KStockton, strategies for motivationg readers

I teach 3^rd grade at an elementary school. At the third grade level, many students have just mastered the art of reading and are ready to start reading to learn. Granted, there are a few students who are below grade level, and they are continuing to learn to read. At my school, we Walk to Read (Response to Intervention) and each child is placed within a reading group at their own ability level. They receive instruction for 60 minutes, whether it is challenging or intervention work. They also receive 30 minutes of whole group instruction from our adopted reading curriculum. We moved away from literature-based/unit plans when we adopted the reading program; however, those students who are at benchmark or advanced do complete novel studies as a way to challenge them. This is the group that I have worked with the most during my years at the 3^rd grade. During this RTI time, we will complete book reports, novel studies, research projects, fluency plays, and more creative writing. All of these things have proven to be very motivating for students at this grade level. Last year, I dabbled in the CAFÉ model for reading, but the time constraint and number of students in the class-38, proved to be the reasons for this model being unsuccessful.