Improving primary pupils reading motivation and comprehension

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Improving primary pupils reading motivation and
comprehension
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About the study

• This US study looked at what teachers could do to
  increase pupils reading motivation and
  comprehension by using stimulating practical
  tasks.
• The two part study included a review of existing
  research as well as a school based project to see
  how reading skills could be improved in science
  lessons.

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Findings from the literature review

• Six teaching and learning approaches were
• identified which were shown to increase
• pupils reading motivation and comprehension.

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Increasing reading motivation through pupil
choice

• When pupils were encouraged to choose the
  books they read, combined with having a say in
  how they undertook the reading, for example with
  a reading partner their reading motivation
  increased.

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2) Providing high quality materials

• The following factors were important in
  increasing pupils
• reading motivation
• a topic that all pupils can relate to
• a format which is appealing to pupils
• content which stimulates pupils to want to
  learn.

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3) Collaborative learning approaches

• Collaborative learning involves supporting
  pupils development of reasoning and negotiating
  skills. This can be undertaken in whole class
  teaching or in group work.

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4) Clearly defined learning objectives

• Ensuring that pupils understand the objectives
  for what they should be learning supports them in
  engaging with the reading content as well as the
  wider topic.

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5) Teacher support reassures pupils

• When pupils feel that their teacher understands
  their needs and cares about their progress in
  reading they are positive and motivated towards
  reading and learning more generally.

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6) Reading awards to encourage

• The use of reading awards such as book tokens or
  prizes can encourage pupils reading motivation
  in the short term.

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What about the reading programme with local
primary pupils? (Part 2 of the study)

• The use of practical activities in subject
  teaching
• e.g. science in conjunction with related reading
• activities can boost pupils reading motivation
  and
• comprehension.
• The next slide shows what happened in
• primary classes

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What were the results?

• Pupils who undertook a higher number of
  practical tasks in science increased their
  reading comprehension, more than pupils who
  undertook a fewer number of practical tasks.  

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More about the results

• Pupils who undertook more practical tasks were
  more motivated to read about the topic, than
  pupils who undertook fewer tasks.

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About the project

• 98 nine year olds (grade 3) from four classes
  across two schools took part in the study.
• Two classes acted as intervention groups and two
  were controls.
• Pupils in the intervention classes undertook a
  high number of practical tasks in science or
  nature lessons
• Pupils in the control groups took part in a low
  number of tasks

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What went on in the science lessons?

• Pupils worked on projects such as how animals
• defend themselves. Teachers combined practical
• tasks with related reading which included both
  non-fiction as well as fiction.
• The practical tasks included
• observations (e.g. of how fish behaved)
• drafting questions and hypotheses (e.g. how fish
  might defend themselves)
• designing experiments to test out hypotheses
  data collection and the creation of graphs to
  illustrate findings.

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Follow-up reading

• Study reference
• Influences of stimulating tasks on reading
  motivation and comprehension (University of
  Maryland) published in the Journal of Educational
  Research, March 1, 2006 
• The reading intervention programme used in the
  study was the Concept-Orientated- Reading
  Instruction (CORI) www.cori.umd.edu/overview/

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Feedback

• Did you find this useful?
• What did you like?
• What didnt you like?
• Any feedback on this Research Bite
• would be much appreciated. Please email
• your feedback to
• emdad.rahman_at_dcsf.gsi.gov.uk

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