Hands-On Experiences and Reading Comprehension: Building Motivation

    We all know those readers: the ones who voraciously devour every book, who love finding new details about the topics that they love, who read and read and read.
    As a classroom teacher, it's easy for me to identify these students and build a classroom to support them. I love to use flexible assignments so students don't have to waste their time with busywork; I build a wide classroom library with texts on many topics; I make time in the classroom for students to share their lives beyond school.
    But I don't want to stop there! I want to turn every reader into a motivated reader. This is more easily said than done, however. How do we create engaged readers?

Stream Study Flip-Flop
    This fall I took students on a field trip that included a stream study. In previous years, I had made sure that students were well prepared for the stream study ahead of time. We read texts about the biotic index, we practiced identifying stream creatures, and even did practice inventories.
    What made this year different? I focused a bit more on watersheds at the outset, which meant that the stream study readings would have to take place after the field trip. I was even a little annoyed at myself at my poor timing when I realized this!
    When students jumped into the text after the field trip, however, I realized that something amazing had happened. I used a text from my Problem and Solution Text Structure packet called "The Biotic Index."
     In past years, students have had trouble moving beyond the topic of the text (macroinvertebrates) to be able to think about the structure of the text. This time, though, they showed far deeper comprehension. As I walked around the room to listen in on their partner discussions and see their graphic organizers I could see evidence of stronger connections and more effective analysis. What was happening?

Stimulating Tasks

As I thought about my observations over the next few days, I remembered a line of research into stimulating tasks. I found these journal articles while researching my details book (The Forest and the Trees: Helping Readers Identify Important Details in Texts and Tests, which was so much fun to write but which only 2 people have ever read.)  Shortly after I finished the book, the curriculum pendulum shifted to common core, and discussions of reading motivation faded into the background as everyone clamored to talk about text complexity and textual analysis.
    The article in question, "Influences of Stimulating Tasks on Reading Motivation and Comprehension" discusses how building situational interest in students can improve their reading comprehension by building motivation for reading. The process described in the article turns around traditional classroom practices by putting the stimulating task before the reading experiences. In this arrangement, the hands-on activity (like dissecting owl pellets) happens before the students read. What happens next is a cascade of good things: kids are interested in the topic, so they read more; as they read more, they are motivated to unlock the meaning of the text; as they unlock the meaning of one text, they gain the keys to unlock more. The authors of the article put it best:

 
    They have a sobering picture for students who don't get to experience a classroom with opportunities for situational interest: "Likewise, students who have fewer experiences of situational interest in reading will have fewer opportunities for experiencing competence in gaining valued information, fewer occasions for directing their learning, and fewer interactions with peers."

    So my mistiming of the macroinvertebrate readings turned out to be positive...especially because it led me back to a line of research and thinking that I had half-forgotten. It's helped me to realize that the goal of creating engaged readers is not so elusive after all. When I feel pressure to conform and just assign the worksheets like everyone else, it's journal articles like these that keep me planning the crazy field trips and buying the stacks of books at the used bookstore.