Get ready for reading comprehension exercises with Reading Karate! Your students will chop through books at their level to become a Black Belt reader.
Motivation to read is a key issue for struggling readers: these kids need a reason to read, one that THEY feel is worthy. Sometimes the simplest of rewards can be the barrier-breaker for those hard to reach students.
Reading Karate takes students from being a white belt reader that only reads picture books and responds to a favorite part, to becoming a Master of Reading where they achieve a black belt through reading 10 books, retelling the story and presenting it to the class.
Martial arts and reading? Oh yes. Kids love it.
You just provide the books (leveled library) and let Reading Karate do the rest.
Do you want your students to beg you to let them read?
Are your students motivated to read more?
Do your students want to read many different genres and types of texts?
If they don’t, then using Reading Karate as part of your balanced literacy lessons will change that!
Struggling Readers Need to Read More
That’s not news to anyone, but we often forget that simple rule of life: to get better at something you have to practice it. And let’s face it, we only put effort into practicing something we like to do.
No child wants to practice something they don’t enjoy – I don’t either. But sometimes just that little extra something is all kid needs to make him excited to grow as a reader.
Reading motivation research identifies 4 key factors in getting our students to read more:
- Allowing choices in reading material
- Providing modeling of text and allowing oral discussion
- Providing balanced books: a blend of informational and fiction
- Rewards for engaging in literacy behaviors
Reading Karate hits all of these, as well as the two most defining indicators of reading success:
- a child’s competency belief (how good of a reader a child thinks he or she is)
- goal orientation (does a child want to become a good reader and why)
How Does Reading Karate Work?
- Each student gets a “karate” boy or girl (you can buy sturdy ones or copy/cut)
- After they decorate them, hang them up in the hall
- The students start earning their white belts by reading picture books (remember that you have to use the books from your leveled library so prepare in advance)
- As students read, do their work and earn their belts, have them attach the belts to their “karate kid”
- Set aside time every day for independent reading – they will ask for it!
I have never seen my students so eager to read as they are during Reading Karate.
The kids absolutely cannot wait to get to the next belt level and show the entire school how they are mastering their reading skills (they don’t even recognize that they are actually doing fluency activities because they are having too much fun!).