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What is Read-A-Difference?

Since 2010 the UVU Love of Reading Conference has brought educators, librarians, parents, and anyone interested in the celebration of books and reading to the Wasatch Mountains for a two-day conference. Their vision was to learn from each other, share best practices, hear from experts and the experienced, and to plan new ways to instill in children a love of reading that will last a lifetime.

In 2015 the same people who put on the Love of Reading Conference created Read-A-Difference as an opportunity to do research and take what we know about reading motivation directly into Utah schools. We have been working with teachers and providing resources to help teachers implement the practices of reading motivation ever since.

Children huddled in a circle smiling

Applying Reading Motivation:

  • UVU literacy and motivation faculty Work directly with a group of classroom teachers for a full-year in a professional development setting, sharing reading motivation practices and guiding the implementation of activities aligned with those practices.

  • Through generous donations, we are able to provide financial resources for teachers to purchase books for students to keep, classroom books and other resources for teachers to use in the classroom, and to plan and carryout a large incentive event focused on reading.

Research on Reading Motivation:

  • The Read-A-Difference Fellowship is an opportunity for us to learn from the teachers in the fellowship. We have the opportunity to observe, interview, and question what works with the implementation of reading motivation principles and practices. We use both qualitative and quantitative measures and share our findings through publications.

Sponsors

Marilyn & Lew Kofford