I became fascinated with nitrogen chemistry. So the way to understand that was to start reading chemistry books. So I got organic chemistry books and read as many as I could find.

James Bensinger (physicist):

I knew certainly as early as fifth grade that physics was what I wanted to do. So I did a lot of reading. You know, I read magazines and books and just spent a lot of time, just reading about physics.

These men and women were “turned on” to their topic, whether it was biology, physics, or psychology. Their imaginations took flight as they discovered their own interests and found books and hands-on activities that excited them. They pursued fields of interest that engaged their imagination so much that they experienced what Csziksentmihalyi calls flow — the exhilarating feeling of being carried away on a current. While reading, they were so engrossed that they seemed to “get lost” in good books. This total immersion based on involvement and enjoyment resulted in a loss of self-consciousness that was liberating and exciting, both intellectually and emotionally.”

It turns out that curiosity activates a network of areas in the brain that include memory centers, reward areas, and researchers found that study “participants showed improved memory for information that they were curious about and for incidental material learned during states of high curiosity…and highlight the importance of stimulating curiosity to create more effective learning experiences.” Dyslexic students as a group seem to be very curious learners (it goes hand-in-hand with creativity), so placing a priority on high interest can make everything work more productively. Dyslexic students also tend to be high conceptual, so starting with an interesting question or concept first, then diving into reading can improve reading comprehension more than any step-by-step reading plan.

Research from classrooms also supports just how important intrinsic motivation is boosting reading comprehension.  The CORI approach (Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction) exposes students to the [embedyt] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Yi5UfDeY1k[/embedyt]concepts behind non-fiction reading before in-depth reading takes place.

Activities that help Concept-Oriented Reading:

– Hands-on Activities
– Information Books
– Subtopics for investigation
– Frequent reading
– Questioning
– Collaboration

For general tips on encourage kids to read, check out the Tips article below.