The Missouri Reader Vol. 36, Issue 1 | Page 45

competencies for other factors that may cause
them to ―struggle‖ with reading: lack of selfconfidence, low motivation, and social
marginalization (Guthrie & Davis, 2003; Guthrie
& Wigfield, 2000; Moje, Young, Reedence, &
Moore, 2000). A mixture of these factors:
cognitive competencies, self-efficacy, motivation,
and social interaction can lead a child from being
engaged with reading (Guthrie & Davis, 2003).
Children‘s self-perceptions and reading
attitudes are among the key factors that may
impact their motivation to read. Generally,
children with positive perceptions and attitudes
are more motivated to read. Therefore,
understanding what students believe about
reading and their perceptions of themselves as
readers powerfully affects learning and the
teaching of reading (Burke, 1980; McKenna &
Kear, 1990). Personal interest is another
important factor (Guthrie & Greaney, 1991;
Schiefele, 1991; Worthy, 1996). When children
are encouraged to read books that are interesting
to them, they will automatically spend more time
in reading and ultimately their comprehension
may improve. Accessibility of their favorite
reading materials is important too. However,
students may not always find what they like to
read in school, especially for boys, low-achieving
readers, and students with low reading attitude
scores (Worthy, Moorman & Turner, 1999).
According to Worthy et al. (1999), some of the
low-accessible reading materials include popular
teen magazines, comics, and cartoons. Famous
children‘s book author Jon Scieszka (2005)
asserted that we need to include boy-friendly
nonfiction, humor, comics, graphic novels,
action- adventure, magazines, websites, and
newspapers in school reading, and let boys know
that all these materials count as reading.
All in all, the research on motivation, readers‘
attitudes toward reading and self-perceptions,
reading interests, and accessibility of favorite
reading materials prompted us to seek further
understandings of the boy struggling readers who
came to our university reading clinic. We hope
meaningful and effective reading instruction will
unfold once we hear them tell us their stories.

Methods
Participants
Participants of this study were six boys (fourth
graders or above) whose parents enrolled them in
our university reading clinic either during the fall
semester of 2010 or spring of 2011. We chose
fourth grade and up because this age group is
associated with the NAEP results. This age group
also has a better metacognitive understanding of
reading and is able to articulate their beliefs and
interests about reading. The participants
represented a wide range of ethnic, cultural, and
socioeconomic backgrounds. All of them were
viewed by their parents to have issues with
reading comprehension. The parents hoped the
clinic would help their children improve in this
area. Below is brief background information
about the participants based on their clinic
applications. All names are pseudonyms.
James is an 8th grader. He receives fairly good
grades in reading (B+), but his mother wants him
to be prepared for high school, and to improve
reading comprehension and reading test taking
skills. Kyle is in 6th grade. He is diagnosed with
ADHD and dysgraphia. His mother hopes that
the clinic will help him with comprehension,
memory skills after reading, and writing skills.
Nathan, a 4th grader, is reported to ―struggle with
reading and comprehension.‖ His scores in
reading are Ds and Fs. He is also diagnosed with
ADHD and receives pull-out small group
instruction at school. Noah, also a 4th grader, has
an Individualized Education Program (IEP) at
school. His recent IEP indicates he is on a 2nd
grade reading level. Dan is a 5th grader, who
according to his mother, struggles in reading and
sometimes does not understand what he reads.
Ben is in 6th grade. His mother says he is doing
well in school but he struggles a bit with 5th grade
reading comprehension.

Data Collection Procedures and Data
Analysis
To achieve the goals of this study, which are to
understand boy struggling readers‘ perceptions of
© The Missouri Reader, 36 (1) p.45