District Administration - February 2008 - (Page 74)

ResearchCorner ESSENTIALS ON EDUCATION DATA and RESEARCH ANALYSIS Motivation and Reading By Carla Thomas McClure OTIVATION IS OFTEN cited as an important factor in students’ becoming proﬁcient readers. How does student motivation aﬀect the development of reading skills? And what can teachers do to tap into students’ motivation to read? The research on reading motivation is not robust enough to fully answer these questions, but recent studies oﬀer intriguing insights. Young Children Paul Morgan and Douglas Fuchs (2007) draw on a large body of research to explain the importance of early reading experiences. “Children who read frequently grow to become skillful readers,” they write. “Given suﬃcient print resources, how often a child reads is explained by two factors”—early success and motivation. The cycle of poor readers becoming poorer readers seems to begin as early as ﬁrst grade, according to some studies (Morgan, Fuchs, Compton, Cordray, & Fuchs, in press). For students who don’t master reading skills early, reading may become a painful experience. As a result, they may pass up opportunities for practice, putting themselves even further behind successful, motivated readers, who may be reading as much as three times more on their own time (Wigﬁeld & Guthrie, 1997; Powell-Brown, 2006). In 2007 Morgan and Fuchs reviewed the research on young children’s reading motivation. They focused on two well-established indicators: competency beliefs (children’s beliefs about their ability to read) and goal orientation (whether and why children want to be good readers). After examining 15 studies that met their criteria for relevance and rigor, the 74 February 2008 M professors found that reading skills and motivation correlate with and inﬂuence one another over time, but there was not enough evidence to say that one caused the other. Morgan and Fuchs note that motivation is a multidimensional factor that is hard to measure. They recommend targeting both reading skills and motivation. The need to address both is supported by recent analyses. The National Reading Panel reported in 2000 that systematic phonics instruction can beneﬁt K6 students and children with reading diﬃculties. However, the panel lamented that “few if any studies have investigated the contribution of motivation to the eﬀectiveness of phonics programs.” A 2004 study of ﬁve popular remedial reading programs indicated that the impact of motivation on struggling readers seemed to be largely ignored by the program developers (Quick & Schwanenﬂugel, 2004). Adolescents As students enter middle school, their motivation to read begins to decline (Aarnoutse & Schellings, 2003). To gain insights, a team of researchers led by Sharon Pitcher (2007) adapted the Motivation to Read Proﬁle for use with adolescent readers. Originally developed to assess the value elementary school students put on reading and their self-concept as a reader, it consists of a survey and a conversational interview. They administered it to 384 students in schools across the United States and interviewed 100 of the students. Discrepancies between survey and interview responses led to an intriguing discovery— teens who spent hours each week reading online content did not count these activities as “reading.” One student marked on his survey that he never read a book but mentioned during the interview that he read online magazines, hobby books, and stories written by friends. This discovery prompted the researchers to suggest that educators might improve students’ motivation to read academic content by incorporating into classroom instruction the multiple literacies that students engage in outside of school. Not surprisingly, choice emerged in the survey and interviews as a motivational factor. Numerous studies have found that students value having a say about reading materials, topics, and related assignments (e.g., Ivey & Broaddus, 2001). Survey results also suggest that secondary teachers should model reading enjoyment, use engaging activiDistrict Administration 7 Steps to Building a Context for Engaged Reading • Identify a knowledge goal and announce it. • Provide a brief real-world experience related to the goal. • Make trade books and multiple other resources available. • Give students some choice about the subtopics and texts for learning. • Teach cognitive strategies that empower students to succeed in reading these texts. • Ensure social collaboration for learning. • Align evaluation of student work with the instructional context (e.g., grade students for progress toward the knowledge goal). Source: Guthrie, 2001

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - February 2008

District Administration - February 2008
Contents
Editor’s Letter
Letters
News Update
Technology Update
Security Update
Virtual Schools Update
Curriculum Update
Inside the Law
District Profile
The “Other” Advanced Program
State of the Superintendency
Landing the Chief
Purchasing Security Products and Services
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
Speaking Out
Professional Opinion
Supervisor’s Opinion
Overheard on the Pulse
New Products
Problem Solution
Computer Literature
Research Corner
Calendar of Events
Products Showcase
Understanding the Times

District Administration - February 2008