Speaker: Tine Riis Andersen [@tineriis]
Affiliation: University of Stavanger
Title: Igniting reading interest in 5th grade students through Shared Reading
Abstract: This poster will present the research design for a study that investigates how to ignite reading interest for 5th grade students (10-11 years old) who have a negative attitude towards reading. The project will use the reading group practice Shared Reading (SR) as a method and performance-free space facilitated by a librarian to offer encounters with literature where the focus is on reading experience, resonance, and collective meaning-making. In a mixed-method study, the project will explore if and how, and to what extent, SR can enhance reading interest.
Long abstract
Reading is important to our society because reading, particularly reading of fiction, enhances empathy (Koopman & Hakemulder, 2015) and prosocial behaviour (Mar & Oatley, 2008). Considering such advantages of reading, the stark decline in 10-year-olds reading interest and leisure reading activity in Norway (Wagner et al., 2024) is a cause for growing concern. There have been many initiatives to increase reading motivation within the classroom, one of them being silent reading, where students read a book of their choice for 30 minutes (Lund, 2022). However, many children do not have positive experiences with reading and such opportunities alone will not yield engagement. Moreover, students in elementary school may already associate reading with performance and assessment, and these initiatives might not have the intended effect. An initiative which could be a valuable and innovative supplement with the aim of raising students’ reading motivation and engagement is to provide students with a performance-free space outside the classroom without any type of assessment of grading or performance. Shared Reading (SR; Davis, 2009) as a social and experience-based reading practice, offered at the school library or a local library, might open such a space, facilitating other meetings with literary texts and providing a playground for students to train in critical and creative thinking without feeling the pressure of performance and evaluation. SR is not an academic reading of a text. Instead of arriving at a specific interpretation or outcome the focus is on the group members’ experience of the text and the personal connections. Previous research in SR has mostly investigated mental health benefits for adults and various patient groups (Andersen, 2022; Billington et al., 2010; Canning, 2017; Dowrick, 2012; Kristensen et al., 2023). However, SR may have an unexplored potential in schools, as it can challenge the discourse of how literature is taught in schools, which is very far from the personal significance readers may apply to literary texts. This study investigates if and how participation in SR can ignite and sustain reading motivation in resistant readers. Apart from changing the students’ reading attitude, the hope of offering SR groups for students is to create a synergistic effect on the conversations in the classroom. The hypothesis is that participation in SR will lead to more engagement and effort in the classroom when discussing and working with literary texts. The project will set up 5-10 SR groups (including a control group) and recruit 50-100 students (10 students in each group). The texts will be chosen together with the RL based on quality, relevance to the students’ lives, and appropriate level of difficulty. In a mixed method design (Creswell & Plano Clark, 2006), participants will fill out scales of reading interest pre and post-intervention, and data will be analysed using ANCOVA to see if the SR activity has increased their reading interest. In addition, qualitative data (observation and interviews) will be collected from 2 of the groups to know more about how SR works in school, understand the dynamics during sessions, and identify possible signs of engagement or disengagement that would not be captured through scales. Some sessions will be audio and video recorded combined with researcher observations. In addition, teacher interviews and observation in the classroom will be included to get insight into whether the SR activity influences the students’ effort and interest in the classroom when reading and working with (literary) texts. Qualitative data will be analysed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006) to identify common themes across the dataset. There are no outcomes of the study yet, as the poster aims to present and get input on the research design.
References:
Andersen, T. R. (2022). Regaining autonomy, competence, and relatedness: Experiences from two Shared Reading groups for people diagnosed with cancer. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 1017166. Frontiers | Regaining autonomy, competence, and relatedness: Experiences from two Shared Reading groups for people diagnosed with cancer
Billington, J., Dowrick, C., Hamer, A., Robinson, J., & Williams, C. (2010). An investigation into the therapeutic benefits of reading in relation to depression and well-being. University of Liverpool.
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology, 3(2), 77–101. https://doi.org/10.1191/1478088706qp063oa
Davis, J. (2009). Enjoying and enduring: Groups reading aloud for wellbeing. The Lancet, 373(9665), 714–715. Redirecting
Creswell, J. W., & Plano Clark, V. L. (2006). Designing and conducting mixed methods research. SAGE Publ.
Hodge, S., Robinson, J., & Davis, P. (2007). Reading between the lines: The experiences of taking part in a community reading project. Medical Humanities, 33(2), 100–104. Reading between the lines: the experiences of taking part in a community reading project | Medical Humanities
Koopman, E. M. (Emy), & Hakemulder, F. (2015). Effects of Literature on Empathy and Self-Reflection: A Theoretical-Empirical Framework. Journal of Literary Theory, 9(1). Effects of Literature on Empathy and Self-Reflection: A Theoretical-Empirical Framework
Lund, H. (2022). Læseulyst ved stillelæsning. Paper presented at Nordic Network for Research in L1 Education NNFF, Helsinki, Finland. http://NNFF 9 Möten och mångfald – förstaspråksdidaktik i Norden 25.–26. oktober 2023,
Helsingfors, Finland Mar, R. A., & Oatley, K. (2008). The Function of Fiction is the Abstraction and Simulation of Social Experience. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 3(3), 173–192. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-6924.2008.00073.x
Wagner, Å.K.H. & Støle, H. (red.) (2024). Tid for lesing! Norske tiåringers leseforståelse i PIRLS 2021. Universitetsforlaget. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18261/9788215053257-24-03