University of South Carolina Scholar Commons Theses and Dissertations Spring 2019 What Is the Impact of Utilizing an Authentic Study of an Author’s Life and Literary Works to Increase Students’ Motivation to Read in a Third Grade Gifted and Talented Classroom? Cherie B. Salem Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarcommons.edu/etd Part of the Curriculum and Instruction Commons Recommended Citation Salem, C. What Is the Impact of Utilizing an Authentic Study of an Author’s Life and Literary Works to Increase Students’ Motivation to Read in a Third Grade Gifted and Talented Classroom?. Retrieved from https://scholarcommons.edu/etd/5212 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you by Scholar Commons.
It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact digres@mailbox. WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF UTILIZING AN AUTHENTIC STUDY OF AN AUTHOR’S LIFE AND LITERARY WORKS TO INCREASE STUDENTS’ MOTIVATION TO READ IN A THIRD GRADE GIFTED AND TALENTED CLASSROOM? by Cherie B. Salem Bachelor of Arts University of South Carolina, 1992 Master of Education Lesley University, 2003 Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Education in Curriculum and Instruction College of Education University of South Carolina 2019 Accepted by: Peter Duffy, Major Professor Rhonda Jeffries, Committee Member Yasha Becton, Committee Member Jin Liu, Committee Member Cheryl L.
Addy, Vice Provost and Dean of the Graduate School © Copyright by Cherie B. Salem, 2019 All Rights Reserved. ii DEDICATION I dedicate this study to my family and friends who have believed in me since day one of beginning this educational journey. I also dedicate this study to all the students and educators who have inspired me over my twenty-five years of teaching.
iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS To begin I would like to thank God for giving me the ability to go through this humbling and enriching process. I would like to acknowledge Dr. Janet Files of the Coastal Area Writing Project who taught me how to look at teaching reading and writing differently. I would also like to acknowledge Dr.
Virginia Simmons for inspiring me to learn more about teaching gifted students. Finally, I would like to acknowledge Dr. Jeanne Cobb, for seeing something in me and giving me an opportunity to teach my first literacy class to pre-service teachers at the collegiate level and to conclude, Dr. Duffy for always being so encouraging throughout the dissertation writing process.
iv ABSTRACT This Dissertation in Practice (DIP) utilizes action research methods to answer the question of: What is the impact of utilizing an authentic study of an author’s life and literary works to increase students’ motivation to read in a third grade gifted and talented classroom? Through intentional questioning and inquiry, the following Chapters provide justification of the Problem of Practice (POP), why students who have the ability or will to read, do not have the motivation or desire to read. Does this negative attitude toward reading begin through literacy curriculum taught in our schools today? Literacy curricula in schools today do not foster the affective elements of reading: attitude, desire, and motivation. Instead most literacy programs are scripted, fast paced, data driven, and are mandated by states or districts. Through the action research cyclical process, quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed concurrently through a Mixed Method Triangulation design.
Based on the results of the action research study, third grade Academically Gifted and Talented students seemingly demonstrated an increase of affective elements (attitude, desire, and motivation) in reading through the implementation of an author study, v TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………………iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………iv ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………v LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………………………….xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION…………………………………………………………1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM…………………….10 ACTION RESEARCH METHODOLOGY………….11 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY……………………………………………….12 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION……………………….13 GLOSSARY OF KEY TERMS………………………………………………….14 CHAPTER 2: REVIEW OF LITERATURE…………………………………………….17 vi PURPOSE OF LITERATURE REVIEW…………………………………….20 TRANSACTIONAL READING THEORY………………………………….23 HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES IN READING………………………………24 ALITERACY………………………………………………………………….24 TRADITIONAL READING PRACTICES ………………………………….30 ACCELERATED READING PROGRAM……………………………………31 GIFTED LEARNERS AND LITERARY NEEDS….32 AUTHENTIC LITERACY PRACTICES …………………………………….48 ROLE OF THE RESEARCHER………………………….48 ACTION RESEARCH VALIDITY……………………….50 vii RESEARCH SITE……………………………………………….53 DESIGN OF THE STUDY…………………………………………………….53 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS………………………………………………56 POTENTIAL WEAKNESSESS……………………………………………….57 SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES……………………………………………………58 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION………………………………………….61 CHAPTER 4: IMPLICATIONS AND FINDINGS…………………………………….63 OVERVIEW OF STUDY………………………………………………….63 INTERVENTION………………………………………………………………66 DATA COLLECTION STRATEGY………………………………………….71 GENERAL FINDINGS/RESULTS…………………………….75 DATA ANALYSIS AND REFLECTION…………………………………….87 CHAPTER 5: DICUSSION/CONCLUSION……………………………………….89 DISCUSSION AND OVERVIEW…………………………………………….99 APPENDIX A: PARENT AND STUDENT CONSENT LETTER……………………107 APPENDIX B: RESEARCH PROPOSAL FOR SCHOOL DISTRICT ………………109 APPENDIX C: READING ATTITUDE SURVEY……………………………………113 APPENDIX D: MOTIVATION TO READ PROFILE-REVISED…………………….115 APPENDIX E: STUDENT READING LOG………………………………………….119 APPENDIX F: ROALD DAHL LITERARY RESPONSE QUESTIONS…………….120 APPENDIX G: STUDENT AUTHOR JOURNALS…………………….121 APPENDIX H: PARENT SURVEY QUESTIONS……………………………………123 APPENDIX I: ANONYMOUS STUDENT SURVEY QUESTIONS…………………124 APPENDIX J: EXAMPLE OF LIBRARY CHECKOUT HISTORY……………….125 ix APPENDIX K: PHOTOGRAPHS OF STUDENTS………………………………….126 x LIST OF TABLES TABLE 2.1: TRADITIONAL AND PROGRESSIVE COMPARISON……………….1: READING ATTITUDE SURVEY RESPONSES…………………………76 TABLE 4.2: COMPARISON OF PRE- AND POST MPR-R SURVEY……………….3: LITERATURE RESPONSE QUESTIONS AFTER READING………….4: STUDENT PARTICIPANTS’ JOURNAL RESPONSES……………….5: ANNOYMOUS STUDENT PARTICIPANT SURVEY………………….6: PARENT ONLINE SURVEY……………………………….7: STUDENT READING LOG RESPONSES……………………………….8: ROALD DAHL LIBRARY BOOKS CHECKED OUT………………….9: ROALD DAHL CLASSROOM BOOKS CHECKED OUT…………….83 xi CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The rationale for my research study comes from frustrating firsthand experiences with students in my gifted and talented classroom losing the desire to read. Students entering the gifted and talented program in third grade equated reading instruction with prior reading experiences from their regular education classroom. Reading was equated with earning points from a computerized program called Accelerated Reader (AR). The AR program is a computerized program that assesses reading comprehension by multiple-choice quizzes.
The AR program became the independent reading program for students before entering the third grade gifted and talented program. “AR is an isolated event in most classrooms and is not integrated into other literacy activities” (Smith and Westberg, 20ll, p. When students began to be introduced to other literary text in the gifted and talented program not associated with AR, some students began to lose the desire to read because of not earning extrinsic points for completing a quiz after reading. Mikulecky (1978) was one of the first literary researchers to discuss students who have the will and skill to read, no longer have the desire to read.
He called this “aliteracy” (p. When it comes to reading instruction and the term gifted and talented, there are numerous definitions, opinions, or misconceptions of the two. Due to these varied definitions, opinions and misconceptions of gifted learners and reading instruction, the majority of gifted and talented students at the elementary school level may not get the appropriate literacy curricula for their diverse needs. 1 If not given the appropriate literacy curricula at the elementary school level, gifted students that have the will and skill to read, may lose the desire to read if not continually motivated throughout their academic career.
“There is evidence that capable readers lose interest and enthusiasm for reading as they progress in school” (Robinson, Shore, & Enersen, 2007, p. Gifted and Talented English Language Arts students at the elementary school level need depth and breadth through engagement, literary discussions, inquiry, and thematic-conceptual thinking (Galbraith and Delisle, 2002). Gifted learners, similar to English Language Learners (ELL), and Special Education students with Individual Education Plans (IEP’s) need diverse opportunities to learn based on their individual needs/ability. All students, including gifted learners, need to be able to learn at their own pace, elect out of content that they already know and have mastered, go beyond basic instruction, work with concepts that require more than simplistic thinking, and partake in opportunities that connect their learning to the “real world” (Galbraith and Delisle, 2002).
Unfortunately, many gifted students at the elementary school level do not get these opportunities due to being assigned more/busy work or assigned to help other students. Many gifted and talented students are underachieving in their classrooms due to unrecognized abilities, needs being unmet, lack of challenge, and boredom (Davis, Rimm, & Siegle, 2011). This unrecognized ability/underachievement of gifted learners has been termed by educators a “quiet crisis” or “sounds of silence” (Renzulli & Park, 2002; Sternberg, 1996). Aliteracy begins with students who have the will and skill to read, nevertheless lose their motivation, passion or desire to read as they go through school.
Students and 2 adults more than ever are choosing not to read due to reading instruction in schools have become an agonizing experience. For instance, “high-stakes tests, Lexile levels, searches for evidence, dialogic notes, and sticky notes galore-we have demanded of readers many things we would never do ourselves while reading” (Beers & Probst, 2017, p. To aid in the continuance of the desire to read and preventing aliteracy in our elementary schools, the focus of my Dissertation in Practice (DIP) will analyze whether utilizing an authentic study of an author’s life and literary works increase students’ motivation to read in a third grade gifted and talented classroom. The teacher-researcher selected this intervention to aid in students constructing knowledge about an author and his/her various works.
By Immersing students into an author and their literary works, opens students up to various reading experiences over just introducing students to a single text or genre. Statement of the Problem By reflecting on my educational experiences in the classroom and the literacy programs taught in our elementary schools, I began to notice the lack of reading in students who had the ability to read, but not the motivation or desire to read. Students complained about reading boring stories in their assigned reading series, not being able to select books that they wanted to read due to their Lexile levels, and having to take commercialized reading test to prove that they were reading. These observations led me to my Problem of Practice (PoP): The growing problem of students who have the will and the skill to read, not the desire to read (aliteracy).
Through informal inquiry and intentional questioning of students, parents, and colleagues, I began to see how consequential of a problem aliteracy was and still is. 3 My Problem of Practice (PoP), became clearer to me through Steven L. Layne’s poem about aliteracy (Layne, 2009, p. Aliteracy Poem Mrs.
Thompson’s second graders are amazing! The principal says they can comprehend anything- Even a medical textbook. Thompson’s second graders are incredible! The superintendent says their oral reading is completely seamless- like the gentle flow of an eternal spring. Thompson’s second graders are fantastic! The P. president says they finished the reading workbook And the phonics workbook before the end of the Third Quarter.
Thompson’s second graders worry me. You see, I’m the aide who works in Mrs. Thompson’s classroom, and I know something that the others don’t. Thompson’s second graders don’t like to read.
This poem reiterated to me as a teacher-research, how students may be becoming disengaged readers through mandated ritualized reading practices that are not differentiated by ability. John Dewey spoke about these same ritualized practices that Layne described in his poem. Dewey (1938) described ritualized practices as a kind of social control when he spoke about social forms that become enacted formalities and empty ritualistic actions. Dewey (1938) also stated that these ritualized practices “may become merely outward show with no meaning behind them” (p.
Regrettably for 4 many of our students, these same practices are still going on today. “Dewey insisted that children understand and appreciate literature best if they experience it as a form of communication” (Flinders and Thornton, 2017, p. As a teacher-researcher, I want my gifted and talented third grade students to encounter quality literary experiences over taking multiple-choice tests and earning points for books read. Rosenblatt (1960) also believed in the quality of literary experiences over the number of books read for a comprehension test.
Through the utilization of action research in my classroom, I want to construct a quality literary experience of an authentic author study over a commercialized reading system that assesses comprehension and gives extrinsic points for reading. Study Rationale As a teacher-researcher, I see this disheartening sight called, aliteracy happening on a daily basis in my classroom. Gifted learners who have the will and skill to read, are losing the desire and motivation to read.