Via Scoop.it – Student Learning through School Libraries
“It appears that struggling readers in middle school understand that engagement is needed for reading success, and 21st-century technology may hold a key to that, says the co-author of a new middle-school reading study.”
“Study findings were published in the International Journal of Applied Science and Technology as “Reluctant Readers in Middle School: Successful Engagement with Text Using the E-Reader,” authored by Williams-Rossi with three other researchers, all from Fort Worth, Texas: Twyla Miranda, Texas Wesleyan University; Kary A. Johnson, The Reading Connection; and Nancy McKenzie, Tarrant Community College. A link to the study is at http://tinyurl.com/d3b6avw.
“It’s inevitable that e-reader technology will enter school classrooms,” said the authors. “Our study presents reasons e-readers may be beneficial, in particular, to reluctant readers in middle grades.”
Previous research in the field has shown that upper elementary and middle school students tend to read less than younger students because of time spent with their friends and in other activities. Also, these same students, particularly boys, may not value reading as much as they did when they were younger. One study found that most students indicated reading is a “boring way to spend time.”
Among those students, research has shown that low-skilled readers have trouble starting, continuing and finishing a book, and that they are stymied by vocabulary and reading comprehension challenges. Skilled readers, on the other hand, enjoy books.
Researchers have suggested that technological gadgets, enlarged text and a more favorable environment might encourage reluctant readers. For those reasons the authors pursued a study to see how reluctant readers would respond to e-readers.”
