Resourceful Research
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It saddens and distresses me when I hear students using words such as can’t, won’t, struggling, difficult, no help, too dumb, or even feeling stupid when talking about their experiences with reading. Students displaying negative attitudes toward reading are quite disturbing for teachers because we love and appreciate what reading has to offer. In addition, and possibly even more importantly, we understand that the ability to read and comprehend opens a whole world of opportunities to everyone. Having students in middle and high school classrooms who struggle to read and make sense of their content area textbooks and possess a strong dislike for reading is heartbreaking and frustrating. Even more frustrating is the fact that many of those same students then enter their post-secondary education unprepared for the rigor of college work, bringing their negativity towards all aspects of reading into the classroom, still expecting to be successful.
When I was teaching language arts and English in middle school and high school, I saw many students struggle to read and comprehend textbooks, and these were not just the second language learners. Some-where there was a breakdown or a gap in instruction---whether during the learning-to-read or the reading-to-learn grades---or maybe the home literacy environment was lacking in materials, instruction, or support. During that part of my career is when I became interested in learning how to teach students to read. Halfway through my graduate studies in literacy, I began teaching developmental reading and English at the community college level and saw similar students, only more grown-up now, still experiencing the same struggles with reading. Hearing students express such negative attitudes about reading and seeing them struggle to comprehend pre-college level texts caused me to
wonder if there was a connec-
tion, if one factor was the
cause of the other factor.
If that was the case, was
it possible for students
enrolled in a develop-
mental reading course to
experience a change in their attitudes toward reading and thus a change in their reading achievement? I also wondered what specific aspects of reading were the culprits---the origins of the problems. Those questions led me to conduct a causal-comparative study to examine changes in students’ reading attitude and achievement.
Literature Review
Whether the attitude is positive or negative depends upon the types of experiences that have been accumulated over the years. Partin and Hendricks (2002) acknowledged a general understanding that having a positive attitude toward reading will lead to positive practices, and will, in turn, lead to better reading abilities. A variety of factors that have been identified include the literacy environment at home that affects the early childhood reading experiences, early education with its reading instruction, and the psychological aspect connected with the ability to read (Partin & Hendricks, 2002; Smith, 1990; Tarelli & Stubbe, 2010). According to Shaw and Disney (2012), “Affective characteristics that readers of all ages bring to the task are among the intrinsic factors impacting literacy acquisi-tion” (p. 158). Striving to understand those affective characteristics of struggling readers will help provide valuable information to teachers as they work to change negative attitudes into positive ones.
Attitude and Achievement in a Developmental College Reading Class
by Candace Landreth