Framework as a Process: Conceptualizing a Revitalizing Independent Reading Pedagogy for Secondary Teachers & Students.

• In Event: Crafting a Conceptual Framework: An Epistemological Process to Guide Research and Practice

Abstract

Objectives. Independent reading (IR) is often considered essential for elementary and some middle classrooms, but it is also used for enrichment for secondary students (Van Bergen & Vasalampi, 2020; Jago, 2019). The phenomenon of aliterate students- those who can read but choose not to is becoming increasingly frequent (Manuel, 2012; Nielsen, 2016; Jago, 2019). Young people who opt out of reading experiences do so for many reasons, and what motivates them to disengage matters based on educators' approach to future literacy experiences. IR in secondary classrooms can positively impact students’ motivation to read and their reader identities.
Study Perspectives. IR practices have similar core components but differing values and enactments. Some IR frameworks lack an overarching ideology or a unified sense of purpose that permeates through independent reading pedagogy and into practice. Without a guiding principle for IR, teachers may find their work inconsistent in implementation or varying in efficacy. This IR framework is grounded in genuine joy and care for students and reading and informed by Noddings' (1984) care ethics, which value relationships as fundamental to humanity, and constructivism—how learners construct knowledge. The framework's genuine joy and care component refocuses reading on the reader instead of the task/outcome.
Conceptual Framework. The theoretical lenses grounding this framework are constructivism and the transactional theory of reading (Ratna & Tron, 2015; Rosenblatt, 1938). IR appreciates that knowledge is constructed through learners' experiences and interactions with the world through their choice of books. Adolescent readers take in new information and make meaning using their attitudes, beliefs, and experiences. Because IR is an active process, the reader constantly makes meaning from the story, placing the student at the center of learning rather than the process or outcome. According to Rosenblatt's transactional theory, the reader and the text are essential in meaning-making (Rosenblatt, 1938).
Method of Inquiry. Developing this conceptual framework began with understanding and differentiating between theoretical and conceptual frameworks and then applying the knowledge to create an implementable conceptual framework for research work through multiple iterations that focused on an intervention to dissuade aliterate practices, analyzing other effective reading models, which resulted in five core components The final iteration depicts Time, Choice, Access, and Teacher Aid as concentric circles, outlined in a unified color corresponding to the Genuine Joy & Care arrow (see Figure 1).
Data Sources. The IR framework's core components stemmed from analyzing essential professional development books (Kittle, 2013; Miller, 2013) and calls for renewed dedication to independent reading, specifically with secondary students. They also situate this call in the context of what we have lost in literacy learning over the past few decades due to an overemphasis on testing, lack of authentic reading, and the intensive over-analysis of literature (Gallagher, 2009).
Discussion & Conclusion. The IR provides a pedagogy and suggested practices for K12 English teachers, teacher preparation programs, in-service teachers interested in IR professional learning, and districts’ professional development programming. Educators who incorporate IR can remedy the long history of adolescents’ disengagement with reading and bolster students’ reading access to diverse authors, stories, and texts (ALA, 2024).

Author

• Maggie Bryant, Baylor University