the board. The idea is that students will earn XP points by doing different reading tasks, and then will be able to buy properties on the board with their XP points. They can also upgrade their properties by purchasing houses and castles. To make it even more fun, students will also try to earn a variety of badges. Badges can be earned for a bunch of different achievements, from reading a graphic novel to buying your first house. 

The descriptions of the badges can be found here if you are interested. 

Below is a table of achievements and the corresponding XP points students can earn. 

But of course, there has to be some way to track the XP points that students are earning and spending, so welcome Math outcomes into the equation! Students will be responsible for tracking their income and spending on a sheet, pictured below, keeping a running total of the amount of XP they currently hold. 

Students will be given a booklet that includes sheets to record their properties, collect their badges, as well as their XP bank logs. Hopefully this helps with our AR issues this year!!!