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Motivating Comprehension in the Middle School

Insights From an Ongoing ProjectPeter Dewitz

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Reading A book is an object, a piece of property; the

act of reading is drawn forward by human attention and understanding . . . . Just as our gaze moves over words progressively (in advance and accumulation, scanning them, registering them, and determining meaning) so we are encouraged by the fact of the book to see, identify, grasp, and choose. Books teach us to talk, to think, to be literary; thus novels school us through the lives of characters. D.Thomson, 2004

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Movies The show [movies] turns over without us. We cannot

lay hands on it. Because it keeps moving on, we are under no burden to recognize, grasp, identify, and choose. We can let it wash over us, just as a voyeur need take no responsibility for the things he can see. And because our conscious decision-making power is less involved, so another part of ourselves emerges—passive, pliant, thrilled, fantasizing, drawn to witness wild, dangerous, impossible things, and to be thrilled by the rare advantage we have gained over physics, consequences, and damage.

D.Thomson, 2004

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Television . . . whereas attention is taken for granted at

the movies. . . It [television] is a mass medium, but one that permits inattention and indolence. Indeed, it may be as much a comforter as a communicator . . . Television suits a world that says sure, these things are happening, but you don’t have to notice them or ask why, there is no need to pay attention or take part. You need not be involved. And if you don’t like one channel, switch to another. Go back and forth. Become a random editing machine.

D.Thomson, 2004

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StrategiesStrategies KnowledgeKnowledge

MetacognitionMetacognition MotivationMotivation

The Facets of Reading Comprehension

Strategy Approach to Comprehension A strategy focus makes the skills and

strategies the major focus of instruction Students learn, through direct instruction, a

limited number of skills or strategies

Through guided practice the students will become proficient in the use of the strategies

During independent reading the students will refine the use of the strategies

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Strategy Approach to Comprehension

Strategies may be taught one at a time or as multiples

The amount of direct versus guided instruction varies

Examples: Super 6 Comprehension Strategies (Oczkus,

2006) Strategies that Work (Harvey & Goudvis,

2007 Numerous research studies

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Knowledge Approach to Comprehension

Understanding the meaning of the text is the goal, not the use of strategies

Discussions focus on understanding ideas; building connections within the text, getting to the author’s meaning

Texts are organized into meaningful units to build conceptual knowledge

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Knowledge Approach to Comprehension

Examples of knowledge based instruction Teacher lead discussions guide students

to construct an understanding Questioning the Author (Beck, McKeown, &

Kucan, 2000, 2010) Comprehension instruction is embedded

within meaningful units of study Concept Oriented Reading Instruction

(CORI) (Guthrie & Wigfield)

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Metacognitive Approach to Instruction

Instruction focuses on developing metacognitive behavior Planning, goal setting Monitoring, clarifying Evaluating

Metacognition cannot be divorced from strategies, but metacognition can receive a broad and sustained focus

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Metacognitive Approach to Instruction

Example of metacognitive approach to reading instruction Reciprocal Teaching (Palincsar & Brown,

1984; Oczkus, 2010) Reading Apprenticeship Program

(Schoenbach, Greenfeaf, Cziko, & Hurwitz, 1999)

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Motivational Approach to Comprehension Comprehension requires will and skill The goal is to promote the engagement of

the students with reading and encourage their sense of efficacy

Many aspects of motivation are considered in designing the comprehension curriculum

Strategies and knowledge are still important, but unless we address motivation students will resist a strategy only approach, especially in middle school

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Motivation

“Motivation is the individual’s personal goals, values and beliefs with regard to the topics, processes and outcomes of reading.” (Guthrie, et al., 2000)

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Motivation

“For thought is not the slave of impulse to do its bidding. . . . What intelligence has to do in the service of impulse is to act not as its obedient servant, but as its clarifier and liberator . . . Intelligence converts desire into plans.” Freud

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15(Wigfield & Guthrie, 1997)

Motivation and Efficacy Competence Beliefs - Am I a good reader?

I know I will do well in reading

Control Beliefs – I have some reading skills and I am able to

use them to improve my comprehension

Challenge I like hard projects; I enjoy it when books

make me think

Choice

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Reading Efficacy - Results

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Achievement Motivation

Competition I like to do well in class. I am willing to work hard to read better than

my friends

Task Value The work we are going is important to me I believe the assignments are important The strategies can help me improve my

reading

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Reader’s Goals Why do students engage in text-

based learning? Performance goals - get a good grade,

complete homework Learning or mastery goals - the task

becomes the goal - to gain knowledge or pursue an interest

Social Goals: School learning can promote social goals; social goals might promote or hinder school learning

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Extrinsic Motivation Grades

I read to improve my grade. Grades are a good way to find out how I am

doing. Points

I like earning points for my reading. Recognition

I like scoring more points than my friends I like having the teacher say I read well.

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Extrinsic Motivators

Grades – Authentic and long term motivators. Grades have meaning both within and outside the school.

Points and rewards – Short-term motivators. Little or no lasting value. Points have little meaning outside the system.

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Extrinsic Motivation - Results

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Intrinsic Motivation

Aesthetic enjoyment I like, mysteries, adventures, making

friends with people in the book

Reading Curiosity I read to learn new information

Importance Reading is important to me compared to

other activities I do

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Intrinsic Motivation

Topics that hold higher levels of interest generate higher levels of engagement for the student

Personal interest is enduring and is strongly related to self-image

Situational interest is fleeting and transitory,

and it can be generated by the teacher and the topic

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Intrinsic Motivation - Results

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Social Motivation Social relatedness versus alienation contributes

to motivation

Students in school have both social and academic goals sometimes they are in conflict

Social context, students and teachers, molds academic goals, interests and students’ self-perceptions

Goals exist in a hierarchical or complementary fashion

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Social Motivation

The literate behavior of family and friends influences students’ reading interests and actions Read to others – parents and siblings Talking to others about what your read Talking about books, authors, websites Helping others with reading projects

The literate environment of a classroom can have a similar effect

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Social Motivation

Interpersonal relationships effect motivation and attitudes Students respond and use strategies

when they perceive that the teachers care about them

Classroom treatment is equitable and fair

Peer group goals can be completely opposed to classroom goals

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Social Motivation - Results

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Motivation Conclusions

Motivation for reading declines from 6th to 8th grades

Girls remain more motivated than boys on most dimensions

Grades are a stronger motivator than are intrinsic factors

Efficacy and social factors exert minimal influence on motivation

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Comprehension Instruction withA Motivation Focus

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4 Motivational Factors for Designing Instruction

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IntrinsicIntrinsic EfficacyEfficacy

AchievementGoalsAchievementGoals

SocialSocial

Building Intrinsic Motivation

Reading instruction was organized into meaningful units created with an eye to students’ interests: Contemporary adolescent struggles and

coming of age themes Historical fiction – Holocaust, Civil War,

Harlem Renaissance Minority authors – Sharon Flake, Walter

Dean Myers, Sandra Cisneros

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Texts in the unit included

Mixture of fiction, non-fiction reading, digital text and video

Choice: Within unit students have limited choice of what they can read – explored in literature units

Wide reading beyond instructional texts with unlimited choice

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Activities in the unit

Video study to define topics and interests

Topic and text selections Reading and inquiry

Novels – Literature circles – strategy application

Internet searches

Projects

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Minimizing Extrinsic Motivation

Shift the focus from Accelerated Reader points to sharing and valuing literature Students spend one day a week sharing

what they read Librarian conducts book talks in the

classroom The focus on grades continues because

they are an enduring and not a temporary value.

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Building Students’ Efficacy

Efficacy comes from producing important products that students value

Understanding the impact on comprehension of using a limited set of strategies

Gaining self-knowledge about reading behavior and achievement

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Important Academic Goals

Instructional Goals / Products Must be personally meaningful to the

students and student selected Harlem Renaissance – music, dance, poetry

Products are diverse, represent multiple forms of representation Writing about concentration camps, the

resistance Building a Holocaust memorial Time-line collage of major events PowerPoint

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Limited Number of Useful Strategies

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Limited Number of Useful Strategies

Making inferences to build connections Between ideas in the text Between the text and prior knowledge

Focusing on what is important Text structure Summarizing

Self-Questioning to set purpose and evaluate purpose

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Strategy Instruction Students engaged in a revised form of

reciprocal teaching including: Working with partners to develop questions,

make inferences and summarize what was read Use their questions, inferences, and summaries

to guide the class discussion. Moved from this structure approach to literature

circles Students also kept reading journals where they

generated questions, inferences and summaries

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Building Students’ Efficacy

Metacognitive Log to Developing Self-Knowledge During independent and choice reading students kept

a Metacognitive Log

Students tracked How much they read How long they read Why they stopped reading

Teachers discussed the issues of building endurance

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Metacognitive Log

While I was reading: I got confused when . . . I was distracted by . . . I started to think about . . . The time went quickly because . . . A word/some words I didn’t know were . .

. I stopped because . . . I figured out that . . .

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Metacognitive Log- Examples I was confused when the text said, “the next

day, the letter came from Dad’s lawyer . . . “. That means that the story was a flash back. Joey and his mom are still in the car driving to his Dad’s house and he is thinking about other times she had used the word sugar.

I started to think about my baseball practice and whether I would make pitcher and then I lost track of the book and what the characters were doing.

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Fluency Instruction – Self-efficacy

Fluency practice was geared to students who needed it Students engaged in paired repeated

readings: 2 to 3 times a week Students kept track of their own progress

and graphed it Students periodically met with the

teacher or special education teacher to reflect on their progress

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Social Motivation

We encouraged the use of partners and small groups in the classroom instruction Students could choose who they work

with Made students responsible for each

other: Students received an individual and a group grade

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Social Motivation

Increased the amount of time that students, teachers and librarians shared books and authors Weekly day for sharing what they

read Developed a school wide reading

newsletter

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Results to date The total number of books in each grade is

increasing according to logs kept by the school librarian

The total number of students checking books out of the library increased

According to the metacognitive logs the students are able to read more and sit for longer periods of time

Teachers are reporting that more students are completing their assigned reading.

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Results to date Scores on district benchmark assessments are

improving: from November to March

Teachers report that students feel more confident in their reading ability

It is important to view the development of reading comprehension from 4 perspectives with motivation taking the lead. A singular focus on strategies might not be desirable.

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Contact Wigfield, A., & Guthrie, J. T. (1997). Relations of

children’s motivation for reading to the amount and breadth of their reading. Journal of Educational Psychology, 89, 420–432.

Units described in the project are available from

Peter Dewitzpdewitz@cstone.netpadewitz@mbc.edu434-981-1696

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