Within the last decade, state and federal policy makers advanced many reforms to improve the academic achievement of linguistically and culturally diverse students across the country. These leaders embraced a traditional input-output paradigm where policy mandates (input) would lead to positive student achievement (output). This approach fails to…

When students enter middle school, they are confronted with the necessity of learning from complex content-area textbooks. Many students find these texts boring, and they may lack the higher-order reading comprehension skills they need to tackle complex text. Yet the ability to read informational text is essential to success in middle school and…

Traditionally, English reading has been thought of as an approach used to acquire language proficiency rather than as a way to understand information and elicit thoughtfulness. Although a positive correlation has been found between motivation and engagement, no study has yet been undertaken to discover the relationship between motivation and…

In a December 2007 "New Yorker" article, "Twilight of the Books," author Caleb Crain laments the decline of literacy in the United States, citing a number of studies indicating that "Americans are losing not just the will to read but even the ability." Many share Crain's angst. While the authors wouldn't disagree with Crain's point, it does beg…

Seventy-six fifth-year students from low-socioeconomic status backgrounds participated in three different instructional conditions in an intervention study. The first combined strategy training in top-level structuring and interrelated motivational support; the second implemented the strategy training only; and the third was a control condition…

The 160 third, seventh, and eleventh-graders involved in this study agreed, almost unanimously, that reading was "important." Participants cited the empowering benefits of reading as they justified this opinion. However, with regards to the enjoyment of reading, fewer middle and high school participants reported "liking"…

The current focus on measurable reading achievement in clearly defined areas, such as fluency and comprehension, has resulted in reduced attention toward motivation and affect in relation to literacy learning. However, motivation is a significant component within literacy instruction due to the link between motivation and action. It is important…

This study examined teachers' beliefs about motivating students to read through the development of a new survey questionnaire. The current investigation reports on initial tests of the scale's reliability and validity. The items for this measure were developed from an engagement perspective to reflect the motivational constructs represented in an…

This mixed-methods study explored the characteristics of a reading program at a South Central Los Angeles charter school, as well as explored the relationship between motivational and affective factors on the Student Approaches to Learning (SAL) instrument and students' reading lexile scores. Data were collected through student questionnaire…

In adolescent literacy research, there is a gap in literature relating to adolescent constructions of reading. It is not possible to gather significant research on the topic without hearing from the adolescents themselves. The purpose of this qualitative study was to discover what the adolescent participants consider to be "reading" and…

The purpose in this study was to examine the longitudinal relationships of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation with reading literacy development. In particular, the authors (a) investigated reading amount as mediator between motivation and reading literacy and (b) probed for bidirectional relationships between reading motivation and reading…

Could you use a superhero to teach reading, writing, critical thinking, and problem solving? While seeking the answer, secondary language arts teacher Maureen Bakis discovered a powerful pedagogy that teaches those skills and more. The amazingly successful results prompted her to write this practical guide that shows middle and high school…

Many students struggle with reading as they transition from the elementary to the middle grades and the literature becomes more complex. Many students may also have personal experiences that interfere with them seeing any importance, value, or enjoyment in reading literature, especially books assigned in school. As a result, "struggling readers…

Reading underachievement among adolescent students, particularly in urban areas, has been well documented in the literature. This reality points to two problems: Schools possess neither the capacity needed to prepare students for higher education and the workforce, nor the ability to help students view literacy as a tool for critical thinking,…

Teachers are influential in motivating and improving attitudes towards reading. This article reports on an investigation of eight teachers of 10- to 12-year-old students from five New Zealand schools and the strategies they used to improve attitudes to reading. Each school had been identified as implementing effective reading programmes by a panel…