Motivating Adolescents in Reading Comprehension

A challenge facing high school educators is that which includes motivating students to learn, helping students engage in their learning, and providing adolescents the tools that they can use in comprehending the many forms of texts that are presented to them. Many students have access to libraries and technologies yet they do not avail themselves to these services. A number of students have varying reading difficulties that are related to their inability to attend to most literacy activities, academic and non academic. Schools use standardized testing and other forms of assessments to identify literacy weaknesses in students. Schools provide services for students with learning disabilities, yet students continue to have learning difficulties. There are students who seem to lose their interest in reading after elementary school and continue to avoid reading through middle school. Unfortunately, this has an impact on student reading at the high school level. This study attempted to identify what factors motivate students to read as well as identifying methods in which to assist students in developing skills that will assist students in reading a variety of texts.