Theory and Practice for Engagement and its Consequences

• In Event: Roundtable Session 24
  In Roundtable Session: Reading Practices

Abstract

This design experiment, now in its fourth year, was initially intended to determine the factors that facilitate reading engagement for all 8th grade students in one school. Students became engaged as readers, read more, and performed better on standardized tests. But engaging activity also led to more meaningful relationships with peers and expanded academic, social and identity development. Students report significant shifts toward agentive self-narratives (talking about themselves and their decision-making in active, consequential ways) both in reading, and in their personal lives, along with changes in behavior and relationships both inside and outside the classroom. This change in practice and student experiences has broadened our understanding of engagement, as well as its consequences.

Authors

• Gay Ivey, James Madison University

• Peter H. Johnston, University at Albany - SUNY