A Quasi-Experimental Study of Engaged Reading in Engagement-Focused Versus Traditional English Classrooms

• In Event: Effective Literacy Interventions in Elementary and Middle School

Abstract

This paper reports a quasi-experimental study of the implications of an instructional focus on engaged reading for reading engagement among 8th graders and for the relationships among engaged reading and personal, social, and moral development. Students in engagement-focused classrooms read more, more often made friends over a book, were more comfortable talking with people they did not yet know well, were less bored, and less lonely than comparison students who experienced a more conventional English curriculum with engaged reading not an instructional priority. This study expands understandings the about the breadth of development afforded by engagement and particularly about the socio-emotional nature of engaged reading and its related consequences.

Authors

• Gay Ivey, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Peter H. Johnston, University at Albany - SUNY