One of the best ways to engage and motivate students is to apply learning to real-world situations or to associate the learning with something that students can identify with. The examples that follow have been used successfully in classrooms around the country and can be adapted for your subject and situation.
We learn through all of the intelligence styles, but we have certain learning preferences that are stronger than others. Choose strategies that support your student’s strongest learning preference when helping them with homework or studying.
Just as it is important to have the martial arts coach in the ring, encouraging, guiding and critiquing, it is important to have the academic "coach" in the classroom encouraging, guiding and critiquing, showing the way, but allowing the student to learn by experience, by doing, by being coached, and doing it again.
In the International Association of Library Associations and Institutions guidelines for easy-to-read materials, they detail the importance of making easy-to-read materials available to everyone. In most developed countries, 25 percent of adults do not reach the level of reading skill and fluency expected after nine years of formal education. “Easy-to-read” can include both materials that have been reformatted to be visually easier to read, materials that have been revised for easier to read content, and materials that combine the two methods.
Learning to be reading teachers 24/7 as students read to learn during reading and learn about reading during content areas. This is one of the 'hot' topics in literacy as we are beginning to better understand the power of reading instruction across all contexts.