EDLD 605
Mississippi Teacher Corps, Fall 2008
Action Research Proposal
Daniel Fram
Student Motivation To Read in Eighth Grade Classes
I. Identification of the Problem
The purpose of this action research is to increase student motivation to read in six sections of
middle school reading. Student motivation to engage in reading is essential to the success of
instruction because analysis of the techniques and forms of literature, among other state objectives for
the course, is not possible without a preliminary acquaintance with specific texts. Unfortunately, a very
large portion of my students express disinterest in reading, both generally and with regard to specific
texts; furthermore, classroom observations and assessments have shown that a small but significant
portion of students do not even attempt to read when assigned to do so, and many others read with
reluctance. If student motivation to simply engage in reading was consistently high, many of the class
objectives could be taught and mastered more easily, and some objectives could even be expected to be
accomplished by the students without direct instruction. Vocabulary skills, for instance, would
improve almost automatically if students were eager to discover the meaning of words for the sake of
understanding text that intrigued them. I have struggled, however, to increase student motivation
because I am not aware of how this can best be done. The audience for this study are the stakeholders
in my individual classroom; students, parents, colleagues, and myself.
Educators across the world and at every grade level have an interest in motivating students to
read. The importance of reading comprehension to scholastic achievement becomes particularly
significant starting in the middle grades. While there is a large a body of research aimed at increasing
comprehension through practices and skill development, it has also come to the attention of researchers
that students' motivation is also likely to affect their performance. Indeed, when it comes to reading,
motivation towards the task is particularly relevant for three reasons: first, an interest in reading is
considered to be something of an end in itself; second, the quantity of independent reading students
engage in has been shown to predict vocabulary and has been correlated with academic performance;
and third, many educational activities can take place only once reading has been accomplished. For all
these reasons, educators must ask themselves what motivates students to read and how student
motivation towards reading tasks can be increased.
II. Review of Research
Pitcher, et. al (2007) assessed the motivation to read of adolescent students using their
Adolescent Motivation to Read Profile (AMPR), an adaptation of the Motivation to Read Profile
created by Gambrell, Palmer, Codling, and Mazzoni (1996). The AMPR is a two-part instrument
consisting of a survey and an interview script. The authors administered the survey to 384 students in a
variety of public and private schools at eight sites in the United States and Trinidad. Approximately
100 of these students were also interviewed. The survey alone suggested that males experience a
particularly sharp drop in motivation to read during their secondary education years. What most
intrigued the authors, however, was the occasional discrepancy between the survey and the interview
data. Several students whose survey answers portrayed a total disinterest in reading were surprisingly
articulate during the interviews and revealed extensive involvement with reading and writing in their
personal lives, primarily through magazines and the internet. From this the authors conclude that many
students do not identify their own literacy activities as included in the academic definition of reading.
The authors further recommend that schools make greater efforts to draw this connection, possibly
even replacing some of the traditional literacy activities of schools with activities that more closely
mirror student interests and literacy skills.
McKool (2007) investigated the out-of-school reading done by intermediate grade students,
focusing on the factors that students perceive as contributing to their decisions about out-of-school
reading. She surveyed 199 fifth grade students from two schools of differing socio-economic
backgrounds to determine their quantity of voluntary reading, their attitude towards reading, and the
factors that may influence the time they have to spend reading. A subset of these students were also
interviewed to determine their perspectives on factors that affect voluntary reading. The author found
that, while income level did not correlate with out-of-school reading, fifth grade students do very little
voluntary reading overall, with the most avid readers accounting for the majority of all reading done
and the most reluctant doing practically none at all. The author found that reluctant readers watch
significantly more television than avid readers and that some students see after-school activities and/or
chores as competing with reading for their time. Students suggested that teachers and librarians could
promote out-of-school reading by recommending more books, stocking shelves with more comic books
and magazines, and giving more time for voluntary reading within school. Parents could support outof-school reading by modeling the activity and discussing books at home.
Pachtman and Wilson (2006) conducted a study of fifth grade students to discover what aspects
of their fourth grade classroom most encouraged their reading habits. The students rated aspects of the
classroom on a survey and explained their ratings through interviews. While all of the aspects of the
reading program seem to have been valued by the majority of the students, the abundance of the
classroom library and the students' access to it was given preeminent value by the greatest number.
The students explained the classroom library's value as important for making it easy to find books that
they liked as often as they needed a new one. Other aspects of the program that encouraged student
choice and provided extra time or incentive for students to read self-selected books also received favor
and recognition from the students. Assignments, such as book reports, were seen as detracting from
available time for reading, and the teaching of reading strategies was least likely to be rated important
by the students.
Merisuo-Storm (2006) conducted a study of the types of text that girls and boys age 10-11 most
and least enjoy to read. 145 Finnish students were given a survey in which they could rate the
enjoyment that they would get out of engaging in a particular literacy activity. Responses from girls
and boys were contrasted. The author found that students generally enjoy series books and are
generally not interested in poetry or fairytales, that girls give top preference to adventure books, and
that boys dislike typical school texts and prefer comics and humorous books. Additionally, the author
discovered a repugnance for reading aloud in both genders, but most emphatic in boys.
Alverman et. al conducted a study of adolescents who struggle with school-assigned texts to
discover whether this population is motivated to read texts based in popular culture in an after-school
setting. Half of the sixty 7-9th grade students were assigned to a weekly media club that met after
school. All of the sixty students kept a log of their after-school activities. The authors claim that both
groups reported surprisingly large amounts of reading activity – approximately thirty minutes per day,
which is much greater than the findings of other studies; they also conclude that members of the media
club did engage in more reading and that, while this may have been accounted for by the additional
access these students had to the internet and other sources of texts alone, these students came to see
themselves as readers as a result of the label being applied to them by the researchers. The authors
note, however, that their definition of what constitutes reading has much wider contours than the
definition generally employed in schools; they counted the reading of advertisements, song lyrics, and
even the playing of video games as reading activities.
As a college tutor, Williams (1997) tried several strategies for increasing student motivation to
complete assigned readings, including persuasive rhetoric, random quizzes, and peer-action. The
author followed-up on the implementation of these strategies by surveying student attitudes towards
them. None of the strategies proved highly successful in increasing student participation in
discussions. The motivational speeches produced no results, and the random quizzes (which confirmed
the author's suspicions that students were not reading the assignments) engendered anger and
resentment among the students which the author found counter-productive to the course. The peeraction strategy, which involved assigning students to lead discussions during the tutorial, did increase
the preparedness of the students who led the discussion, but did not positively affect participation
overall. Survey results showed that while students already believed that reading the assignments was
important for several reasons, they did not feel sufficiently accountable to their peers to make the
effort. Where it was possible to allow others to do the work, the students would do so. When asked
about their own suggestions for increasing motivation, the majority of the students responded that some
form of written assignment should be collected for any reading; this apparently would fulfill the
requirement for accountability while avoiding the pitfall of infuriating students with a quiz for which
they could not be sure they had prepared. The author suggests that the peer-action strategy be
redeveloped in light of this suggestion along with suggestions from research on cooperative learning.
Ruscio (2001) conducted a study of the effects of randomly administered quizzes on readingcompletion rates of students in his college psychology classes. Noting the adversarial relationship that
so-called “pop” quizzes can create, the author devised a quiz system in which a coin flip determines
whether there will be a quiz on that day. The quizzes are simple short answer questions that are
designed to determine whether the majority of a section of text has been read without stumping
students on the basis of comprehension level. The author found that at least 85% of his students had
done at least half of the readings during the semester in which he employed this method, which
compares favorably with results reported by Burchfield and Sappington (1999). The absence of
negative comments on the survey section of his final exam led the author to conclude that the students
feel motivated by the quiz system without experiencing resentment.
Together, the research shows two sides of student motivation to read. Where the goals are
primarily resolvable into increasing literary activity, it seems that much can be achieved through
increasing student access, acquaintance, and choice. As Alvermann (2007), Merisuo-Storm (2006),
and Pachtman and Wilson (2006) demonstrate, students intrinsically develop interests and motivations
that intersect with literature broadly defined. Students respond to recommendations from reliable
adults and peers, and they value access and freedom of choice. Students, at least younger students, do
not seem to recognize much benefit in being explicitly taught reading strategies nor in performing timeconsuming tasks that demonstrate their understanding of a book. Whether this is because such
activities are in fact useless or whether the students are simply unaware of their profit is a different
discussion, but it should be noted that such activities are likely to decrease motivation, whatever else
they may do. An increase to motivation is suggested by Alvermann (2007): convince students that they
are, in fact, highly literate, and proceed from that more positive portrait towards critical activity.
On the other hand, when it comes to assigned readings with little or no student choice, even
college professors find the levels of motivation and completion discouragingly in need of improvement.
Extrinsic motivators seem to be necessary, as per Williams' (1997) investigations. While these can be
combined with cooperative learning strategies to some extent, Ruscio (2001) shows that the simplest
technique may also be maximally effective. Perhaps the results yield a fairly intuitive maxim: where
choice and access are possible, motivation is already intrinsically given; where there are requirements,
there must be accountability.
III. Research Questions
While accountability may be a necessary component of motivation, the appreciation of literature
seems to require an atmosphere of positive expectations and interest in the craft of writers, the greatest
of whom will surely not be included where comic books and humor dominate selection. For these
reasons it is interesting to continue to pursue research into the details of students' motivations and
attitudes to discover what reconciliation can be found between students' initial interests and the
curriculum which adults determine to most reflect the educated mind.
Hence, this study proposes an additional investigation into this central concept: the motivations
of eighth grade students to read texts assigned in class.
Our central question will be: What motivates students to read assigned texts of fiction in the six
sections of Mr. Fram's eighth grade reading classes at Byram Middle School?
Subquestions:
1. What purposes for reading fiction do students identify?
2. What reasons for avoiding the reading of fiction do students identify?
3. Which of the assigned texts are students most interested in and why do they prefer these texts?
4. How do students relate their motivation to read assigned fiction to Mr. Fram, their classroom
environment, and their peers?
5. What do students see as Mr. Fram's reasons for assigning texts to be read and how do they feel
about these perceived reasons?
6. How do students perceive Mr. Fram's introduction of authors and texts, the classroom
environment, and upcoming activities and assignments as influencing their motivation to read
the assigned texts?
7. What do students consider to be normal attitudes toward reading fiction?
IV. Overview of research methods that will be used
Since many of these questions can best be answered by students, the first source of data for my
research will be an open-ended questionnaire. After obtaining consent from students and their parents,
I will take class time to explain the purposes of and administer the questionnaire to students in each of
my six sections. The questionnaire will focus on student attitudes about fiction and the presentation of
literature in class, with an emphasis on discovering specific reasons that students identify as
contributing to their interest or lack of interest. By seeking the factors that influence student judgments
and beliefs, the questionnaire will attempt to collect data that point to changes that can be made which
would increase student motivation.
The questionnaire would ask students to respond to the following prompts as thoroughly as
possible:
1. What is good about reading stories and poems?
2. What is bad about reading stories and poems?
3. Why might a person read a story or a poem?
4. Why might a person avoid reading a story or a poem?
5. Which stories have you most enjoyed?
6. What did you enjoy about them?
7. Which of the stories that we read in class did you enjoy reading the most (or hate reading the
least)?
8. What poems have you enjoyed reading the most?
9. What did you enjoy about them?
10. Which of the poems that we read in class did you enjoy reading the most (or hate reading the
least)?
11. Why does Mr. Fram assign the stories that he assigns?
12. What sorts of things make stories and poems good to read?
13. What sorts of movies or TV shows do you like?
14. What sorts of things make movies or TV shows good or interesting to watch?
15. What are the differences between watching a movie and reading a story?
16. If you prefer movies, why are movies more enjoyable than books?
17. If you prefer books, why are books more enjoyable than movies?
18. What do teachers do that makes you either want or not want to read a story?
19. What do friends do that makes you either want or not want to read a story?
20. How do classrooms make you either want or not want to read a story?
21. Describe a place where you would be very excited to read for a while.
22. Describe a place where you would hate to have to read.
23. How do most people feel about reading stories?
Once data from this instrument is collected, I will look for themes and consistencies as well as
for unique and interesting remarks, especially when they come from students whose other answers
suggest a disinclination to read. Students whose survey remarks show potential for further insight will
be requested to participate in an oral interview which will consist of a private conversation about the
student's responses during class, lunch, or homeroom. The data from these interviews will consist of
my notes clarifying the student's attitudes and opinions.
Finally, the students will be observed during several sessions of scheduled reading time within
normal class periods, but varying in setting from the classroom to the library to a grassy area outside.
The assignment for the students will be to read in every case, but the sessions will alternate between
assigned and student-chosen material; furthermore, the sessions of assigned material will alternate
between beginning with a teacher introduction to the material and mere instruction to read.
I will observe students during the reading session by walking around with a clipboard and
taking notes, which notes will focus on student behaviors during the reading. The number of heads
which are down and eyes which are closed will be recorded, as will the number of yawns and the
number of complaints about the length or quality of the reading. Other incidental data will include the
number and variety of student comments to one another, whether on or off the topic of their books;
evidence of student engagement and pleasure; and the overall noise level of the environment. I will
pause occasionally to write reflectively about my subjective impressions of the student's interest and
mood. These observations will assist me by supplementing students' self-perception with my own,
exterior perspective.
V. Overview of how the data will be used
The questionnaire given to the students is designed to directly address my research questions in
language which is unambiguous and simple. To supplement student comments, which may be
insufficient in themselves due to motivational and comprehension issues, the interviews can be used as
an opportunity to refine research questions and develop the student's line of thought. Observations of
reading behaviors in various contexts will add a point of comparison to student comments, which will
be a manner of addressing internal validity as well as an independent source of reflection on new
research questions that may need to be introduced. The interview process may bear repetition for the
sake of asking students to interpret their behaviors during specific reading exercises. The end result
will be a portrait of how students see themselves interacting with texts and reading environments;
additionally, the data may show which of these self-impressions are worth studying in detail for clues
to the methods and practices that would do the most to improve student motivation to read.
References:
Alvermann, Donna E., Hagood, Margaret C., Heron-Hruby, Alison, Hughes, Preston, Williams, Kevin B., Yoon, Jun-Chae (2007) Telling
themselves who they are: what one out-of-school time study revealed about underachieving readers. Reading Psychology, 28:31, 2007
Burchfield, Colin M. and Sappington, John (1999) Participation in classroom discussion. Teaching of Psychology, Vol. 26
Merisuo-Storm, Tuula (2006) Girls and boys like to read and write different texts. Scandinavian Journal of Educational Research v.50,
n.2, 111-125, April 2006
McKool, Sharon S. (2007) Factors that influence the decision to read: an investigation of fifth grade students' out-of-school reading
habits. Reading Improvement, v44 n3, 111-131, Fall 2007
Pachtman, Andrew B. and Wilson, Karen A. (2006) What do the kids think? The Reading Teacher. Vol. 59, No. 7 April 2006
Pitcher, Sharon M., Albright, Lettie K., DeLaney, Carol J., Walker, Nancy T., Seunarinesingh, Krishna, Mogge, Stephen, Headley, Kathy
N., Ridgeway, Victoria Gentry, Peck, Sharon, Hunt, Rebecca, and Dunston, Pamela J.(2007) Assessing adolescents’ motivation to read.
Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 50:5, 378-396
Ruscio, John (2001) Administering quizzes at random to increase students' reading. Teaching of Psychology. Vol. 28, No. 3
Williams, Allison M. (1997) Making the most of assigned readings: some alternative strategies. Journal of Geography in Higher
Education, Vol. 21, No. 3, 1997, pp. 363-371