Student Teaching...End of Week One

Well, I have just completed my first week of student teaching. This more or less consisted of observing what was going on and doing a bit of work with small groups of students. This was an interesting week. I realize with some of these classes I will have an uphill battle in terms of behavior and getting them to complete their work in a timely matter, actually just to complete their work period. 

The students I will be working with are rather reluctant to complete the work especially the reading assignments. Being that it is an english class the reading assignments tend to be very important. I know that I will not be able to change that behavior in all of them, but I am hoping that I will at least be able to teach them the importance of reading for a grade as well as in life. 

Next week I get to start taking over one of the classes that I will be teaching over the course of the next few months. I will be taking over a class with 12 students. Of all of the classes they will be the most challenging in terms of getting them to do the homework. This class seems to be a group of students that want to do just enough to get pass and nothing more. I want to find a way to motivate them to do their work. If anyone can give me any ideas or advise on how to tackle the the motivation issue or just for student teaching in general, please send it my way.