Linda B' Gambrell Barbara A' Marinak

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Classroom Practices that Support Reading
Motivation Findings from Recent Investigations

• Linda B. Gambrell Barbara A.
  Marinak
• Distinguished Professor Assistant
  Professor
• Clemson University Penn State
  Harrisburg
• (lgamb_at_clemson.edu)
  (bam234_at_psu.edu)

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• In general, educators agree that motivation
  plays a role in literacy development (Cameron
  Pierce, 1994 Deci, Koestner, Ryan, 1999a
  Gambrell, 1996). Without intrinsic motivation to
  read, students may never reach their full
  potential as literacy learners.

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• Many teachers voice concern about students who do
  not appear to be motivated to read (Hidi
  Harackiewicz, 2000).
• McKenna, Kear, Ellsworth (1995) found a decline
  in attitudes toward reading beginning in grade
  four and continuing through eighth grade. The
  decline was more significant for males and
  struggling readers.

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• Our recent research on reading motivation has
  focused on a number of areas including
• 1. Authenticity of task
• 2. Gender differences
• 3. Developmental differences
• 4. Role of rewards

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• Study 1
• The Role of Authentic Tasks in Elementary
  Students Literacy Motivation and Critical
  Thinking
• Study 2
• Reading Motivation Exploring the Elementary
  Gender Gap
• Study 3
• Developmental Differences in Elementary Reading
  Motivation
• Study 4
• The Effects of Reward Proximity and Choice of
  Reward on the Reading Motivation of 3rd Grade
  Students

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Study 1The Role of Authentic Tasks in
Elementary Students LiteracyMotivation and
Critical Thinking

• In a study by Gambrell, Hughes Calvert, Malloy
  Igo (2009), reading, writing, and discussion were
  explored within the context of authentic tasks.

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Participants

• Seven teachers and their 4th and 5th grade
  students.
• The participants were from 3 schools in 3
  different school districts.
• The 3 schools served a diverse population.

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Procedures

• Students read books, discussed their
  interpretations of the books with others, and
  engaged in letter writing about the books with
  adult pen pals.

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Data Sources and Analysis

• Motivation to Read Profile, pre and post
• Small group student discussions
• Key informant interviews

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Findings

• Findings integrated from quantitative and
  qualitative data sources revealed that students
  literacy motivation increased for both boys and
  girls across pre and post assessments and the
  increase was particularly salient for boys value
  of reading. In addition, the study found that
  students engaged in higher order thinking skills
  as they talked and wrote about their books.

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Conclusions

• The conclusion that can be drawn from this study
  is that authentic literacy tasks such as book
  discussions and literacy pen pal exchanges
  support and sustain literacy motivation. The
  findings also support the notion that boys are
  more motivated to engage in literacy tasks that
  are authentic in nature.

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Study 2 Reading Motivation Exploring the
Gender Gap

• This study examined gender differences for
  average third grade readers as assessed by the
  Motivation to Read Profile (Gambrell, Palmer,
  Codling, Mazzoni, 1996).

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• Participants
• The participants in the study were 288
  third-grade, average readers (145 girls and 143
  boys) from three elementary schools in a large
  suburban school district serving 12,000 students.
• Poverty level (as per free/reduced lunch count)
  ranged from 18 to 25.

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Data Sources and Analysis

• Descriptive statistics and the independent
  samples tests were generated for the MRP total
  scores and subscale scores.

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Findings

• The initial analysis revealed that there was a
  statistically significant gender difference on
  the MRP total score (20 items, 80 maximum score),
  with girls scoring higher than boys.

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Subscales Self-Concept as a Reader and Value of
Reading

• On the self-concept as a reader scale there were
  no significant differences between girls and
  boys.
• On the value of reading subscale there were
  statistically significant differences between
  girls and boys with girls scoring higher than
  boys.

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• Here are a few examples of items from the Value
  of Reading subscale
• Reading a book is something I like to do
  often, sometimes, not very often, never
  (plt.000).
• My best friends think reading is really fun,
  fun, OK to do, no fun at all (plt.000).

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• I tell my friends about good books I read I
  never do this I almost never do this I do this
  some of the time I do this a lot (plt.000).
• I think reading is a great way to spend time,
  an interesting way to spend time, an OK way to
  spend time, a boring way to spend time
  (plt.000).

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• I would like for my teacher to read books
  aloud to the class every day, almost every day,
  once in a while, never (plt.046).

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Results

• The results of this study suggest that while
  third grade boys and girls are equally
  self-confident as readers, boys value reading
  experiences far less than girls.

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Conclusions

• It appears that it is not simply a matter of boys
  having lower motivation to read than girls,
  rather it appears that the low motivation to read
  for boys is strongly related to the value they
  place on reading activities. This finding sheds
  new light on the complexities of the constructs
  of motivation and gender differences.

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Study 3 - Reading Motivation Exploring
Elementary Developmental Differences

• This study attempted to more clearly define the
  development of elementary reading motivation
  across grades two through six.
• Specifically, the investigation explored the
  motivation of grade level cohorts as well as the
  motivation of boys and girls both within and
  across grade level groups.

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Participants

• A population of 296 elementary students (grades
  two-six) from one elementary school in a large
  urban school district .

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Method

• This study employed a post-test only design.
• Reading motivation was assessed using the MRP.
  The MRP examines self-concept and value of
  reading.
• Differences were examined by grade level and
  gender. The data were analyzed using
  Independent-Samples T Tests.

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Results Grade Level Findings

• The analysis of the data derived from the MRP
  revealed statistically significant differences
  between grade two and grades three-six, with
  second graders reporting higher motivation than
  third through sixth graders on total motivation,
  self-concept, and value of reading.
• Statistically significant differences were also
  found in total motivation and value of reading
  between grade four and grade six. Fourth graders
  reported higher total motivation and value of
  reading when compared to sixth graders.

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• Results Gender Findings
• Statistically significant differences for gender
  were found in grades three, five, and six.
  Consistent with study 2 (Marinak Gambrell,
  2007), gender differences in these three
  intermediate grades were in total motivation and
  value of reading.
• However, gender differences were not found for
  self-concept in grades three, five, and six.
• No statistically significant differences for
  gender were seen in grades two and four.

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Key Informant Interviews Participants 32
students from Grades 3 5 At each grade
level 4 students (2 boys, 2 girls), were
randomly selected from each
NCLB proficiency level s(advanced, proficien
t, basic, below basic)
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Do you like to read things other than books?

• Grade 3 - 16 yes
• Grade 5 - 16 yes
• Mentioned Magazines, Newspapers
• Not Mentioned Computer, Gaming, Texting,
  nothing electronic

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Do you like for your teacher to read out loud?

• Boys Girls
• Yes No Yes No
• Grade 3 2 6 4 4
• Grade 5 0 8 8 0

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Do you talk to your friendsabout books?

• Boys Girls
• Yes No Yes No
• Grade 3 0 8 8 0
• Grade 5 2 6 8 0

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Do you like to spend time reading?

• Boys Girls
• Yes No Yes No
• Grade 3 4 4 8 0
• Grade 5 2 6 8 0

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What do you think you have to learn to be a
better reader?

• Keep reading
• Spend more time reading
• Read more than I do now
• Read, read, read
• Read all kinds of stuff
• Not mentioned instruction/school tasks

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Conclusions

• This study provides further evidence that a major
  factor in gender differences in motivation to
  read is value rather than self-concept.
• This study also lends some support to the notion
  held by a number of researchers (Guthrie, Hoa,
  Wigfield, Tonks, Perenevich, 2006 Jacobs
  Eccles, 2000) that elementary reading motivation
  may be situational and influenced by grade level
  expectations and teacher actions.

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Study 4 The Effects of Reward Proximity and
Choice of Reward on the Reading Motivation of 3rd
Grade Students

• This study explored the reward proximity
  hypothesis and the effect of choice of reward on
  the intrinsic reading motivation of average third
  grader readers.

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Participants

• 75 third-grade students from three elementary
  schools in a large suburban school district
• Students who scored at the 30th -50th NP in total
  reading on the Stanford Achievement Test, Ninth
  Edition

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Data Sources and Analysis

• Post-test only design with a control group
  allowed for the study of multiple independent
  variables and joint effects (Pedhazur, 1982).

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5 Treatment Groups

• 1. Book/choice (student selected book)
• 2. Book/no choice (randomly selected book)
• 3. Token/choice (student selected token)
• 4. Token/no choice (randomly selected token)
• 5. Control group (no reward/no choice)

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Procedures

• Students randomly assigned to one of 5
  treatment groups
• Students were invited to read books for a
  possible library purchase
• Students received a reward according to
  condition
• Students were invited to spend their
  remaining free time reading, doing a math game,
  or a jigsaw puzzle

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Results

• Finding 1
• The students in the book group and the control
  group selected reading as a first activity more
  often than students in the token group.

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• Finding 2
• Students in the book group and the control group
  spent significantly more time reading than those
  in the token group.

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• Finding 3
• Students in the book group and the control group
  read significantly more words than those in the
  token group.

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Conclusions

• Students who were given a book (proximal reward)
  and the students who received no reward were more
  motivated to engage in subsequent reading than
  the students who received a token (less proximal
  reward).

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• While the intrinsic motivation of the book group
  and the control group were comparable, the
  intrinsic motivation of the token group was lower
  on the three measures of motivation (first
  activity selected, time spent reading, and number
  of words read).

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• The findings from the present study suggest that
  the proximity of the reward to the desired
  behavior is a particularly salient factor in
  enhancing motivation to read. In this study,
  choice of reward did not affect reading
  motivation.

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Classroom Implications

• Authentic Literacy Tasks Can Nurture Motivation
  and Promote Higher Order Thinking.
• Literacy motivation and discussion competence
  are both worthwhile classroom goals. According to
  Neuman and Roskos (1997), participation in
  authentic literacy tasks not only provides
  opportunities for students to use their prior
  knowledge and to practice using interpretative
  strategies it also provides a rich context for
  developing critical thinking skills in literacy
  development. Authentic and cognitively
  challenging literacy tasks such as book
  discussions and pen pal exchanges about books
  appear to foster literacy motivation and critical
  thinking skills.

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• Use Rewards That Are Proximal to Reading Supports
  Intrinsic Motivation To Read.
• Reward proximity hypothesis should be carefully
  considered when using rewards in the classroom.
  If the desired behavior is reading, rewards that
  are proximal to engaging with books should be
  offered (e.g., books, increased read-aloud time,
  increased time for self-selected reading,
  increased library time, and increased number of
  books available).

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• Carefully Chosen Rewards Can Foster a Culture of
  Reading Motivation.
• Turner (1995) urges teachers to know what is
  done in classrooms in the name of literacy and
  how it affects children. What and how children
  learn, she notes, are intimately intertwined. So,
  too, the case can be made that rewards and the
  classrooms in which they are offered are
  inseparable. If this is true, rewards offered for
  reading should be a natural extension of a
  literacy-rich classroom culture. However, the
  importance of reading-related rewards may go
  beyond recognizing the relationship between
  reward proximity and the desired behavior. It
  could be that the real value of using books to
  reward reading and foster intrinsic motivation is
  that both the desired behavior (reading) and the
  reward (books) define a classroom culture that
  supports and nurtures intrinsic motivation to
  read.

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Additional Research and Ideas

• Reading Rockets Motivation
• http//www.readingrockets.org/article/29624
• http//www.readingrockets.org/article/29625

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• Thank you very much and happy reading!
• Linda and Barb