My Coursework that related to motivation
ECI 540 - Reading in the Elementary School (Dr. Ann Harrington)
In this course among the many things I learned is the importance of introducing children to social justice themes as a way to motivate them to read, write, and take action. For my "Wow Books" project, I was introduced to many books including Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin Ramsey and Gwen Strauss, Wonder by R.J. Palacio, and Emmanuel's Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah by Laurie Ann Thompson. I can read books such as these to my students as a stepping stone to discussions and projects in which they can work collaboratively. According to Vygotsky's social constructivism theory, children learn as a result of their social interactions with others, particularly from interacting with others who are more developed than they are linguistically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally (Gambrell & Marrow, 2015).
In addition to using read alouds to bring awareness to social justice themes, I also learned the importance of using read alouds to improve vocabulary, background knowledge across all subject areas, expose students to text they would find too difficult to read on their own, and expose students to genres they might not have read before. "Numerous studies have found that young children can learn word meanings incidentally from read-aloud experiences. Having discussions during and after listening to a book aloud produced significant word learning, especially when the teacher scaffolds this learning by asking questions, adding information, or prompting students to describe what they heard. This process can be called dialogic reading." (Gambrell & Morrow, 2015)
As students increase their vocabulary and knowledge, their confidence in themselves as a reader will likely increase as well as their motivation to read. The "Matthew Effect" explains this theory. It basically says the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The students who read get better at reading, while the students who do not read do not get better at reading (Stanovich, 1986).
References:
Gambrell, L. B., & Morrow, L.M. (2015). Best practices in literacy instruction (5th ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
Stanovich, K.E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition
of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21(4), 360-407.
In this course among the many things I learned is the importance of introducing children to social justice themes as a way to motivate them to read, write, and take action. For my "Wow Books" project, I was introduced to many books including Ruth and the Green Book by Calvin Ramsey and Gwen Strauss, Wonder by R.J. Palacio, and Emmanuel's Dream: The True Story of Emmanuel Ofosu Yeboah by Laurie Ann Thompson. I can read books such as these to my students as a stepping stone to discussions and projects in which they can work collaboratively. According to Vygotsky's social constructivism theory, children learn as a result of their social interactions with others, particularly from interacting with others who are more developed than they are linguistically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally (Gambrell & Marrow, 2015).
In addition to using read alouds to bring awareness to social justice themes, I also learned the importance of using read alouds to improve vocabulary, background knowledge across all subject areas, expose students to text they would find too difficult to read on their own, and expose students to genres they might not have read before. "Numerous studies have found that young children can learn word meanings incidentally from read-aloud experiences. Having discussions during and after listening to a book aloud produced significant word learning, especially when the teacher scaffolds this learning by asking questions, adding information, or prompting students to describe what they heard. This process can be called dialogic reading." (Gambrell & Morrow, 2015)
As students increase their vocabulary and knowledge, their confidence in themselves as a reader will likely increase as well as their motivation to read. The "Matthew Effect" explains this theory. It basically says the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. The students who read get better at reading, while the students who do not read do not get better at reading (Stanovich, 1986).
References:
Gambrell, L. B., & Morrow, L.M. (2015). Best practices in literacy instruction (5th ed.). New York: Guilford Press.
Stanovich, K.E. (1986). Matthew effects in reading: Some consequences of individual differences in the acquisition
of literacy. Reading Research Quarterly, 21(4), 360-407.
ECI - 546: New Literacies and Media (Dr. Hiller Spires)
In this course we learned about Project Based Inquiry (PBI) and implemented a PBI with our own students. For my project I wanted to learn what effect technology has on reading motivation. First, the students completed a before project survey. Then, I modelled for my students how to conduct a book talk. Each student was able to select a book of their choice and choose a partner to work with. We worked on parts of the book talk together during guided practice and then the students worked with their partners to complete and video tape the book talks. Once the booktalks were completed the videos were loaded into our Google Classroom and students were able to watch each other's videos and post comments to their peers . The project was a huge success as indicated by the survey conducted at the end of the project. The students reported being highly motivated to read the books they had learned about in the book talk videos. Listen to two of my students as they discuss how they felt after the project.
In this course we learned about Project Based Inquiry (PBI) and implemented a PBI with our own students. For my project I wanted to learn what effect technology has on reading motivation. First, the students completed a before project survey. Then, I modelled for my students how to conduct a book talk. Each student was able to select a book of their choice and choose a partner to work with. We worked on parts of the book talk together during guided practice and then the students worked with their partners to complete and video tape the book talks. Once the booktalks were completed the videos were loaded into our Google Classroom and students were able to watch each other's videos and post comments to their peers . The project was a huge success as indicated by the survey conducted at the end of the project. The students reported being highly motivated to read the books they had learned about in the book talk videos. Listen to two of my students as they discuss how they felt after the project.
|
Click to set custom HTML
|
We also learned about Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge (TPAC) and how to use this to guide lesson planning. This model helped us learn how to plan our instruction by considering content knowledge or subject matter, what is good for learning (the how), and technology. Vacca, Vacca, and Mraz (2017) state children are "digital natives", meaning many of our children today have grown up with technology. We should tap into this knowledge to help students use technology to learn. In this course, as well as others, we were introduced to many different digital tools we could use in our classrooms.
Reference: Vacca, R. T., Vacca, J. A., & Mraz, M. (2017). Content area reading: Literacy and learning across the curriculum. Boston: Pearson.
Reprinted by permission of the
publisher, copyright by tpack.org
publisher, copyright by tpack.org
Students in my classroom have a place to store the books they select each week. In our coursework we learned students' motivation to read will increase when they get to choose books they find interesting.
Students in my classroom have a place to store the books they select each week. In our coursework we learned students' motivation to read will increase when they get to choose books they find interesting.