With a success of 8,230 books read, the principal and top readers milked a cow while the whole school watched. This same principal also reinforced the effects of this contest by telephoning the homes of three or four students Sunday through Thursday evenings during the next month. He did this to find out if the students had either read independently or had been read to that night. A nice variation of this reward would be to take the students caught reading out for a hamburger with the principal the next day at lunch. You could set up your own schedule of nights to call and have your contest last one week, two weeks, or the whole month.
Teachers can utilize a variety of methods to motivate their students to read.
Videotape your students while they are reading aloud from a portion of a favorite book. Establish a good class library. Continually add to it and encourage its use. Do not forget to include books for varied interests and reading abilities. Read aloud to your class daily from good selections at the appropriate age level.