Article Analysis

Upon reading chapter 6 of the book Developing Engaged Readers in School and Home Communities, the authors Baker, Afflerbach and Reinking make a convincing argument linking literacy in the classroom to motivation of children. This chapter of the book was to inform and give insight into the basic psychology of the motivation theory.
The main argument of the chapter was extremely clear although not directly stated - to inform parents, teachers, etc. of how to motivate children to be more literate. The argument was set up logically breaking down motivation into three aspects: challenge, choice and collaboration. Each aspect was thoroughly explained individually with numerous statistics and quoted studies to back up each assertion. To further support the claims of motivation theory, the authors even added quotes from the children that were apart of the studies. These quotes dealt with the purpose of the chapter, which was how to motivate children to become literate.
This argument is extremely convincing for a few reasons. First, it is easy to comprehend. Psychology is an incredibly hard topic to explain and the authors delivered what needed to be said without too many overbearing technical terms. The structure of the argument adds to the ease of comprehension. The authors first explain the problem(motivating children to be literate) and then give their argument(the tie to motivation). Next each facet of the motivation theory is explained, with a section of examples and the responses of the children. Second, the text is extremely appealing in the sense that one can relate to it. An argument is exponentially stronger when one can relate to what is being argued. Lastly, the end of the chapter came with "testimonials" from the children with statistics. This gave the argument a final realistic punch that drove the point home. When statistics and real life stories are added to the logic of an argument, the believability and validity of the article is increased.