How do I find out what motivates my students to read?

Run the reading motivation check from your class's Motivation page: students answer 20 short statements about why they read, and you see the class's motivation profile next to what each student actually read and passed. It's built for grades 3 and up, and takes students three or four minutes.

1. In your class, click Motivation in the sidebar.
2. Click Start the fall check (or winter, or spring, depending on the date). Your students see a Reader check card on their dashboard (What kind of reader are you?) and click Find out.
3. Students answer one statement at a time, from Not like me to Just like me. Each statement has a Listen button that reads it aloud. When they finish, they see their reader type (like The Explorer or The Champion) and earn 1,000 points, once per check. After that the card leaves their dashboard; their reader type shows as one line on their reading report.
4. The Motivation page shows how many students have finished. When everyone's done, click Close check. Close it before you start the next one. If you close it too soon, click Reopen check; you can reopen your latest check while no other is open.
5. Read the results on the same page:
   • Marian's read: once every student has finished, or you close the check with at least five done, Marian writes you a short read of the results: what stands out, who to check in with and what to try. She sees students' answers and reading, never their names.
   • Class profile: your class's Intrinsic score (reading for its own sake: enjoyment, curiosity, challenge, confidence, importance) and Extrinsic score (reading for other people, recognition, competition, grades and because it's assigned). Each runs from 5 to 20. Below them, each of the ten factors is the class average from 1 to 4. The change since your last check counts only students who took both; small changes show as ≈, about the same.
   • What to try: ideas for what your class leans on most, compared with its other answers, and the reason to read for its own sake it leans on least, each linked to the Bookroo feature that fits, like a Class Clash for a competitive class.
   • Students: each student's reader type and scores beside the books they finished, quizzes they passed and challenges they completed in the 30 days before the check opened, and how they felt after finishing books (Book feelings). Says they love reading, logged little marks a student who rated enjoyment and curiosity high but logged half or less of the books your typical student did; it's skipped for students partway through a long book or new to the class, and in classes that log few books. Same answer to every statement means their scores may not mean much.

Run it three times a year to see change. The ten factors come from Wigfield and Guthrie's research on children's reading motivation; the statements are Bookroo's own. To read them all, click Show beside The 20 statements students answer at the bottom of the Motivation page.