Observing reading in the classroom

I have been observing at Irion County ISD. I observe a sophomore U.S. History class and an eighth grade social studies class. In the sophomore class nobody ever reads out loud. Instead, they all read to themselves and do the worksheets by themselves. This leads to certain students finishing a lot sooner than others and then having nothing to do but sit down at their desks and be quiet. The students that take longer on the assignment are taking longer to read the passage as well as the questions. They also have to ask more questions than the students that read quicker and finish sooner. However, in the eighth grade social studies class they take turns reading their sections out loud. The teacher will choose a student to read then tell them when to stop and he picks someone else to start reading. I have only observed twice but each time the students are motivated so much that they are volunteering to read out loud and asking him to choose them. Once they have read together they answer questions by themselves then discuss their answers with each other to ensure everyone has the right answer when it’s all over with. The students really get involved and they seem to take a lot away from the lessons. This past Friday the students answered questions before they read, about what they thought the statements meant. They were reading a letter written by a southerner right before the election of Abraham Lincoln. They discussed what they thought each extracted statement meant then read the letter together out loud. Each student got to answer a question out loud about what the statements actually meant once they were able to put everything in context. They also read passages about major politicians during the Civil War. They split into groups of three and each group read about one individual politician. When they finished reading they had to state the main points of the paragraph. Then the class as a whole filled out a Venn diagram comparing the three politicians. The students really seemed to enjoy this. I look forward to learning how the teacher motivates them to enjoy reading as much as they do. I have looked online for different ways to motivate students to read and there are twenty-five great ideas on how to motivate students of different ages  at http://www.educationworld.com/a_lesson/lesson/lesson035.shtml.