Introduction:
Action research is a structured process of inquiry by and for the person taking the action. The primary reason for doing this study is to assist the person conducting the study to improve or refine an issue seen to need improvement.
The Action Research Project that I conducted was fun because I was working with 5th grade students and they still have some innocence left and they enjoy and are excited about participating in projects that I have worked on this semester. I fear that they were more excited about participating than actually participating.
The challenges I faced during this project were that I did not have as many students as I would have liked for participation and data analysis. The spring semester is the time that teachers are conducting benchmark testing and preparing for the STAAR standardized tests. My mentor teacher assisted me in selecting students that she had observed as not having a huge interest in reading. Unfortunately the students chosen were ones that required intensive tutoring in preparation for the STAAR tests. This was interesting in that students that struggled on the benchmarks and standardized tests were ones that were not motivated readers.
Action Research Question:
My initial action research question was: What is the impact of allowing students to choose texts based on their interests on their attitudes about reading? Dr. Stufft felt that this question was a too broad for a study so I modified my question to read: How can teachers and schools positively influence students’ attitudes about reading?
I chose the topic of encouraging and promoting an interest in reading for middle school students came from my observations of students in the school library. I am a library aide on the middle school and junior high campuses in my school district and I hear students often say that they do not like to read. I agree with the author, James Patterson’s quote: “There’s no such thing as a kid who hates reading. There are kids who love reading, and kids who are reading the wrong books.”
I ask them questions about what they like to do in their free time, such as hobbies, sports, and animals they like. I try to match them with books that reflect their hobbies and things they like. More often than not, they choose a book based on how thick it is, how many words are on a page, or if it has more pictures than words. This is very discouraging to me because I love reading and want students to enjoy it too. This prompted my interest in doing a study on how to positively influence students’ interest in reading.
My interest in this project grew as I progressed through the study but I believe that this is a type of study that requires more time to conduct. I feel that for this research project to be more effective and to make an impact for students, it would be better suited to a whole classroom or even better, a campus wide study. I would love to see each teacher do this study with each of their English Language Arts and Reading classes during an entire school year.
My action research question was a somewhat ambitious due to the number of students that I was able to access and the time that I had to conduct the study. My question may have been better if it were: How does allowing students to choose their own books based on interest, not on reading level effect their interest in reading?
Action Research Assessment:
I began collecting data by presenting the students with an “Interest Inventory” survey and a survey called, “My Feelings about Reading”. The participating students filled out each survey and I collected this data in order to assess the students’ interests and their feelings about reading. I followed with a “Post Reading Survey” for each book that they read. We also discussed the books that they read and liked and why they chose not to read particular book.
The assessments that I researched were very lengthy and I know from experience that these students will “tune-out” if any of these questionnaires were more than one page. I tried to find or create data collection forms that were as brief as possible but still able to cover the information that needed to perform the study. The students seemed very receptive to all of the surveys. I asked the students to complete the “Interest Inventory” and “My Feelings about Reading”, on their own and I verbally asked them questions and marked the “Post Reading Survey”.
Action Research Data Collection:
My mentor teacher selected five students to participate in the project, but one of the students moved and I felt that asking another student to join during the middle of the study. I asked the students participating in the research project to complete the “Interest Inventory” and “My Feelings about Reading”, on their own and I verbally asked them questions and marked the “Post Reading Survey”. I collected data each time a student turned in a book, that could be a couple of days or a week or two depending on the type of book and whether they read it or not.
One challenge was a student who just almost refused to read at all, but he also refuses to do class work too so I didn’t think his lack of interest was just in reading, it is in all school work.
Action Research Data Analysis:
The data analysis was collected from the surveys and discussions with the students. It was so much fun talking to the students about books and reading and interacting with them. They were very excited and really seemed to enjoy talking about their books.
The type of data that I analyzed and charted were the types of books the students actually read, a comparison of the types of books that the students preferred to read, and their feelings about reading.
I logged the information into an Excel spreadsheet and then created bar graphs depicting the data collected.
Action Research Findings:
When I began the action research project I would have confidently said that they students would prefer non-fiction books and graphic novels over anything else. Something that did surprise me was that the students in my study seemed to prefer choosing fiction combined in the form of novels, graphic novels, and easy readers to the non-fiction books. It seemed strange to me because I have noticed that students tend to gravitate to the non-fiction section in the library because those books shorter and have lots of pictures and the graphic novels for the same reason.
When I assessed the types of books that the students actually read, the numbers were still higher on the fiction level. When looking at each category separately it showed eleven fiction novels, nine non-fiction books, seven graphic novels, and five easy readers. These numbers show the different categories very close but when you combine the all of the fiction categories together you have a fourteen book difference. I will note that one of the students in the study read more fiction novels than the others and that with her high number and the combination of graphic novels and easy readers read by the other students put fiction over the top in the numbers. I would be very interested to see if these findings would alter if the study had taken place during an entire school year and with a larger pool of students.
The fact that there was only a difference of six books in the data regarding the number of books read and the number of books returned unread. I have noticed that students just look at the cover and check out a book based on that criteria, many students don’t take the time to read the back cover or book sleeve to determine whether the book interests them or not. There were thirty-two books read and twenty-six unread. I was disappointed in these numbers.
The students’ feelings about reading were interesting to me. Despite the fact that these were students who claimed they didn’t like to read, two answered yes they like to read and two replied that sometimes they like to read. No one answered that no, they did not like to read and none of the students answered that reading was boring to them. I believe that these numbers would vary more with a larger pool of students.
I was pleased to see that three students answered that they sometimes read at home to one that answered yes they do. Three of the students said that reading is sometimes difficult for them, so I believe that their lack of desire stems more from difficulty than from lack of interest. I will note that the student that read most of the fiction novels had a slightly higher reading level than the other three, theirs were closer to a third grade reading level based on an Accelerated Reading Star test results that the teacher provided to me.
Action Research Future Directions and Recommendations:
I have been studying Nancie Atwell’s Reading and Writing Workshop teaching and classroom strategies in my other reading course and it is phenomenal. I feel that this type of teaching is so engaging and promotes students choices in their reading and writing, but it also requires them to be accountable and to take responsibility for their own learning and success. In order to be successful it would have to be implemented on a campus wide basis and I firmly believe that this program would dramatically increase student interest and participation in reading and writing classes.
I do believe that this question needs further exploration and would initially require a great deal of hard work by the reading and writing teachers, but I believe that they study would truly benefit our entire school district. The reading levels in our district tend to begin dropping between the 6th and 7th grade transition. I think that we need to find ways to increase reading interests in these students during this crucial time.
I have also noticed that students today need to be entertained, many don’t want to do the “work” of reading a novel or story. As I said before, they prefer the graphic novels and book series like Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Dork Diaries, where there are fewer words on the pages and pictures to break it up.
The administrators and teachers are realizing that something must be done to encourage the students to keep reading as they progress and I believe at least a campus wide study of this kind would be tremendously beneficial.
Final Thoughts:
I believe that my research premise is good one, I just think that it needs to be extended for a year on the 4th and 5th grade levels initially and then modify numbers as they move into the 6th, 7th, and 8th grades.
There needs to be a larger selection of books and other reading materials available to students, unfortunately the first department to feel budget cuts are libraries. Administrators and teachers know the importance of libraries but sometimes school boards just see the bottom line.
I feel good about the research data that I collected but I do feel that the results would be much different and more accurate if the study was done for a longer period of time and with all students on a campus. I do realize that it would be logistically difficult with everything else teachers have to do these days, but with a some work at the beginning of the year it could be implemented within the curriculum to not only motivate students to read, but it could also help in detecting issues and trends.
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