A Lot of Fat Kids Who Don't Like To Read

This was an article that really stuck out to me. Not only because it was short and easy to read, but because it was one that I felt I could really relate to. When I first started reading, I admittedly thought that the author didn't know what he was talking about. I thought "well my teachers used this type of reinforcement, and I think it got the job done". I also thought about my psychology 101 class where we learned how successful positive reinforcement could be.
As I read on I remembered the reading competitions we did in elementary school where we tried to finnish more books than the classroom next door in a given month. I also remember having the "caught being kind" awards given out. As I thought about the example of rewarding kids for doing nice thing, my thoughts shifted to when I worked at a daycare this past summer and we attempted to do a similar thing with the kids. What resulted was a bunch of kids running around all day pointing out to us how nice they were to Johnny or how they picked up their own toys after playing with them, pretty much defeating the point of being "caught" and going out of your way to do nice things.
So I started to realize what the author was talking about a little more. If we as educators are constantly offering rewards for things that we want kids to be doing, they will not only not recieve the bennefits of the actions we are encouraging, but they will not do the acts on their own, which is the whole point. Especially with reading, we want kids to enjoy the learning and new informationg, imagination, and excitement that comes with reading! We don't want kids to be focused on finishing a book to get their points on the chart but then forget the book a day later. Like the author said, the kids will "temporarily comply" and finish a few books, but the real goal should be for the kids to "tap into their natural desire to make sense of the world". We want our kids to enjoy reading and appreciate the value of learning through resources.
One other thing that I really like about this article was the part where the author asks teachers to focus on how their students are motivated (intrinsically or extrinsically). This ties in with getting to know your students and the ways that will best help them leran. The author aslo made a good point about it being our job as educators to produce engaging tasks involved in reading and learning so that school doesn't become boring, monotonous, and only important to kids if they get rewards.
Overall, I really liked this article. It made me think a little differently about how to get kids involved with reading and the ways that I was rewarded in school. I think we all can take away some good advice with this article.