Motivation, the drive that causes a person to do something, is necessary for learning to occur. It can derive from personality characteristics, an expectation of success, or incentives to succeed (Maggart & Zintz, 1992).

Intrinsic motivation is a natural, inborn desire to do something -- for example, to learn to drive a car for the independence a driver's license affords. Extrinsic motivation comes from the outside -- for example, expectation of a reward might motivate certain behavior. In the context of school, extrinsic motivation such as grades or awards are not inherent to the material actually being learned.

Research suggests that, for learning, intrinsic motivation is more powerful than extrinsic motivation, but extrinsic incentives might sometimes behelpful with those for whom motivation to read is not inherent (Lepper, 1983). Such incentives can take many forms. A desire to receive high grades can be an extrinsic incentive that leads to the creation of intrinsic motivation, as are social or material rewards (Ryan & Stiller, 1991). Social rewards -- including such things as notes to parents about a student's success, increased prestige among peers, reduction of homework, or increased time for social activities -- have been found to be more valuable for some students than material rewards, such as those often used in the Accelerated Reader program. If rewards of any kind are used in a school program, it is crucial that students have a reasonable expectation of success (Atkinson , 1964), truly value the rewards, and receive them frequently enough to sustain motivation (Bandura, 1969).

Another important element of any reward system, regardless of its particulars, is that it include specific feedback to students on a regular basis (Bandura, 1969; Kulik & Kulik, 1988). In response to postreading activities (including those that might follow SSR), feedback could involve comments such as

• “I like the way that you compared the main characters. It shows that you understand both the qualities that are unique to each and those that they share.”
• “I see that you are using your own life experiences to help you understand the motivations of the main character. ”
• “I can see that you are using the events in the story to understand the feelings of the characters. ”