INSPIRING MIDDLE
SCHOOLERS INTO
INFORMATION BOOKS
John T. Guthrie
Jennifer McPeake
University of Maryland
OVERVIEW
 Maryland
project
 Challenges in middle school
 Motivations of adolescent
readers
 CORI motivation practices
 Impacts on students
 Professional development
MARYLAND PROJECT
St. Mary’s County-University of Maryland
 Seventh grade-4 schools-22 teachers-1200
students
 Question- Can we increase skill and will in
reading information books?
 Interview-260 students
 Questionnaires 1200 students (September,
April, June)
 R/LA Instruction-6 weeks; 3 years
 Struggling reader instruction-6 weeks; 2
years

MARYLAND PROJECT PEOPLE
Dr. Michael Martirano, Superintendent
 Ms. Linda Dudderer, Chief Academic
Officer
 Ms. Liz Cooper, K-12 R/LA Coordinator
 Teachers and Principals
 Administrative Staff
 Dr. John T. Guthrie, Principal Investigator
 Ms. Jennifer McPeake, Curriculum Director
 Ms. Mary Blakely, Education Director
 Dr. Patricia Richardson, Policy Advisor
 Graduate and Undergraduate students

CHALLENGES IN MIDDLE SCHOOL
INFORMATION BOOK READING
1.
2.
PROFICIENCY
PROBLEMS
1. Word recognition
2.
Literal comprehension (sentences)
3.
Inferencing
4.
Complex passage comprehension
CHALLENGES IN MIDDLE SCHOOL
INFORMATION BOOK READING
1.PROFICIENCY
2.PROBLEMS
1. Word recognition
2. Literal comprehension
3. Inferencing
4. Complex passage comprehension
32%
03%
07%
14%
44%
MOTIVATION CHALLENGES
 ‘Information
books are boring.’
80%
 ‘I
don’t want to read this.’
77%
 ‘I
read them as little as possible.’ 57%
 ‘I
try to get out of reading them.’ 44%
INTERVIEW WITH
AN AVOIDANT READER
 I:
Can you give an example of a school
reading assignment that you and your
friends avoided?
 S: Well, we tried to avoid this reading
assignment -The Wall.
 I: Ok. Can you think of another example
of a reading assignment that you and
your friends tried to avoid?
 S: Uh-uh. Because after that we failed the
class.
MOTIVATIONS FOR READING
INFORMATION TEXT
 Dedication
(effort, time, persistence)
 Self confidence (I can read this)
 Valuing (knowing now; future)
 Interest (enjoyment)
KAELYN’S STORY
KAELYN’S STORY
13 years old - 7th grade
 Attached to her phone - any phone
 Loathes her braces - 3 months to go!
 Flew through elementary school - memorizing
 Answers more teacher questions than anyone
 Never misses homework
 Prides herself on being the best student
 Gifted in basketball, soccer, and gymnastics
 Facebook: “I don’t like to read.”
 DEDICATED AND DISINTERESTED

CECILIA:
WHAT IS BEST ABOUT LEARNING AT
WHITNEY?
 Basically
all the academic courses in
themselves? Unimportant. They won’t
stick with you the rest of your life. What
is the most important is the discipline
you have to learn when your teachers
force you to do this assignment or read
that book; it’s the fact that you had to do
it that will be most important in college
because when your Mom and Dad are not
there, you will have to lock and chain
your self to the work.
PROFILES OF MOTIVATIONS
AND ACHIEVEMENT
Interest
 High—Interested
Dedication
 High
–Dedicated
 May read a lot
 Commitment
 May achieve
to reading
highly
 Very likely to
 Low—Disinterested
achieve
 May read under  Low– Avoidant
coercion
 Does not read
 May achieve
 Cannot
moderately
achieve
PROFILES IN MIDDLE SCHOOL
AND ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
MS-profile
MS-Ach.
MS-% of
Ss
DedicatedDisinterested
8.8
23
DedicatedInterested
8.1
AvoidantDisinterested
AvoidantInterested
ES-profile
ES-Ach.
ES- % of
Ss
DedicatedInterested
7.1
37
20
AvoidantInterested
5.1
15
8.1
42
DedicatedDisinterested
4.2
14
4.6
07
AvoidantDisinterested
4.1
33
CONCEPT-ORIENTED
READING INSTRUCTION (CORI)

Interest
(enjoyment)


Relevance
Self-efficacy (belief )

Success

Value
(importance)

Awareness of reading

Social interaction (peers)

Collaboration

Ownership
(autonomy)

Choice

Thematic units

Mastery goals
(knowledge)
OVERVIEW: CORI SNAPSHOT
CORI Goal
Extended engaged reading in
the classroom daily
Teaching Goals:
Reading comprehension
strategies
Inferencing, Summarizing,
Concept Mapping
Science Content Goals: Ecology
Plant and animal survival and
interdependencies; symbiotic
interactions: mutualism,
parasitism, commensalism
Motivation Support
Knowledge goals for reading,
observational experiences,
interesting texts, choices about
learning, collaboration with
classmates
OVERALL FRAMEWORK –
ECOLOGY UNIT
ECOLOGY UNIT BOOK COLLECTION
WEEK 1 FRAMEWORK
CORI: FLOW OF INSTRUCTION
Science Goals - or - Fluency
(15 min)
Comprehension
Instruction
Whole Class
(30-0 min)
Guided
Reading
(30 – 60 min)
Strategy
Practice
Writing
Independent
Rdg. (15 min)
A DAY IN CORI
WEEK 1, LESSON 2
Motivation – Success
Science Goals (15 min): How does
predation contribute to balance in an
ecosystem?
 Students observe video Importance of
Having Predators and take notes.
 Students share their notes and ideas
with a peer and write new ideas learned
from discussion.
 Students discuss ideas whole class.
Teacher posts 2 - 3 key ideas about
predation.
COMPREHENSION INSTRUCTION
WHOLE CLASS (30 MIN)
 Students
connect video observation to
reading
 Teacher models inferencing using the
Inferencing Guide
CORI INFERENCING GUIDE
GUIDED READING (30 MIN)
 Guided
practice of the strategy with
leveled text
 Texts relate to conceptual theme
ecology , guiding question for the
day, and video observation
 Students work with a partner
 Teacher rotates, scaffolds reading
strategy and motivation
 Each student completes chart: My
Inferences: Animal Survival in
Ecosystems
ON-GRADE LEVEL TEXT
STRUGGLING READER TEXT
ADVANCED READER TEXT
INFERENCING: STUDENT SAMPLE
STRATEGY FEEDBACK
INDEPENDENT READING
 Students
(15 MIN)
preview novels for independent
reading
 Students select a book and read for
enjoyment
 Record pages read in reading log
WEEK 2
Reading Strategy: Summarizing
 Motivation: Choice
 Science Content: Plant Survival in Ecosystems

WEEKS 3 AND 4
Reading Strategy: Concept mapping
 Motivations: Collaboration, conceptual theme
 Science Content: Plant and animal interdependencies,
symbiosis

WEEK 5
Reading Strategy: Review of strategies
 Motivations: Relevance
 Science Content: Symbiosis - Parasitism

WEEK 6: CULMINATING ACTIVITY
Reading Strategy: Integration of Strategies
 Motivations: Multiple motivations
 Science Content: Diversity of Life

TRIAL RUN
 St.
Mary’s County Public Schools
 1150 Grade 7 students
 Sept. – March (Traditional R/LA)
 April – June (6 weeks CORI)
 Assessments September, April, June
on Information Text
 Comprehension, Motivation,
Instruction
CORI Effects on
Information Text Comprehension
40
Percent Correct – 30
35
30
25
SpEd
20
R/LA
Honors
15
10
5
0
Sept
Nov
Jan
Mar
May June
CONCLUSIONS
CORI
rate of learning to
comprehend information text
was higher.
R/LA
6.47 factor sig.
Spec. Ed.
13.44 factor sig.
Honors
1.74 factor ns.
CORI Effects on Reading
Motivations
Intrinsic Mot.
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
AA
0.2
EA
0.1
0
Sept
April
Time Points
June
Value.
CORI Effects on Reading
Motivations
1
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
AA
EA
Sept
April
Time Points
June
CONCLUSIONS
 CORI
increased the strengths of
four affirming motivations for
reading more than for R/LA.
 The
benefits were equally strong for
African American students as for
European American students.
CORI Effects on Reading
Motivations
0.9
Avoidance
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
AA
0.3
EA
0.2
0.1
0
Sept
April
Time Points
June
Perceived Difficulty
CORI Effects on Reading
Motivations
0.45
0.4
0.35
0.3
0.25
0.2
AA
0.15
EA
0.1
0.05
0
Sept
April
Time Points
June
CONCLUSIONS
 CORI
decreased the strengths of
four undermining motivations for
reading more than for R/LA.
 The
benefits were equally strong for
African American students as for
European American students.
INSPIRING DEDICATION:
TEACHER-STUDENT RELATIONSHIP
Teacher
 High expectations (belief in students’
capacity to learn Reading/Language Arts)
 Commitment (Teachers caring about
students’ personal life and learning in
R/LA)
 Student
 Dedication to reading, writing, course
work (effort, time, persistence)
 Learning to potential (realistic cognitive
gains)

TEACHING PRACTICES
FOSTERING DEDICATION
Students
Teacher
 Assuring
 Creating
Success
Relevance
 Building
Awareness
 Enabling
Collaboration
 Affording Choices
 Sustaining
Thematic Units
CECILIA: WHAT I WOULD NEVER
CHANGE
 In
Whitney, people were
interested in who I was.
They showed me I
wasn’t worthless, and
showed me that it’s
possible to trust
unconditionally.
Whitney gave me
something that
nowhere else has truly
given me: acceptance.