Beginning in elementary school, those students who struggle to acquire basic reading skills tend to demonstrate a stronger tendency towards task avoidance. As a result of their avoidant behaviors, students' reading ability progresses at a slower rate, which leads to further task evasion. The current study addressed task avoidance among struggling readers by fostering intrinsic motivation, learning goals, and malleable beliefs of intelligence. Participants consisted of twenty four students (ages 7 to 10) who attended a summer program to address their weaknesses in reading. Students were grouped by reading ability and assigned to either an intervention condition, that embedded evidence-based motivational strategies into two specialized reading curricula, the RAVE-O and Wilson Reading Programs, or a control condition that coupled the same reading curricula with incentives. In order to facilitate intrinsic motivation and learning goals, strategies were autonomy-supportive, illustrated the malleability of intelligence, emphasized the role of effort, strategy-use, and errors in the learning process, offered personally meaningful tasks, and in general, created a supportive community of learners. Outcome variables included assessments of reading ability, self-reports of motivation, measures of goal orientation, and classroom observations. Findings indicated that relative to the control participants, intervention participants decreased their frequency of disruptive classroom behaviors and task avoidance. These findings are discussed in light of related research, suggesting that reading instruction that develops autonomous learners and fosters a supportive learning community in addition to building skills results in the greatest outcomes. Teachers' experiences implementing the intervention are also addressed. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]