Inquiry 1 Findings

Throughout my online research one article that stood out to me was From Children's Literature to Readers Theatre: Get kids engaged with books by getting them onstage. This particular article focused on literature inspired conversation and dramatic play. Readers Theatre is a stage reading of literature that emphasizes the importance of text by using limited action, suggested characterization, no costumes, and no props. Many teachers and reading specialists, who regard it as a tool for teaching reading skills, have students read from prefabricated scripts. This activity is widely used as an effective means for increasing reading fluency as students practice reading aloud with others for the sake of a performance. It can also familiarize students with a literary text and deepen their comprehension of a text simply because successful reading aloud involves understanding what one is reading.

While the approach to Readers Theatre encompasses the goal of both reading and language arts it also stresses the use of reader-created scripts. when readers create and perform their own scripts, they not only improve their reading skills but also enhance their literary appreciation, thereby increasing their chances of developing a love for literature and becoming lifelong readers. 

This is a great strategy to allow students to choose a book or having the opportunity to write their own story and share with the class or in small groups. Further, this strategy helps build student curiosity within literature and guide them towards literature that might be more engaging for each student. 

The author bases these statements on John Dewey's philosophy if experiential educations. Dewey observed in experience and education, learning takes place most profoundly when children were highly involved in creation of the learning experience.

Poe, E. (2010). From children’s literature to Readers Theatre: get kids excited and engaged with books by getting them onstage. American Libraries, 41(5).

Murray and Lee-Daniels write about what they believe to be one of the most promising approaches. DEAR or mostly known as Drop Everything and Read has been a popular approach to reading practice for more than 30 years. In Dear, the teacher provides a regular, fixed time. for voluntary reading. During this time everyone (sometimes including the teacher) puts aside all other work and reads. As children adapt to DEAR, the reading time can be extended. There are no interruptions and no assignments based on their readings. The most successful aspect of this strategy I believe is that students have the choice to choose anything from a novel to a comic book. This is a great form of universal design because students have the ability to choose a book at their own reading ability to help engage them to read something they are interested in and basically want to read. 

When it doesn't work...

What I enjoyed about this article is how it mentions further strategies when this approach might not be working with your students. When you notice your students are bored, not reading at all, or look like students are reading but could not tell you what they just read you can take this approach. You can group students into pairs based on similar reading levels. Each partner will read 10 pages independently before having a rewarding conversation with one another about what they have just read. Students can then give information about their book, ask their partner about unfamiliar words, or raise questions about what each other had read. The teacher will then pull a reader from each group  and ask students a series of questions to probe his or her attitude towards reading. Such questions can be what books do you like? Where do you read besides school? Are you reading more than you were last month? What makes you want to read more or less? Ask students these questions once a month to note any changes in their attitude or feelings about reading. 

Book Worm: is an another awesome strategy to encourage students to read more. You let each student design a bookworm that will be displayed on the bulletin board. The bulletin board will contain a boy and a girl worm under the title with each students' individual worms holding books. Everyone's bookworm begins at zero pages and moves around the board increments of 100 pages until 400 plus pages goal is reached. According to the article this strategy seems to boost students confidence in reading on their own. 

Lee-Daniels, S., & Murray, B. (2000). DEAR me: What does it take to get children reading? Reading Teacher, 54(2), 154–155.

Technology

I am somewhat unfamiliar with using technology that supports student literacy within the classroom, therefore I found the following article helped guide my understanding about the benefits that it can have on students.

Literacy instruction traditionally refers to the teaching of basic literacy skills like reading, writing, listening and speaking. In today's digital world, however, technology has contributed to an expanded understanding of literacy. Besides having the basic literacy skills, today's students also need technology skills for communicating, investigating, accessing and using information, thinking critically about messages inherent in new media, and understanding and evaluating data. We see Media Literacy within the curriculum where students are learning the ability to communicate competently in all media forms. As well as access, understand, analyze, and evaluate the images, words, and sounds that comprise our societies.

Electronic books and online texts often are equipped with hypermedia, which are links to text, data, graphics, audio, or video. Research indicated that hypermedia software has positive effects on student learning and comprehension. It helps improve student comprehension of text is likely related to its ability to respond to the needs of an individual learner for information, which results in an increased sense of control over the learning environment and higher levels of intrinsic motivation.

Raz-Kids is a great comprehensive levelled reading resource for kids and teachers. With hundreds of eBooks offered at 29 different levels of reading difficulty, it's easy to put the right content in every student's hands. Every eBook allows students to listen to, read at their own pace, and record themselves reading. Students then take a corresponding eQuiz complete with an extended answer response to test comprehension and determine future instructions needs. Once a student has read ten or more of their levelled eBook and passed each of eQuizzes, they advance on to the next reading level where they have access to lengthier and more difficult text.

Raz-Kids is an amazing interactive and engaging way for students to gain interest in reading using technology. Not only is it beneficial for students but the program also offers great resources for teachers such as, text levelling system, level correlation chart, assessing a students level, and about running records. However the program is only directed for junior and primary grades.

Throughout my placements I have noticed students using Raz-Kids, however I was not exposed all the benefits or attributes of the program. After conducting research on it, I cannot wait to use it in my future classrooms and to see the progression of my students.

Holum, & Ann|Gahala. (2001, September 30). Critical Issue: Using Technology To Enhance Literacy Instruction. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED480229

Reflection 

The following inquiry question really helped me gain an insight into new engaging ways to implement reading into classrooms. Based on my qualifications all my research findings are geared towards primary and junior students. I noticed that once I began researching my topic, my thought process of what I thought the answer was going to be changed. At first I had imagined finding different forms of literature, such as wordless books, would be my main focus. However, I was able to find many different strategies that educators can use to help engage students reading regardless of what type of text it was. Cultivating a research study provides evidence that can help benefit my teaching within the classroom. Being able to explore multiple resources helps me become more educated on issues such as this inquiry that I may not feel as confident in implementing into a classroom. With that said, after completing my research I am excited to try these new strategies within my up coming placement and note any changes that I may see in students.