Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Purple Group Surveys Matrix

Listed below is the Purple Group results from the surveys in our matrix. We focused on Elementary students and their families. 



Reference
Attitude
Towards reading
How many books owned
Why do they read
Motivation for reading a piece of literature
Reading Likes or dislikes
Reading at home
Family attitude toward reading
Feelings about texts or e-books
Children’s Attitude Toward Reading: A National Survey
By Michael C. McKenna,, Dennis J. Kear
In a research of more than 18,000 students nationwide, a student’s positive attitude toward reading declined through grade six. There were little differences from 1st through 3rd grade, but 4th and 5th grade students showed a significant decline. One reason could be the competition between other recreational interests (McKenna, Kear 1995)







Development of an Instrument for Measuring Parental Beliefs About Reading Aloud to Young Children by Barbara D. Debaryshe and Janeen C. Binder

Parents that read to their children often own many books and read to their children often.




Parents reading beliefs are often the beliefs owned by children. These beliefs have a significant role on a child’s literacy environment at home. There is a link between negative feelings toward reading and the family’s educational background and economic status(Debaryshe, Binder 1994)

Who’s Reading and Why: Reading Habits of 1st Grade through Graduate Students by Deanna Camp
In this article students were surveyed as to what they liked to read and why they read. The reasons varied across grade levels. The article also talked about what was being read, the people that most influenced their reading. As the students grow older, their reading habits change and they become more disinterested in reading. Some are for a lack of time and others because they just do it because they have been told to read.

There were three reasons stated for the reason students read: for fun, to learn something new, and because they were told to in order to fulfill an assignment. Some others stated that they read to pass time.

Most students liked reading fiction books. Some students felt good because they feel as though they did something for themselves.
Students reported that some read daily, weekly, sometimes, and never. The elementary students read daily mostly because theirs was homework related.
Most of the parents are aiding students in reading when they are doing homework. They also have their students to read aloud to them and with them. The students also spoke of learning to read and who aided the most in this process. For the most part it was parents who read to them frequently.

Scholastic 2010 Kids & Family Reading Report: Turning the Page in the Digital Age By Scholastic Inc.
When children in the study were asked the most important part about reading for fun, children said it was to; open up their imagination, be inspired by the stories they are reading and more or less gain new information from the text they are reading.

Students listed a variety of extremely important reasons and very important reasons they read for fun including; personal entertainment, to experience a really great story, expand their imaginations, learn new information, to help them succeed in school, to be inspired by the characters or the story, and to gain personal insight. Students also said they felt a sense of accomplishment and pride when they finished reading a book.
The parents of the study states that giving their children a choice in the books they read help increase their children’s interest to read for fun. They also included making sure there are interesting books at home for the children to read, limiting the use of technology to a specific amount of time and suggesting books their children might be interested in.
When asked what their favorite books were,  children listed the following books; Scooby Doo, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Green Eggs and Ham, Junie B. Jones, Magic School Bus, Percy Jackson, Curious George, Clifford, Star Wars, Harry Potter, Cat in the Hat, Spongebob, Magic Tree House, Captain Underpants, and Angelina Ballerina.


Parents believe that the use of technology in a child’s life negatively affects the time kids spend reading books, doing physical activities with friends and spending time with family members (Scholastic 2010). When asked, only 25% of kids had read a book on a digital device; though 57% of students said they wanted to do so. One-third of students said they would read more books if they had access to a digital reading device.
Elementary Reading Attitude Survey (ERAS) Scores in
Academically Talented Students By Frank C. Worrel, David A. Roth and Nina H. Gabelko
This article discussed the use of the Elementary Reading Attitude Surveys (ERAS) scores and how they correlated with children’s attitudes towards reading. The article found that students who are considered academically talented have a better attitude towards reading, even as their age increases. The study also found that as students get older; their attitude towards reading becomes more negative, except in academically talented students, who feel they have a general positive attitude towards reading.
It was also found that overall; girls had a more positive outlook on both recreational and academic reading than boys did.


Students who are considered academically talented are more motivated to read because they find reading to be easier than students who are on a normal academic track.




Electronic Books: Fostering Emergent Literacy in Early Childhood Education
 By Isela Almaguer, ED. D & Carmen Pena, PH.D. The University of Texas Pan American



The Commission on Reading reports: “The single most important activity for building the knowledge required for eventual success in reading is reading aloud to children.”  Indeed, one specific activity has become a staple of nearly every classroom, shared reading (Almaguer & Pena, 2010).


Extensive research shows that children’s language and literacy develop-ment begins at home and through family ex-periences long before children begin formal in-struction (Snow, Burns, Griffin, 1998).
Considering the benefits of implementing shared reading in our classrooms and with current research indicating the immediate and motivating response of children to technology, it is imperative that we look at the benefits of combining both (Almaguer & Pena, 2010). 
Electronic books enhance a strong print-based curriculum because aside from using them to capture students’ responses to literature, they replicate traditional storybooks but add multimedia effects to support student under-standing of the literature (Shamir & Korat, 2006). 
Cambourne (1998) tells us that the critical element of a child’s learning is engagement being involved through inter-actions.  As students navigate the computer and interact with the stories and retellings based on electronic books, they are practicing sequencing events, identifying main ideas within a variety of text structures and making personal connections to the story elements. 

 

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