Sara Sewell

Stacee Jennings

Introduction

Definition of Engaged Reading

Importance of Engagement

Research on Engagement and Motivation

Instructional Strategies

Summary

Engaging students in the learning process is a major task in the life of every teacher. Many teachers think that the act of engaging students is simply attracting and holding fast the attention of their students, but it is actually a much more complex process. Obtaining engagement requires more than an act on the part of the teacher. This article will first define engaged reading, discuss the importance of engagement, present current research on the subject, and finally offer instructional strategies for teachers to use in the classroom.

Engaged reading is a merger of motivation and thoughtfulness. Engaged readers have deep-seated motivational goals, which include being committed to the subject matter, wanting to learn the content, believing in one's own ability and wanting to share understandings from learning. Engaged readers possess desires to learn and use their best strategies for understanding and interpreting text to enhance that learning (Guthrie, Alao, & Rinehart, 1997). In other words, engaged readers seek to understand. They enjoy learning and they believe in their reading abilities (Guthrie, 2000).

John Guthrie (2006) has done extensive research in student engagement and has created a definition with four dimensions. The first is affective engagement which takes into account a students positive reactions and physical emotions towards the teacher and other students. The second dimension is behavioral engagement and includes active participation "demonstrated through attention, persistence, and asking and answering questions" (p.5). The third dimension is cognitive engagement which requires "a mental investment in learning, effortful strategy use, and deep thinking" (p.5). Guthrie and colleagues add the fourth dimension of social engagement that introduces the "exchange of information and ideas with peers" (p.5).

Student engagement in any activity, including reading, is essential to the learning process. Research has shown that there is a link between engagement and positive academic outcomes (Fredricks, 2004). Most teachers would agree that if students are not engaged in a learning activity, meaningful learning is not happening. This is why engagement is such an important topic in the field of reading research. Guthrie asserts that “engagement is strongly related to reading achievement” (Guthrie, 2000) and has shown though research that engagement in reading can make up for low achievement due to low family income and educational background (Guthrie, Schafer, Huang, 2001). Engaged readers can and want to comprehend the texts they read. Guthrie (2000) points out the reasons reading engagement is so important in this statement;

Engaged readers are “motivated, strategic, knowledgeable, and socially interactive. Engaged readers are motivated to read for a variety of personal goals. They are strategic in using multiple approaches to comprehend. They use knowledge actively to construct new understanding from text. And they interact socially in their approach to literacy. Engaged readers are decision makers whose affects as well as their language and cognition play a role in their reading practices.”

This is what all teachers should want for their students!

Researchers have found engagement to be multifaceted. In engagement research, investigators have focused primarily on task mastery orientation and performance orientation (Guthrie, 2000). Individuals with a task mastery orientation seek to improve their skills and accept new challenges (Guthrie, 2000). They are dedicated to content understanding and learning flexible skills. Performance orientation is seen as extrinsic motivation (Guthrie, 2000). It is associated with the use of surface strategies for reading and desire to complete a task rather than to understand or enjoy a text. Although both orientations are imortant, most researchers believe that the task mastery goal is more likely to foster long term engagement and learning than the performance goal (Guthrie, 2000).

Another aspect of reading engagement is self-efficacy. Bandura (1986) defines self-efficacy as "people's judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances" (p. 391). It has been found that students with high self-efficacy see difficult reading tasks as challenging and work diligently to master them, using their cognitive strategies productively (Guthrie, 2000).

Instructional strategies for engagement can be found in books, magazines, and online resources. Teachers are always thinking up new ways to engage their students. Many researchers agree that engagement and motivation are multifaceted. Many studies focus on the extrinsic motivation for student achievement, but have found that it is intrinsic motivation that produces long lasting results. Guthrie (2000) provides a list of instructional contexts for engagement to improve motivation and reading outcomes.

Learning and Knowledge Goals

Teachers and students should develop clear learning goals that can be worked toward collaboratively. These goals can provide “a natural context for teaching students to understand conceptually” (p.5) and help students make connections between concepts. Learning goals should allow student some choice in the route taken to meeting that goal. They should be able to choose subtopics to study, materials to use, and tasks to complete that they find appealing.

Real World Interaction

Providing students with a brief real-world experience related to the learning goal catches their attention. Students are held captive by real-world objects that they may have never encountered before. Providing this experience instantly boosts interest and motivation to learn. A wonderful example of a real-life experience is bringing in chicken, sheep, and cows hearts for students to observe and explore before starting a unit on the heart.

Autonomy Support

"Choice is motivating because it affords students with control” (p. 6). Everyone wants to control their world. Giving students guided choice in their learning fulfills a sense of self-competence and self-confidence which motivates students to keep going and to learn more. Autonomy support requires teacher to provide guidance for students’ self-selection. Teachers should carefully guide students towards appropriate choices between tasks, materials, and sequences to increase their motivation and learning.

Interesting Texts for Instruction

Supplying students with a variety of texts that are relevant to the learning goals motivates students to seek out material that suits their personal reading level and interests. A classroom library with a range of Reading Levels of Books and subtopics will allow for autonomy support. Teachers should visit the school library to stock up on theme books for their units of study.

Strategy Instruction

Explicit instruction that show students how to get information from the text gives students the tools to comprehend what they are reading and successfully reach the learning goals. This instruction may include teacher modeling, scaffolding, and coaching. It is also important to explain to students why you are doing what you are doing and how it helps them to become better readers.

Collaboration

Bringing social interaction into learning allows students to see and discuss other perspectives with their peers. This interaction can allow students the opportunity to research a subtopic and show what they have found (autonomy support) while gaining the knowledge of several other subtopics by listening and discussing with their peers. Examples of collaboration are group projects, peer tutoring, and partner work.

Praise and Rewards

Praise and rewards are the extrinsic motivators that many teachers use as a quick fix to get students focused. Unfortunately, this type of motivation is usually not long-lasting. Teachers should provide students with constructive praise that reinforces the learning goal. Guthrie suggests the “3S-3P” method of praise; “praise that is sincere, specific, sufficient, and properly given for praiseworthy success in the manner preferred by the learner” (p. 7). For example a teacher may comment on a students reading by saying, “You did a wonderful job of using the picture to help you figure out that hard word” and give the student a big smile or pat on the back.

Evaluation

Teachers must provide balanced evaluation of student progress towards learning goals. Evaluation should not be feared by students nor should it be taken lightly. Providing students with plenty of time and choices in evaluation, along with constructive feed back, motivates students to keep moving on their path to achieving the learning goals. Teachers should use both assessment for learning and assessment of learning tools with their students.

Teacher Involvement

A teacher who cares about and is interested in the progress of their students should do all of the above strategies to help students learn. When students experience learning with an excited and actively engaged teacher they are much more likely to be excited about and engaged in the learning themselves. Teachers must believe in what they are teaching and the strategies they are using to teach.

Coherence of Instructional Processes

Using all of the above strategies together is what makes engagement happen. “When real-world interactions are closely aligned with interesting texts, coherence is increased. When students’ engagement in reading in enhanced by coordination of these instructional processes, coherence in the classroom is occurring at a high level” (p. 8). Each of these instructional strategies is simply a piece of the engagement puzzle. When all are used together, teachers will successfully engage their students.

Because engagement is such an abstract topic, it is very difficult to define and measure. In simple words, an engaged student is someone who is always looking at the appropriate book at the appropriate time, provides thorough responses to thought-provoking questions, becomes excited by or takes pride in learning new things, and willingly discusses ideas with other students (Guthrie, 2006). The above characteristics of an engaged reader are the elements that teachers try to instill in their students every day. By implementing the strategies explained in this article, hopefully teachers will be able to see growth in both the intrinsic and extrinsic motivation of their students.

For more information, please visit the following links:

Classroom Practices Promoting Engagement and Achievement in Comprehension: A Multimedia Presentation From Reading Research 2004 Click on CORI: Concept-Oriented Reading Instruction

Contexts for Engagement and Motivation in Reading (article)

Engaged Reading:

Turning Reading into an Active Experience

Frequently Asked Questions About Student Motivation

John T. Guthrie's Home Page

Using Engagement Strategies to Facilitate Children’s Learning and Success

References

Bandura, A. (1986). Social foundations of thought and action: A social cognitive theory. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Fredricks, J.A., Blumenfield, P.C., & Paris, A.H. (2004). School engagement: Potential of the concept, state of the evidence. Review of Educational Research, 74, 59-109.

Guthrie, J.T. (2000). Contexts for engagement and motivation in reading. In The handbook of reading research, volume III. Retrieved April 3, 2007, from http://www.readingonline.org/articles/handbook/guthrie/

Guthrie, J.T., Alao, S., Rinehart, J.M. (1997). Engagement in reading for young adolescents. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 40, 438-446.

Guthrie, J.T., Wigfield, A., Barbosa, P., Perencevich, K.C., Taboda, A., Davis, M.H., Scafiddi, N.T., & Tonks, S. (2004). Increasing reading comprehension and engagement through concept-oriented reading instruction. Journal of Educational Psychology, 96(3), 403-423.

Lutz, S.L., Guthrie, J.T., & Davis, M.H. (2006). Scaffolding for engagement in elementary school reading instruction. The Journal of Educational Research, 100, 3-21.

Stiggins, R. J., Arter, J.A., Chappuis, J., & Chappuis, S. (2006). Classroom assessment for student learning. Portland, OR: Educational Testing Services.

Commentary by Elizabeth Walker

Nice job girls

You have a spelling error in the paragraph "research on engagement and motovation" toward the end check the word important.

In the paragraph "importance of engagement" you say engagement can help close the gap due to low family income,you could inclued a specific strategie to address children who are at an economic dis-advantage.

Commentary by Paul Stewart

You have done a great job and I have a couple of suggestions to make your page better. The first is to add how to tell if adults are engaged in reading. There has been a study conducted about this topic: ****Adults' Engagement in Reading: A Test of Engagement Theory**** by M. Cecil Smith at Northern Illinois University. This study examined the extent to which adults' engage in reading tasks to meet a variety of personal purposes and needs. Differences between educational and occupational groups were examined in regards to reading engagement and the types of reading materials most likely to stimulate engaged reading were identified. Primarily, amount of time spent reading, reading effort, and enjoyment of reading tasks were used as indicators of engagement. Web address is: http://www.cedu.niu.edu/~smith/papers/engagement.htm

The second is that I think you should expand on the topic of self-efficacy. You wrote, “Bandura (1986) defines self-efficacy as people's judgments of their capabilities to organize and execute courses of action required to attain designated types of performances (p. 391). It has been found that students with high self-efficacy see difficult reading tasks as challenging and work diligently to master them, using their cognitive strategies productively” (Guthrie, 2000). What about students with low self-efficacy? I think it would interesting to see how they viewed difficult reading tasks and how they would master them using their cognitive strategies.

Commentary by Annette Gebhardt

What a daunting but important task engagement is! On the surface it would seem that engaging students would be simple, but your explanations show its complexity. The strategies that you included were really interesting and worth remembering. I agree that it is an abstract topic but using the strategies will certainly aid in teaching.

The first external link did not work for me.

You did a great job on a subject that I have not previously given much thought. Nice work!