Thursday, January 5, 2012

Why Do We Have to Read Anyway?

Research defines motivation as an elixir of engagement, self-efficacy, and choice. According to Guthrie and Wigfield (2000), an engaged reader is intrinsically motivated to read and thus able to achieve at a higher level than unmotivated peers. Since reading achievement is strongly related to level of engagement, educators have aspired to create learning environments that positively influence student engagement. One night while reading, Reading for Understanding: The Reading Apprenticeship Framework (Schoenbach et al.,pp.59 - 60) , my heart skipped a beat. I sat up, preparing my pencil to highlight the section of text that said:

“The writings of Malcolm X’s endorsement of reading permitted African American males in particular to feel more comfortable with making mastery of reading and writing part of their identities and less afraid that by taking these pursuits seriously they would be acting white. Attempting to make the value of reading even more immediate, we also asked students to interview members of their families or communities about what they read and the value they placed on reading. In the process students who had previously connected reading exclusively to school settings began to expand their notions of why people read. In some cases student who thought of themselves as non readers or poor readers in the school setting were reminded that they were readers in other contexts-such as reading in a church or youth group or reading about sports in the newspaper-that they had never connected with their academic lives."

Wow! The answer I had been looking for was within me. It was within all teachers. It is within you! Everyone has a story about when and how s/he became a reader and how the value of reading continues to add to their daily success. Why keep these reading stories a secret? Could it be that most of us consider reading inside school different from the reading that takes place outside of school and therefore never saw the value in sharing our personal stories?

The next day I shared my reading history and the texts I currently read to aid in my daily success. I was positive that this would be the turning point for building intrinsic motivation in my students. After my motivational speech, most of my students said, “Mrs. Wise, that is a great story but I don’t want to be a teacher. I am going to be a famous football player. They don’t practice reading, they practice football.”

The problem: I was humbled yet again by the honesty of a student. As quickly as I was disappointed, I was struck with an urgency so great I could not sleep. I started searching the Internet, the library, magazines, anything I could read about the celebrities my students looked up to and wanted to become with the hope of establishing a collection of reading testimonies explaining how reading has played a role in their success, which you can download through this link, http://www.myreadingsecrets.com/thesecrets.html

The challenge: Start your own collection of reading testimonies from parents, student athletes, and other school professionals and share them with your students. Students will be surprised and inspired when they realize all the different purposes for reading. Make sure to start small and replace this activity with your own personal sharing of authentic literacy.

1. Begin by creating a new anchor chart, Why Read?
2. Ask students to predict what football players would read and why.
3. Write the name, Justin Tuck on the anchor chart and tell students to listen for reasons why he reads. Show the following video of Justin Tuck.


4. List the ideas students recalled from watching the video and discuss what they learned about the role reading plays in the life of a football player.
5. Challenge students to discover the role reading plays in their parents’ career. Have students collect items their parents read by going on a scavenger hunt around the house or workplace. Take a picture of the materials and write a paragraph describing the collection or bring in the materials and do an oral report of the texts.
6. Another option would be to ask parents, student athletes or other school personnel to come in during your designated authentic literacy time to personally share what and why they read.
7. Keep a list of parent names, their careers, and reasons for reading on the anchor chart. Any time students ask, “Why do I have to read anyway?” you can gently point to the “Why Read” anchor chart to find several authentic answers to their question.

When educators go beyond the walls of the classroom and reach out to parents to endorse authentic literacy, students make a connection between academic literacy and the reading that awaits them in the real world.

Research based on:
Guthrie, J.T., & Wigfield, A. (2000). Engagement and motivation to reading. In M.L. Kamil, P.B. Mosenthal, P.D. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading research (Vol. 3, pp. 403–422). Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Justin Tuck video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JlMWy6pSmnk&list=PLEEF8D5DCC28819ED&index=5&feature=plpp_video

Malcolm X, “Learning to Read” in Autobiography of Malcolm X. http://www.smccd.net/accounts/bellr/ReaderLearningtoRead.htm

Schoenbach, R., Greenleaf, C., Cziko, C.,Hurwitz, L. (1999). Reading for Understanding: A Guide to Improving Reading in Middle and High School Classrooms. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass

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