teaching - How to motivate students to do readings

I am planning on teaching a couple of math-y classes next semester that will involve a large amount of in-class group work and discussions, and relatively little lecturing. There will be required outside reading for almost every class (3x/week), but as I am at a large public university where student work habits are not generally great, I am worried about making sure students stay up on the reading for each class. Also, the students will probably not be in the habit of doing reading for math classes.

Currently, to encourage students to stay up-to-date on the readings, this is what I am thinking of doing:

1. Use books that are relatively easy to read and hopefully interesting for the students (closer to popular books than textbooks when possible), and try to make each individual reading assignment short.


2. Give simple quizzes on the reading once a week or so



3. Generally try to make sure the in-class activities are closely related to the assigned readings.

Are there any other effective techniques that would help encourage students to stay current on the reading?

Note: while I want them to read certain things before each class period, I do not want to give a reading quiz every class period.

Answer

I require students to fill out a short summary sheet of the reading prior to the start of class for classes with small group work based on required reading. The summary sheet looks something like a structured abstract of the reading. In total it is less than 200 words of writing. I make my summary sheet available after the class. Based on feedback, the students like the sheets since they help them in reviewing for the exams. It also helps them gauge differences between what I think is important and what they think is important.

I divide the class into groups based on if the students have completed the sheet or not. Generally, I tell students to go to one side of the room if they have completed the sheets and the other side if they have not. I and the students can then quickly visually inspect the sheets to see if they are completed or empty. The groups of students who have completed the sheet get to work on the group activity, for which having the sheet is useful. The groups of students who have not completed the sheet work on the sheet and if time allows work on the activity. I make it a point to reassign students if the sheet is filled out with nonsense.