Recently I have come across students in the upper primary years struggling with motivation concerning reading for comprehension rather than reading just to finish the text. This idea may sound very simple, like don't we all read to understand? Well, no, not always, reading for understanding and to then apply the knowledge is a learned skill and a very complex one also. It requires the reader to have the motivation to understand what they are reading, and the best way I have found to give this to students is through purpose. Giving students purpose and goals that they understand and feel are achievable; this is essential in this recipe to success.
I have the honor of working with a very bright girl who has the ambition to become a successful lawyer, and boy does she have the big bright personality to succeed in this role. However, she was finding it difficult to get motivated about reading a particular text; this is not uncommon for students and even adults! Sometimes as was, in this case, we forget why we read and the skills that we are attaining as we do read. In a reading conference with this student, I was able to give her purpose in her reading and break down the skills she would be developing studying the text and how that applied to her success as a lawyer. You see sometimes we need purpose, motivation, and understanding to drive our reading to the next level.
There are many ways to make reading exciting and relevant, and I believe as educators it's our role to find the means to be excited and be creative! Children have so much imagination and creativity that is just waiting to come into play!