Michelle Kelley

The Current State of Motivation to Read among Middle School Students.

This study examined middle school students’ motivation to read using an adapted version of the Motivation to Read Profile (MRP) Survey. The MRP is comprised of items assessing students’ self-concepts as readers and their value of reading. In total, 1080 sixth-, seventh-, and eighth-grade students responded. Descriptive and inferential statistics were derived in order to assess overall motivation to read, self-concept, and value of reading. Findings revealed that students’ motivation to read and value of reading declined as grade level increased and differed according to gender. However, self-concept remained stable and was greater than students’ value of reading.

R5: The Sustained Silent Reading Makeover That Transformed Readers

This article reports on a retooled Sustained Silent Reading (SSR) block in an intermediate classroom designed to meet the needs of all students. The authors discuss the benefits and obstacles to SSR and include the framework and classroom management tips that aided their successful implementation of an independent reading block. Students engaged in a structured format called R5 (read, relax, reflect, respond, and rap), which resulted in significant gains on informal and formal assessments of wide reading, metacognitive awareness, and comprehension. Furthermore, to motivate and engage readers, the authors suggest that teachers Consistently monitor and guide the reading habits of their students Build in opportunities for sharing ideas and discussions about text Promote the application of metacognitive strategies in the context of reading A review of the research on independent reading and SSR, classroom observations, and assessment findings are provided to illustrate the power of this thoughtful literacy block.

Guiding Students through Expository Text with Text Feature Walks.

The Text Feature Walk is a structure created and employed by the authors that guides students in the reading of text features in order to access prior knowledge, make connections, and set a purpose for reading expository text. Results from a pilot study are described in order to illustrate the benefits of using the Text Feature Walk over discussion alone or a traditional approach to textbook reading. Practical suggestions for implementation are offered so classroom teachers can replicate the Text Feature Walk in their own classrooms.

From the Editorial Team of Literacy Research and Instruction

AbstractThe purpose of the study was to explore the validity of a novel computer-analytic developmental scale, the Writing Ability Developmental Scale. On the whole, collective results supported the validity of the scale. It was sensitive to writing ability differences across grades and sensitive to within-grade variability as compared to human-rated sensitivity. It predicted scores on the human-rated continuous scale very well. As compared to the human-rated continuous scale, it demonstrated similarly constant mean differences across ethnicity and socioeconomic status—although not for all rising grade differences or for gender. There was no genre differential across the two scales, and measurement precision was highly similar for the two scales.