MOTIVATING STRUGGLING READERS IN MIDDLE SCHOOL THROUGH AN ENGAGEMENT MODEL OF CLASSROOM PRACTICE

Many struggling readers in middle school are disengaged from reading. In addition to low achievement, these students can have low motivation for reading. Many factors contribute to disengagement in middle school. Reading instruction is often disconnected from content, making reading tedious. Textbooks are formidable, and students are expected to respond to text with formal criticism or outlining rather than personal reactions. Middle school often shows an increase teacher control and a curtailment of student freedom, as compared to elementary school. Finally, students are too often removed from the social support of teachers and are expected to compete rather than cooperate with each other in reading. To provide support for engaged reading, middle school teachers can use six classroom practices: they can (1) construct rich knowledge goals as the basis of reading instruction, (2) use real-world interactions to connect reading to student experiences, (3) afford students an abundance of interesting books and materials, (4) provide some choice among material to read, (5) give direct instruction for important reading strategies, and (6) encourage collaboration in many aspects of learning. Using these practices creates a context for engagement in literacy learning.

[1]  A. E. Gottfried,et al.  Academic Intrinsic Motivation in Elementary and Junior High School Students. , 1985 .

[2]  Jacquelynne S. Eccles,et al.  The Development of Children's Motivation in School Contexts , 1998 .

[3]  Eileen Wood,et al.  Cognitive strategy instruction for middle and high schools , 1995 .

[4]  Carol Midgley,et al.  Perceptions of the school psychological environment and early adolescents' psychological and behavioral functioning in school: The mediating role of goals and belonging. , 1996 .

[5]  Elementary and Secondary Teachers' Reports of How They Make Learning Interesting , 1996, The Elementary School Journal.

[6]  J. Nichols,et al.  Cooperative Learning and Student Motivation. , 1994 .

[7]  C. Midgley,et al.  Transitions during early adolescence: Changes in children's domain-specific self-perceptions and general self-esteem across the transition to junior high school. , 1991 .

[8]  Lynley H. Anderman.  Classroom goal orientation, school belonging and social goals as predictors of students' positive and negative affect following the transition to middle school. , 1999 .

[9]  Paul R. Pintrich,et al.  Contextual differences in student motivation and self-regulated learning in mathematics, English, and social studies classrooms , 1998 .

[10]  Len Unsworth,et al.  Developing Critical Understanding of the Specialised Language of School Science and History Texts: A Functional Grammatical Perspective. , 1999 .

[11]  M. Roe.  Combining Enablement and Engagement to Assist Students Who Do Not Read and Write Well. , 1997 .

[12]  Scott G. Paris,et al.  Becoming Reflective Students and Teachers with Portfolios and Authentic Assessment. Psychology in the Classroom: A Series on Applied Educational Psychology. , 1994 .

[13]  P. David Pearson.  Handbook of reading research. , 1990 .

[14]  B. Herrmann.  DEVELOPING MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS’ READING AND WRITING ABILITIES THROUGH DIRECT INSTRUCTION AND MEANINGFUL AND AUTHENTIC LITERACY EXPERIENCES , 1995 .

[15]  Patricia Kowalski,et al.  Individual Differences in the Effects of Educational Transitions on Young Adolescent’s Perceptions of Competence and Motivational Orientation , 1992 .

[16]  Michael P. French.  Content Area Reading. , 1985 .

[17]  Jacquelynne S. Eccles,et al.  Negative Effects of Traditional Middle Schools on Students' Motivation , 1993, The Elementary School Journal.

[18]  Linda Blackford,et al.  Secondary School Reading. , 2002 .

[19]  Emily Anderson,et al.  Influences of Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction on Strategy Use and Conceptual Learning from Text , 1999, The Elementary School Journal.

[20]  Ann L. Loranger.  The Challenge of Content Area Literacy: A Middle School Case Study , 1999 .

[21]  Eric M. Anderman,et al.  Social Predictors of Changes in Students' Achievement Goal Orientations. , 1999, Contemporary educational psychology.

[22]  Thomas W. Bean,et al.  Intergenerational Conversations and Two Adolescents' Multiple Literacies: Implications for Redefining Content Area Literacy. , 1999 .

[23]  J. Nicholls,et al.  A place to begin (again) in research on student motivation: Teachers' beliefs , 1994 .

[24]  Eric M. Anderman,et al.  Declining Motivation After the Transition to Middle School: Schools Can Make a Difference. , 1999 .

[25]  C. Hynd.  Teaching Students To Think Critically Using Multiple Texts in History. , 1999 .

[26]  Allan Wigfield,et al.  Engagement and Motivation in Reading , 2000 .

[27]  Donna E. Alvermann,et al.  Fandom and Critical Media Literacy. , 2000 .

[28]  E. Deci,et al.  Intrinsic and Extrinsic Motivations: Classic Definitions and New Directions. , 2000, Contemporary educational psychology.

[29]  G. Ivey.  A multicase study in the middle school : Complexities among young adolescent readers , 1999 .

[30]  Edward W. Hootstein.  Motivational Strategies of Middle School Social Studies Teachers. , 1995 .

[31]  M. Covington,et al.  Teaching strategies that honor and motivate inner-city African–American students: A school/university collaboration , 1998 .

[32]  Robert E. Slavin,et al.  Cooperative Learning in Middle and Secondary Schools. , 1996 .

[33]  David W. Moore,et al.  Reinventing adolescent literacy for new times: Perennial and millennial issues , 2000 .

[34]  William D. Schafer,et al.  Contributions of Instructional Practices to Reading Achievement in a Statewide Improvement Program , 2000 .

[35]  Tim Urdan,et al.  Predictors of Middle School Students' Use of Self-Handicapping Strategies , 1995 .