EDRD 6600
Professional Development Strategy
Ashley Jordan
Project Word:
Motivation and Mindset towards Literacy Achievement at The Boys and Girls Club
By Ashley Jordan, Sara Schuh, and Cassandra Starr
The Lawrenceville Boys and Girls Club is one of the largest clubs in Metro Atlanta, and
it currently serves over three hundred students a day between the ages of 6 and 18. One of the
three pillars of Boys and Girls Clubs is Academic Success and as such we focus a lot of effort on
partnering with schools and providing quality academic programming to engage students in
learning. As Education Director for the Lawrenceville Club, my primary job is to implement and
oversee all areas of academic programming. After two years with the Club, I can confidently say
that the number one issue we see as a barrier with our student’s success is literacy. If a student
struggles with literacy, they will struggle with every other subject in school. If a student does
not like to read, they will avoid reading in any subject area, which can dramatically impact their
success.
When we dig a little deeper under this issue of literacy, we find, at the root of it all, a
motivation/mindset issue towards reading. The majority of our students lack the motivation
needed to improve their literacy skills. They view reading as a boring, solitary, school-related
activity; therefore, it is the last activity they want to engage in at the Club. Other students have
experienced many “failures” with reading, so they avoid reading altogether, which compounds
their reading struggles. We also have students who are fairly fluent readers, but they aren’t
motivated to spend time reading; they will answer questions for other subjects without reading
the related material, which leaves them guessing at the answers and usually getting most of them
wrong.
If our students are going to succeed in this world, they have to change their mindset about
what literacy is and about how it is relevant to their lives. Because motivation may not be
something that our students bring with them into the classroom or into the Club, and because
motivation is something that can be influenced by educators, it is important that we provide
opportunities for students to increase their motivation for success in literacy.
The International Reading Association published a statement in 2000 stating, “the
development and maintenance of a motivation to read is one of the key prerequisites for deriving
meaning from print" (International Reading Association, 2000). The lack of motivation found
among our students at the Boys and Girls Club is representative of motivation issues commonly
confronted by urban educators. According to Jocson, Burnside, and Collins, this issue can be
often be traced to a disconnect between the student and the material in the classroom (2006).
Educators are increasingly aware of this trend and have begun to implement strategies to make
literacy activities more meaningful for students in every context. For example, "many youth
today are involved in youth poetry slams, writing workshops, and performances through
organizations such as Youth Speaks in San Francisco and Urban Word in New York"(Jocson,
Burnside, & Collins, 2006). The project we propose here is driven by the greater context of
literacy in urban settings and the success found through the implementation of culturally relevant
material and subsequent poetry slams and writing workshops. Jocson, Burnside, and Collins
argue that "literacy has the potential to reproduce and challenge structures of domination. More
importantly for the latter, literacy can become a tool for gaining and tapping into available
resources for self- and social-empowerment" (2006). Our goal is to present a project that leads
to student empowerment and teacher awareness regarding the motivation issue.
When proposing or analyzing what exactly defines literacy, numerous ideologies come to
mind within the working definition that we formulate. Most specifically, the way that we define
literacy and the respective theories that support our stance directly affects our pedagogy. As a
group, we would collectively propose that the way that we define literacy begins with our beliefs
about reading and writing. Collectively, we believe that reading and writing are not simplistic,
one-dimensional processes, but rather complex ones that are directly interrelated. Collectively,
we are proponents of the of the inquiry and critical models of learning; which suggests that there
is no “one size fits all” model of learning, and that creating a learning environment that speaks to
the students’ personal interests will prove itself invaluable to the student. In this light, we
propose that reading is the cognitive process of deriving meaning from symbols that reflect
consonant and vowel sounds. Moreover, we also support the idea that reading and writing are
learned through open inquiry, and that students apply both prior experience and cultural
understanding to a text. With this in mind, when thoroughly analyzing literacy, we find that a
central question as educators is this: What factors contribute to struggling readers and writers?
We find that the core of this issue lies in the concept of motivation. According to the Flint text,
“Cognitive processing, motivation, and teacher beliefs and attitudes are three possible factors”
that infringe on a students’ ability to be successful in reading and writing.
Supportively, according to Jeanne Ellis Ormrod’s text Human Learning, among the
general effects of motivation are as follows: Motivation increases an individual’s energy and
activity level; Motivation directs an individual toward certain goals; Motivation promotes
initiation of certain activities and persistence in those activities; Motivation affects the learning
strategies and other cognitive processes an individual brings to bear on a task. In essence, as
educators, it is essential that we create an environment that perpetuates intrinsically motivated
learners, for according to Ormrod, the intrinsic learner, “finds the task enjoyable or worthwhile
in and of itself,” as opposed to the extrinsically motivated student who “may exert only the
minimal behavioral and cognitive effort they need to execute a task successfully, and they may
stop an activity as soon as reinforcement ceases.”
Our plan relies on a shift towards honoring primary dialects in an attempt to make
student/text interactions more meaningful. Giving respect to students’ home languages, in
general, establishes a positive framework within which to help students grow and learn.
According to Denise Troutman’s The Power of Dialect, value for the home language transmutes
to value for the student, for she posits, “The two entities are deeply integrated…When others
denigrate a speaker’s home language, they are denigrating that person. Students, especially, can
discern teachers that truly care, as displayed in teachers’ reaction and treatment of the home
language and the students themselves.” (Troutman, 225).
The Flint text argues that “students must develop intrinsic motivation to read and
learn”(356) and considering the aforementioned theories and strategies will allow us to
encourage intrinsic student motivation. We have decided to develop a strategic program that
addresses both intrinsic and extrinsic motivators. While this strategy is based on extrinsic
motivators, winning prizes, it also encourages students to read and write about what they are
interested in and what they are thinking critical or empathetically about. In this way, an extrinsic
design, can potentially translate into intrinsic motivation, if we frame the project so that it
includes authentic reading and writing experiences and self-efficacy goals.
The following is our strategy for implementation, meant to address the issue of
motivation and mindset in the Boys and Girls Club setting:
Project Word
Project Word is a comprehensive, project-based literacy program that creatively
combines relevant reading, written word, spoken word, art and drama to provide students with a
holistic literacy experience. This program is implemented in the fall and culminates in a spring
showcase and a collective book of the creative works produced throughout the year. The
classroom climate created by the teacher is fundamental to the success of this program. Project
Word is primarily about personal expression, literacy development, and increasing self-efficacy
across multiple literacy disciplines. It is not about performance, grades, or competition. The
project will be implemented in phases as follows:
Phase I- All staff will be part of a training on increasing student motivation through
self-efficacy strategies, motivation techniques, and creating a supportive classroom
environment. Staff will also undergo training on implementing the Project Word program.
Phase II- Students will explore the concepts of creative and personal expression
through trade books, poetry, prose, culturally-relevant novels, and fiction texts. Most of these
readings will be done in groups, so that students can process their thoughts with one another.
Phase III- Students will create personal journals that they will use to express past,
present and future feelings, thoughts and ideas. These journals will be a combination of writings
created using specific writing prompts as well as student’s own ideas.
Phase IV- Creative Expression Workshops: Students will work in groups to identify
and edit their “best” writing entries for consideration in the showcase. Students will have the
opportunity to choose how to present their creative works in the showcase; they may choose to
use drama, written word or spoken word for presentation, and they will spend the next few weeks
in a creative expression workshop to enhance their skills. Some students may also chose to
illustrate their works, or others’ works for use in the Project Word book (This will be a
collaboration with the art instructor).
Phase V- Project Word Showcase: This is the final phase of the project. Students have
spent all semester working on their creative expression individually, in groups, and in
workshops. They are ready to share their creations in the Project Word Book and
Showcase. This event has been promoted all semester as an opportunity for students to share
their work with their friends, family, and community. At the end of the event, students will be a
part of a book signing, where audience members will have the opportunity to speak with the
artists and receive a signed copy of the Project Word book. This event should feel big and
important in order to motivate students and increase their sense of competence and achievement.
If implemented well, Project Word will achieve three primary goals: First, it will
address the development of literacy deficiencies and strengths by immersing students in a yearlong literacy experience; second, it will change student mindset about what reading and literacy
are; and third, it will motivate students to use literacy as a means of personal expression. We
hope to see a higher achievement in, and a greater appreciation for, literacy from our students as
a result of Project Word.
Holistically speaking, a shift in mindset directly affects one’s motivation. By creating
authentic learning experiences, providing concrete conceptual examples, and changing reading
from a solitary to social activity, we reason that the student’s mindset about reading will shift,
thus prompting a shift in motivation. This shift in mindset will not only affect one’s motivation,
but will also impact how one views their competence in the respective field and well as one’s
self worth. The chain reaction that begins with changing one’s mindset is an ideal that educators
must equally invest in. Furthermore, and most significantly, this positive shift in mindset will
also translate into higher self-efficacy across the disciplines, which is what we as educators
desire to see reflected in our students.
Works Cited
International Reading Association. (2000). Excellent reading teachers: A position statement of
the
International Reading Association. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 44, 193–200.
Jocson, K., Burnside, S., & Collins, M. (2006). Pens on the Prize: Linking School and
Community through Contest-Inspired Literacy. Multicultural Education, 14(2), 28-33.
Ormrod, Jeanne Ellis. (2008) Human Learning. Columbus, OH: Pearson Prentice Hall.
Flint, Amy Seely.(2008) Literate Lives: Teaching Reading & Writing in Elementary
Classrooms. Danvers, MA: John Wiley & Sons.
Martinez, M., and Harmon, Janice M. (2012). Picture/Text Relationships: An Investigation of
Literary Elements in Picturebooks. Literacy Research and Instruction. 51(4). 323-343.
Weaver, Constance. (1998). Lessons to Share On Teaching Grammar in Context.
Portsmouth, NH: Boynton/Cook Publishers.