Teach Effectively!

My post about motivation and reading reminded me of the “can’ts-and-won’ts problem.” When a student doesn’t demonstrate some skill or knowledge, it’s sometimes hard to tell whether the student is unable or unwilling to demonstrate it. Is it a “can’t” or a “won’t?” How does one tell the difference?

Testing whether motivation is the critical ingredient—i.e., if it’s a “won’t”—is easy. Find a “reluctant reader.” Identify one or more rewards that the youngster finds highly motivating (e.g., a trip to an ice cream parlor, sponsoring a party for friends, $50, etc.). Tell the student she will earn that reward if she will just read aloud from a previously unseen book. The book should be one that requires real reading—no, reading pictures doesn’t count—and the child doesn’t even have to read the entire book (only a few score or hundred words, depending on the age of the student). The student just has to read the text reasonably accurately.

This simple test provides teachers with readily applicable diagnostic information:

1. For students who pass this test—that is, can read the material—we simply need to engineer the environment so that reading is rewarded.
2. For those who cannot read the material, even under optimal motivation, we have to provide effective instruction.

At the very least, we educators need to teach students how to read. Then they will have a choice about whether they want to read. Until we’ve taught them how to read, they have no choice. If you don’t know how to do something, you cannot choose between doing it and not doing it.