Reading

Discover how to motivate kids to read

Are you a parent of teenager who doesn’t like reading?

You’ve tried everything to motivate kids to read…from encouragement to consequences, but your child still avoids reading, or refuses altogether. It’s not that they don’t care. It’s that reading has slowly become a place of failure for them. In this post, we’re talking honestly about why older kids lose reading motivation, and offering tips on how to motivate kids to read.

Education Week Article

Education Week recently published an article that really mirrors what I see in my tutoring practice. It’s titled “Secondary Students Are Struggling With Reading, Too. A Look at the Landscape.” It’s a powerful reminder that reading struggles aren’t reserved for younger kids.

The article shares that 58% of educators (teachers and administrators) reported that 25% or more of their middle- and high-school students have difficulty with basic reading skills. (Education Week)

Here are the major take-aways:

The problem is widespread. As the article notes, more than half of the surveyed educators said that a quarter or more of their secondary students were struggling with basic reading skills.
Two major factor they point to: motivation and fluency. Lack of motivation was considered a top reason that older students struggle to read. Almost 20% of teachers mentioned students’ limited fluency (reading too slowly, and not automatically.)
Part of the fluency issue revolves around longer words that show up in science, history and math vocabulary.
Ironically, reading supports drop off in the secondary years. Almost 40% of teachers received no training on how to remediate older struggling readers.

So students are struggling to read, they aren’t reading automatically, and we wonder why they aren’t motivated to read! Taking this a step further, older struggling readers don’t magically catch up as time passes. In fact, they need targeted support and face unique challenges. Learning how to motivate kids to read can’t happen at this point. But it can happen with the right structure. So if you’re wondering how to motivate kids to read, don’t worry, I share tips later in this post.

How Older Students Are Different

Let’s pause and think about how older students who struggle with reading are different.

Higher stakes and academic demands: In middle and high school students are asked to do far more reading of complex texts, across a wide range of subjects (social studies, science, literature). The vocabulary is more advanced, and the sentences more complex. The article highlights that secondary schools expect students to “use their reading muscles in unique ways.” But many of these kids have been raised on a literary diet of fast food and don’t have much reading muscle.
Psychological/emotional layer: Older students may feel embarrassed or ashamed to admit that reading is hard. Reading motivation will dip if they see themselves as behind. They start to think that reading is not for them. Yes, the article mentions lack of reading motivation as a big reason, but honestly, a lot of information needs to be unpacked in order to motivate kids to read.
Decoding and fluency issues persist: One might assume that by middle school students have basic decoding down but that isn’t the reality.
Fewer supports: Unlike younger grades where reading intervention is common, older students have less to no intervention time. There are fewer screening assessments, and fewer staff dedicated to helping address reading issues in older students.
Need for age‐appropriate materials and engagement: An older student reading a picture‐book or a children’s short passage may feel disconnected, and unmotivated. Their interests, identity, and peer concerns are different from 6 year olds. So the way we teach older struggling readers must reflect their age, their interests, and their identity as adolescents.

I mention all of this as we need to understand the issues before we can determine how to motivate kids to read.

Helping Older Students Read

You may know that I’m a dyslexia tutor, and I focus on middle school and high school students who struggle with reading. I like to think the older students get my sarcasm but there really are several reasons for this focus:

I believe it’s never too late to become a better reader. The brain can change and skills can grow. I recently tutored a student who had already graduated from high school. By the end of 6 months (through an intensive 3-4 lessons per week) she gained 6 grade levels in reading. She had never been taught to decode. She fell between the cracks because she had memorized quite a few sight words.
Because age matters: the materials must be age-appropriate. That means I choose texts that match their maturity level — not baby‐texts, not irrelevantly easy material that feels demeaning. Let’s face it, a 16-year-old doesn’t want children’s stories. They need materials that honor their age, interests, and identity.
The focus of the lessons changes. There is more emphasis on fluency, vocabulary, decoding multisyllabic words, reading volume, engagement, and reading motivation. For older students, reading more widely is important — but if they’re stuck in slow decoding they’ll get frustrated so it needs to be supported.

In addition to the points above, students need to shift their mindset. Instead of “I should read better by now” we shift to “I can get better.” It’s that shift that unlocks possibilities and needs to happen before we can figure out how to motivate kids to read.

3 Tips To Motivate Kids To Read

If you’re a parent of a middle or high schooler who’s struggling with reading, here are some things you can do to motivate kids to read:

Talk openly about reading challenges.
Let your child know you see them, you believe in their potential, and you’re in this together. Acknowledge it’s not easy, but it is possible to get better with hard work.
Choose materials together that respect their age and interests.
Let go of feeling that they must “start back at children’s books.” Choose articles, short novels, graphic novels, teen-interest nonfiction. Help find things they want to read. You can even use AI to create reading passages around their interests.
Keep reading.
Encourage daily reading. Older readers still benefit from building reading stamina, exposure to vocabulary, and seeing themselves as readers even if it’s only 10-15 minutes a day. Have them read to you, so you know if there are fluency and decoding issues. You can help by:

- Pre‐teaching key vocabulary (especially subject-area words if they’re reading non-fiction).
- Use repeated reading: have them read the same passage 2-3 times, to build speed and confidence.
- Model reading: read aloud together to build automaticity.

As you learn to motivate kids to read, you figure out which tips work for you and your child. The book Know Better, Do Better by Meredith & David Liben. shares what they did to create a school where all students could read. In the sixth grade, the school had an influx of local students from other elementary schools with week fluency skills.

The book has an entire chapter on what they did to improve fluency by addressing accuracy, rate (speed), and expression (prosody). For older readers who struggle, this trifecta is still hugely relevant. If they’ll read accurately, with faster pace (but not rushed), and with expression, their comprehension improves and their confidence grows. Their basic insight:

Accuracy means reading the words correctly. The only way to assess this is to have your child read out loud.
Rate means reading at a speed that allows meaning to be grasped. It cannot be so slow that the working memory forgets the earlier words; nor can it be so fast they gloss over meaning).
Expression means reading with natural phrasing and emotion that shows that you understand what you’re reading.

Even though the book is often cited for K-8 reading, the fluency chapter speaks directly to older struggling readers. The better a child reads, the more motivated they’ll be.

It's Never Too Late

If your child is in middle school or high school and you are investigating how to motivate kids to read, this is not a hopeless situation. Far from it. Yes, the demands are higher, the challenges real, but your child can grow as a reader. You can help them become a stronger, more confident reader. Age does not lock you into being behind forever. As I say in my dyslexia tutoring practice: the brain remains plastic, skills can improve, an identity can shift.

Remember: improvements might feel slow at times. But small consistent steps add up. Ten minutes of reading today, a fluency check tomorrow, a discussion the next day all compound.

To every parent reading this, you are the key piece to your child’s reading motivation. Your belief in them, your patience, and your partnership matters. Choose to move forward, even when the steps feel small.

Choose to Read. Choose to Grow. Choose to Believe.

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