School Reading Challenge Ideas and How to Run Them

A reading challenge is often the first thing a school tries when it wants pupils to read more. Many start well and fade within a month. The idea is rarely the problem. The format is chosen for how it looks on a poster, not for what it makes pupils do. This article is a catalogue of challenge formats. For each, it shows what it counts, which pupils it suits and how it can go wrong. It then covers rules, rewards and running a season from launch to close.

What makes a good school reading challenge?

A good school reading challenge gives every pupil a target they can reach at their own level, makes progress visible and counts real reading. It runs for a set period with a clear end and a fresh start. It offers choice in what to read. Rewards are small, and the praise is for the reading. Pick the format by what you want more of: breadth, regular reading, time with books or talk about them.

A challenge is not the same as a competition. In a challenge, pupils or classes aim at a target. In a competition, they aim to beat each other. Murayama and Elliot (2012) found no reliable overall effect of competition on performance. It helps people who aim to win and harms people who aim not to lose. A target to reach avoids that second goal. No study we found compares reading challenges with reading competitions directly, so treat this as reasoning.

If you want teams racing each other, see House Reading Competitions: Running One Inside Your School. This article is about the challenge itself.

What pupils need before any challenge works

Guthrie and Wigfield (2000) describe engaged reading as motivated, strategic, knowledge-driven and socially interactive. In their account, a reader who is intrinsically motivated, and who believes she is capable, will persist with difficult texts. A challenge can build that belief, or undermine it with targets a pupil cannot reach.

Gambrell (2011), writing for teachers, set out seven rules of engagement for reading motivation. Pupils are more motivated to read when:

• the reading is relevant to their lives;
• they have access to a wide range of reading materials;
• they have time for sustained reading;
• they can choose what they read;
• they can talk with others about what they read;
• they can succeed with challenging texts;
• incentives reflect the value and importance of reading.

Read the formats below against that list. A good format adds choice, talk or success. A weak one adds only a chart. For EFL pupils, success depends most on level, because a pupil can only choose freely among books they can read. How to Match Students to the Right Graded Readers covers that step.

Reading challenge ideas compared

The table sets out common formats. The 'Suits' column is a suggestion from practice, not a research finding. Any format can work at any age if the books are at the pupil's level.

Ask your pupils before you choose. Clark and Rumbold (2006) report a UK survey in which pupils picked activities that would make them read more. Designing websites or magazines, meeting authors and reading games were chosen most often. Rating books and writing book reviews were chosen least. Primary pupils were keener on most activities than secondary pupils. These were first-language readers in the UK, so ask your own pupils as well.

How to choose a format for your pupils

1. Decide what you want more of. Breadth points to bingo or a passport. Regular reading points to a streak or minutes. A shared goal points to a class target.
2. Check who could be left out. A pupil reading A1 stories must be able to fill a bingo square as quickly as a B1 reader.
3. Check that it counts reading. Every point should need a finished text and a light check, such as a one-sentence summary.
4. Look for choice. A format that tells pupils what to read is an assignment, not a challenge.
5. Look for talk. Formats in which pupils recommend or discuss books add one of Gambrell's (2011) rules at no cost.
6. Ask the pupils. Show them three formats and let them vote.

Class targets need one extra rule. Johnson and Johnson (2009) describe positive interdependence: each member reaches the goal only if the others reach it too. Their review covers more than 1,200 studies of cooperative, competitive and individual effort. A class target creates that link only if every pupil must contribute. 'The class reaches 300 stories, and every pupil finishes at least three' does. '300 stories' alone does not.

Rules that keep a challenge simple and fair

Keep the rule short enough to say in one sentence. 'One square for each book you finish and can tell me about' is a rule pupils remember. A weighted formula for length and difficulty looks fairer on paper. But pupils who cannot work out their own score tend to stop trusting it. That is advice from practice, not a research finding.

• Level the books, not the points. Let each pupil read at their own level, and give the same credit for a finished A1 story as for a finished B1 story.
• Make progress visible every week. A chart, a card or a passport that pupils can see grow.
• Set an end date. Run four to eight weeks, then close, celebrate and start again with a different format.
• Check lightly. A two-minute chat, one sentence about the story or a short quiz.
• Keep individual progress private if it could shame a pupil. Show class totals in public.

Prizes, certificates and recognition

Rewards need care. Deci, Koestner and Ryan (1999) analysed 128 experiments. Expected tangible rewards lowered people's later free-choice interest in a task, while positive feedback raised it. Tangible rewards tended to be more harmful for children than for college students. The analysis counted symbolic awards, such as 'good player' certificates, as tangible rewards. For children, these did about as much harm as toys or sweets.

That corrects a common belief that recognition is harmless because it is cheap. A certificate promised for taking part is still a reward promised in advance. Safer options:

• Praise that names what the pupil did as a reader: 'You finished a mystery and spotted the clue before the end.'
• Rewards that are more reading: choosing the class read-aloud, a book to keep, first pick of new library books.
• Recognition that comes after the challenge, not as the reason for it.

Gambrell's (2011) last rule says incentives should reflect the value of reading. Do Reading Certificates Motivate Students? looks at certificates in detail.

How to run the season: launch, middle and close

1. Launch. Explain the format in one sentence, show the display and give every pupil an easy first win in week one.
2. The first weeks. Update the display weekly. Notice pupils who have not started and help them choose a book.
3. The middle. Plan for a dip. Add a talk element, such as each pupil recommending one book to the class.
4. Close. End on the date you set. Celebrate the class total and the pupils who improved, not only the top readers.
5. After. Count how many pupils read in the four weeks after the end, with no reward on offer. Then start the next challenge with a different format.

A challenge is an event, and events work best where reading is already normal. How to Build a Reading Culture Across Your School covers that wider work. For a daily routine under the challenge, see How to Build a Daily Reading Streak in Your School.

How iRead handles this

In iRead, school packs run the same daily game inside one school, class against class and grade against grade. Every story, quiz and game is levelled to the CEFR. Badges unlock automatically as students play, in tiers, and track streaks, hint-free clears and mastery across games. Students also keep a Reading Passport, one record of their reading.

Key takeaway

Pick a format for what it counts, let every pupil read at their own level, keep rewards close to reading and end on a set date. Then see who is still reading a month later.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

1. Murayama, K., & Elliot, A. J. (2012). The competition-performance relation: A meta-analytic review and test of the opposing processes model of competition and performance. Psychological Bulletin, 138(6), 1035-1070. doi.org/10.1037/a0028324
2. Guthrie, J. T., & Wigfield, A. (2000). Engagement and motivation in reading. In M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal, P. D. Pearson & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of Reading Research, Volume III (pp. 403-422). Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. www.routledge.com/Handbook-of-Reading-Research-Volume-III/Kamil-Mosenthal-Pearson-Barr/p/book/9780805823998
3. Gambrell, L. B. (2011). Seven rules of engagement: What's most important to know about motivation to read. The Reading Teacher, 65(3), 172-178. doi.org/10.1002/TRTR.01024
4. Clark, C., & Rumbold, K. (2006). Reading for pleasure: A research overview. National Literacy Trust, London. eric.ed.gov/?id=ED496343
5. Johnson, D. W., & Johnson, R. T. (2009). An educational psychology success story: Social interdependence theory and cooperative learning. Educational Researcher, 38(5), 365-379. doi.org/10.3102/0013189X09339057
6. Deci, E. L., Koestner, R., & Ryan, R. M. (1999). A meta-analytic review of experiments examining the effects of extrinsic rewards on intrinsic motivation. Psychological Bulletin, 125(6), 627-668. doi.org/10.1037/0033-2909.125.6.627