Developing Intrinsic Motivation for Kriah Success

Kriah is one of the foundational skills of textual learning. There is a lot parents can do to help their child's development of Kriah in the younger years.

One of the keys that is overlooked in Kriah development is the role of intrinsic motivation. Intrinsic motivation pushes children to learn and the superior factor that fosters success. Intrinsic motivation is what opens the brain and connects the neural networks. 

The information below applies to other areas of learning such as English reading as well including adult career/life skills. However, being that Kriah is a foundational skill of Torah learning and Judaism, this is most critical.

Intrinsic motivation is easily misunderstood and can appear difficult to develop on the surface, especially for Kriah. Understanding what intrinsic motivation is and how it gets nurtured will make it easier for a parent to foster Kriah success both in the classroom and in the environment at large at non class settings.

Intrinsic motivation actually begins at birth when oral language begins developing. Exposure to oral language and interaction with oral language is the first step. The critical time of intrinsic motivation happens during the toddler/preschool years when print awareness develops.

Print awareness is when a child understands that printed material such as books, signs, words etc carry a message that is meaningful and relevant. One of the best ways to develop this is to read stories to children at this age on a nightly basis or at least most nights and specifically pointing to the text while reading. The stronger the awareness of print, the stronger the desire to learn the skill of reading. Even the predestined dyslexic can develop more neural networks for reading and achieve success during the critical time, minimizing the amount of remediation needed and potentially altogether.

The above is at the preparatory stage. During formal instruction, intrinsic motivation develops in two part process which requires intention. 

1. Meaningful Reading

Children need to see relevance and meaning in why they are learning decoding. This can be tricky at first for children who are learning how to decode Lashon Hakodesh but don't speak it naturally. Despite the challenges, when some of the words chosen for reading have meaning this has an effect. Implementing this means spending the time to explain what some of the words mean (obviously sporadically, otherwise it will become too tedious) and if possible, using curriculum that is sensitive to use words whose meaning is commonly known. Kriah books and worksheets that have pictures for some of the Kriah words in their activities is also helpful in this regard.

Once the child has learnt basic decoding, practice needs to be maintained through meaningful text such as Torah learning texts and/or decodable readers (Reading Tehillim alone doesn't cut for this).

2. Guided Instruction

To reach the overall goal of intrinsic motivation through meaningful reading requires support tools to guide students 'how to get there'. This is called guided instruction. Guided instruction scaffolds children through each step of the decoding process. Children decoding words step by step, part by part, before connecting the dots is part of guided instruction. Worksheets that visually show this on the page and curriculums which go in that order make it easier to implement this process. Breaking up individual words letter by letter, syllable by syllable or isolating letters and nekudos are examples of guided instruction.

Intrinsic motivation doesn't replace the need for parents (and teachers for that matter) to create structure, set rules and to discipline. However, structure, discipline and rules need to be accompanied with the understanding that children 'buying in' and developing an intrinsic motivation to learn Kriah enhances the chances of success infinitely greater.

Admittedly, intrinsic motivation does require intention, patience and persistence from parents but the payoff later is exponential.

Rabbi Adelist is the founder of Torah For Children www.torah4children.com, publishers of Seder Kriah as well as core textual learning products in Chumash and Gemara. He can be contacted at admin@torah4children.com or at 3477436132.