As a reading tutor for second graders for several years, I’ve learned that you need a lot of approaches to hook the reluctant reader. A few of my tried and true “tricks” included having them make up a story that I write down, they illustrate, and then read back to me; getting two or three kids together and we all take turns reading a 1/2 page or so; and asking the child to tell me the story from the illustrations and then pick out the hard words for which we then made flash cards.
I was so happy to discover a blog post from award-winning, former teacher Laura Candler where she shares 12 ways to motivate reluctant readers. Check it out here.