The Impact of Self-Selected Reading on Struggling Adolescent Readers

This is a bit of a departure from my previous posts which tend to be written very conversationally and casually.

I have been working to earn my Doctorate in Special Education and have done a lot (I mean A LOT) of reading about literacy and special education. While I still plan to write more casual teaching posts, I think it would be beneficial for me to share some of my doctoral level work as well.

Below is a literature review I conducted titled The Impact of Self-Selected Reading on Struggling Adolescent Readers. I won't post the entire paper in this post (it's 23 pages long, double spaced), but it is linked below if you'd like to read it.

Summary

What I did in this review was I searched through various academic journals for any study on Self-Selected Reading, or S-SR (providing students with time during class to independently read a text of their choosing. Students typically read novels of interest to them, but may also read non-fiction books, magazines, and articles during this time). As a high school teacher with students who hate to read, I wanted to know how using S-SR could effect their reading comprehension and their motivation to read.

While many teachers talk about S-SR (often under terms such as independent reading, sustained silent reading, choice reading, voluntary reading, etc.) I found that there is a serious lack of actual research on the topic.

After an exhaustive search I found 190 articles that mentioned S-SR and adolescents in some capacity. Of those, only 4(!) were actual studies on the effect of S-SR in grades 6-12 on reading comprehension or motivation. I knew I wouldn't find a lot focused on students with disabilities or even struggling readers, but to only find four studies with adolescents at all was shocking.

I ended up adding in studies with students in 3-5 grade, and some unpublished Thesis and Dissertations on the topic just to have enough data to work with (14 studies total).


Findings

The studies had mixed results in terms of the impact of S-SR on reading comprehension. None of these studies found a negative effect from implementation of S-SR, suggesting that use of S-SR is as good as or better than typical methods of instruction used in control groups.

Interestingly, all of the studies that focused on reading comprehension of struggling readers specifically showed positive effects, so S-SR may be beneficial for struggling readers including those with disabilities.

All of the studies which measured motivation reported positive findings. In interviews, students stated that they enjoyed reading more and that they felt they were improving as readers as a result of Self-Selected Reading. Many teachers observed increased student engagement and noted that students were requested extra reading time. Students were also found to increase reading time outside of school.


Full Paper: The Impact of Self-Selected Reading on Struggling Adolescent Readers


During my Master's Program I also wrote on the topic here: SUSTAINED SILENT READING: WHAT THE RESEARCH ACTUALLY SAYS

Ready Player One: A Trade Book Evaluation

Another school assignment inbound. This time I was tasked with reviewing a trade book (basically any book you can pick up at a regular book store) to "learn how to relate real world, authentic reading to my own life (both personal and professional) and the lives of my students." Below is my review of Ready Player One.

Note: This post does contain affiliate links. If you use the link and make a purchase I will receive a small commision at no expense to you. The content of this post has not been influenced in any way by this.

Purpose

I chose to read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline because I felt it would tie in well with my English classes. This year I am experimenting with using gamification (application of game design principles to build student engagement) in my classroom, and I felt that a book that takes place in a virtual gaming world would align with my theme of leveling up as learners. I also thought students would likely enjoy the story since it features many pop culture references, video games are seemingly ubiquitous with teenagers, and there is a movie adaptation available.

Application and Relevance

My primary purpose in reading this book was to apply it in my classroom and with my students. In following Wade in his quest to discover Halliday’s Easter Egg hidden in the VR world of OASIS (the finder of which would inherit his fortune and ownership of OASIS), I found the elements of the challenge to be very intriguing. While there was a simple base quest of following a trail to reach the end goal, there were many other elements layered in. Finding and interpreting the various clues required the players to study history and psychology. Some tasks could only be completed alone, while others required team work. Many aspects of the challenges also targeted different skills and talents of the players.

In reading I found myself analyzing the few game mechanics I had incorporated into my classroom and seeing how much further I could push it. I plan to incorporate far more interaction between my students through small group challenges, whole group cooperative tasks, and some direct competition. I also want to push myself to incorporate other subject areas into my units, as well as multiple means of demonstrating understanding, in order to create a more comprehensive approach to literacy.

Elements of Engagement

Ready Player One was a very engaging the book – the kind that keeps you up late into the night as you read “just one more chapter.” Cline accomplishes this through numerous elements of engagement, starting first with people that we can care about. The novel’s protagonist Wade Watts is instantly sympathetic, an intelligent kid neglected by his aunt and growing up in the futuristic equivalent of a trailer park. Rather than bemoaning about his lot in life, Wade actively seeks ways to improve his life. As a result, the reader wants to support him and follow him through his journey.

Cline also does a great job creating a world the reader can visualize. From the “stacks” where Wade grew up and his virtual high school, to Archaide and Anorak's Castle, there are enough details included to create a fully realized world, but there is enough left to the reader’s imagination that we can feel comfortable and somewhat familiar in those settings. There is also a good balance of realistic settings like Aech’s Basement chatroom and fantastical places such as the zero-gravity club so that the reader’s imagination has moments to rest and reset.

Of course, a story if only as compelling as the challenges faced by its characters. Throughout the book, Wade faces danger and conflicts, and he must take risks and make difficult choices to overcome the obstacles he faces. Initially the quest to find Halliday’s Easter Egg is merely an escape for Wade from the pain and suffering of his everyday life. After becoming instantly famous for finding the first key, however, Wade’s perspective shifts. Gradually his primary drive becomes ensuring the corporation Innovative Online Industries (IOI) does not find the Easter Egg in order to prevent from them monetizing OASIS. This puts him in direct conflict with IOI. Not only does the corporation attempt to interfere with him in the virtual world, but they attempt to eliminate him in the real world. After his trailer is blown up, Wade is forced to go into hiding along with his friends Aech and Art3mis. From there he risks his life each time he logs in to OASIS, and eventually makes the decision to face IOI directly, recognizing how much it would hurt impoverished children like him if OASIS was no longer available.

There is a strong chronological structure in the novel, as there is a race against time to find the Egg before IOI. While there are no date or time stamps on chapters as other novels may use, Cline makes reference to the passing of time regularly, beginning in the prologue with a ticking off of each year after Halliday’s announcement “And another year went by. And another.” before revealing the full date when Wade’s avatar appears as the first name on the Scoreboard. As the story progresses, Wade laments how long some puzzles take to solve or the time it takes to travel or make arrangements before they can move forward. This gives the reader a clear understanding of the time that is passing.

Throughout Ready Player One there are also ample moral and ethical dilemmas. The primary debate carried through the novel is that of freedom or success of the individual versus the collective group. Wade, Aech and Art3mis directly confront the concern about if they should work to help each other in the hunt for Halliday’s egg, even though that goes against their personal interests. Readers can also discuss why we support Wade, Aech and Art3mis teaming up, but criticize IOI for doing the same with their employees.

Text Connections

This book offers many opportunities to create connections between the text and the reader, other texts, and the world. I believe students will be able to relate to Wade, and his struggle to fit in despite being different and lacking the resources of other kids his age. Many of the students in my classes also come from poor families who live in trailer parks where they are often woken by gunfire, as Wade is at the start of chapter 1.

They will also be able to connect with the characters building their relationships. While Wade may meet Aech and Art3mis in a virtual basement, we can all relate to meeting new people and developing friendships based on shared interests. Since my students are in high school, they will also likely recognize the awkward and confusing experience of exploring romantic interests.

Personally, I found myself connecting with Wade and his struggle with his health and weight. In our modern society I think many people will see themselves in this teenager who has to force himself to exercise before logging in to OASIS because the allure of that world and its comforts is so appealing. Even if students can’t directly relate in terms of their health, the can all understand the difficulty of putting down their phone or turning off the TV in order to do necessary tasks like homework and chores. 

Ready Player One is rife with references to other texts, providing ample changes to text-to-text connections. Notably, the entire quest to find the Easter Egg is based on Halliday’s life in the 80s, referring to many old arcade games, movies and TV shows of the time. Looking beyond these deliberate references, I plan to push my students to think even deeper, making comparisons across theme. It is important for students to recognize that some messages are universal, and remain true in the past, present, and future. One of the underlying themes in the novel is that of a dystopian society escaping reality through media, rather than facing their reality and trying to change it. This instantly reminded me of Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. In this book, the main character Montag begins to realize his wife Mildred, and much of the population, is gradually blocking out all of reality, spending most of her time with “the family” on their interactive TV wall, or wearing earbud radio receivers.

I believe my students will also be able to make connections to other media that features characters who attempt to hide their true identities in the same way that Wade hides his weight issues, and Aech hides the fact that she is not only female in a male dominated culture, but also black and a lesbian. Many of my students will make this connection with Sword Art Online, an animated series about teenagers trapped in a virtual world. Much of this series focuses on the persona these teens attempt to create, and how they reconcile them with their true natures and backgrounds. Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg also provides a great opportunity for connecting texts about concealing identities to fit in, as well as a direct connection to Aech hiding her sexuality from others.

Ready Player One also presents some amazing options for text-to-world connections. The most obvious is in the burgeoning field of virtual reality technology, with Playstation VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and VR apps becoming commonplace. I plan to read informational texts with my students about these technologies, as well as the myriad of ways they are being used - not just for entertainment, but in education, medicine, and even nation security as well. Another connection I know many of my students will enjoy exploring is to real world pro-gaming. E-Sports, which were once seen as a frivolous pastime, is now become a billion-dollar industry, with championships played in front of audiences of thousands and broadcast to millions of people on national television.

Lastly, while it is not a major plot point of the novel, Cline describe the state of the “real” world of Ready Player One as suffering from "The ongoing energy crisis. Catastrophic climate change. Widespread famine, poverty, and disease. Half a dozen wars"(p1). I would like my students to explore this description and analyze real world events and factors that could contribute to such a future. These topics would include climate change, current wars such as those in Afghanistan, Syria, and Yemen, potential future conflicts including political struggles with Russia and China, the fossil fuel debate, and reacial and economic disparity both within the United States and globally.

MAGIC REALLY DOES EXIST: THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP YOUR CLASSROOM (PART ONE)

Image courtesy of KonMari.com

The Inspiration

This past week I signed up for Educators 2 Educators Teacher New Year Reboot Conference. While there was a lot of great information available at this conference, the thing I wanted to see more than anything was The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up Your Classroom from Building Book Love.

I'd previously read Marie Kondo's book, but had never thought about applying it to my classroom before. I've been feeling stressed lately about the size of my room, and the lack of storage and wall space, so seeing BBL's post on Instagram seemed serendipitous.

When I watched her presentation, the number one thing that stood out to me was the concept of taking EVERYTHING out and then figuring out how to organize things. I had been trying to organize around the things I had already stored, even though those things had been put away haphazardly in a rush at the beginning of the year and where they were placed really made no sense. No wonder I wasn't making any progress!

Feeling super energized and optimistic, I decided to commit my entire teacher planning day after Winter Break to this challenge.

If you're interested in doing the same in your room, I highly recommend you join Building Book Love's Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up Your Classroom FREE 7 Day Challenge.


Day One

A quick snapshot of what me room looked like daily.

Despite my enthusiasm, it took a little effort to get going. What can I say? Coming back to work after two weeks and hitting the ground running is a little rough. Still, I eventually did start pulling out all of my belongings and stacking them on the desks in the middle of my room. The only things I left in place were student binders and notebooks, because I knew I wanted them to stay where they were. EVERYTHING else came out. EVERYTHING.

It was kind of exhausting removing items from every corner of the room, but it also felt really good to take stock of what I had. In the 7 years I've been teaching I've been through 4 subject areas, 4 classrooms, and combined with a co-teacher with 25 years experience. So while I had a lot of the usual clutter of supplies and materials, I also had a ton of off miscellaneous items around. I honestly could not have told you half of what was in my room.

But with everything pulled out and categorized, things didn't seem so bleak. I realized I had a fair amount of space to store things on shelves if I organized properly, and I had more wall space available once the boxes and bins were out of the way.

All of my sorted piles

The first major thing I did was recognize that I simply could not store our Relay for Life fundraising materials in my room. I had shirts, wristbands, and other materials filling up filing cabinet drawers, bookshelves, and tabletops. Feeling frustrated, I vented to my sister whose own room is one building over from mine. And, like the sound of angels from heaven, she told me:

"I have an empty cabinet this can probably all fit in."

BAM! Big cart, 3 shelves, and 3 filing cabinet drawers were freed! Talk about magic!

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Next I went into my miscellaneous pile. I knew some of it would be tricky to sort and organize, but there was also clearly a lot that I simply did not need. With ruthless precision I yanked out anything I knew right away was unnecessary and started a give away pile.

I also started a return pile because, apparently, I had things that belonged to a number of other people.

Once the pile had grown too big to fit on one desk, I bagged it up and brought it to our planning room and put it on display. Another sigh of relief. I could finally breathe in my classroom.

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I boxed up the rest of the miscellaneous items to deal with another day, then moved on to my novels. I realized just how few I had actually taken to my new room. I stacked them on my nicest bookshelf and planned to get more books from storage. 

Looking around the room I started to see things I hadn't before. My Harry Potter posters, as much as I loved them, did not match my Superhero theme, so them came down.

I had highlighters stored in three different places. They were all combined into one container.

I HATED the sliding draw organizers I used because of course adding an extra level in my desk drawers made sense. Who wouldn't want more room? Except they slid around, blocked access to the other materials in the drawer, and they were ugly. Now I had the clarity to let them go.

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Near the end of the day I found myself looking back to my desk area repeatedly. There was nothing inherently wrong with it, but it definitely did NOT "spark joy" as Marie Kondo would recommend. It felt cramp and cluttered, and despite having a rack organizer, desk drawers, and a 2 drawer filing cabinet, I was constantly stacking papers on random corners and over my printer until I could get to them. It simply wasn't working.

So I yanked out my desk. I didn't even like it to begin with. It's metal, and it doesn't watch the wood of my shelves or the build in shelf that holds the room's electronics. I had made do with it because it was all I had, but after tidying everything else, I felt ready to try removing it completely!

It didn't work. Or rather, removing my desk and shifting my computer to the side counter didn't work, because then I would be putting my back to the room any time I took attendance or loaded a presentation. No bueno.

Still, removing that desk had felt so good, I simply refused to put it back. After playing around with a number of ideas, I condensed two of the student computers to one table, and dragged the other table over. I tried it in a few spots and finally placed it in a spot that DID spark joy.

With only a few minutes before I would have to leave for my doctorate classes, I rewired my computer, not even caring that the wires were in a cluttered pile. Somehow it still felt better than my old desk and it's hidden wires ever had.

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Several students came in the next day and commented on how much bigger the room looks and how open it is! I really expected them to be chiding me about the massive pile of things I had waiting on our small group table but I guess the overall effect of my tidying and rearranging overrode that.

Their enthusiasm gave me the energy to push through a 12 hour day the next day.

Coming Soon: Day Two