Parks+Teacher+Research+Project

= ** Teacher Research Project ** =

**__ Rationale __**
For years, many English teachers have resorted to giving their students reading quizzes in an effort to ensure that they read the texts that they are assigned. There are a variety of legitimate reasons why teachers want their students to read the text – it can lead to more active class discussions and allow students to think critically about themes and character development. However, a major problem of these weekly, multiple choice reading quizzes is that the questions can often be factual, rather than inferential. In turn, this can lead to a belief amongst students that the emphasis and reason the text is being taught is more factual than inferential in nature.

Administering weekly reading quizzes is a form of extrinsic motivation, meaning that it is performed in order to attain an outcome or reward, which in this case is a good grade. However, this can often create animosity in students toward the text because they feel as though they are being forced to read it. On the other hand, teachers who administer the reading quizzes will argue that, without the reading quizzes, students would not read the texts on their own. If the students are right, how can teachers get students to both read a text and enjoy it? If the teachers are right, how do can they determine whether students have actually read and thought about the text?

**__ Review __**
The proposal question for this assignment arose from a discussion I had with Mr. Warner, a language arts teacher at Clarkston Senior High School who teaches two tenth grade Pre-International Baccalaureate English and two twelfth grade American Literature classes. This is Mr. Warner’s first year teaching a Pre-IB English class and the first year that he has begun to administer weekly reading quizzes to make sure that the students are actually doing the assigned readings. These weekly reading quizzes consist of fifteen multiple choice questions. The first part of the quiz consists of eight factual questions that require students to recall plot developments and character information. The second part of the quiz consists of seven inferential questions that require students to analyze a passage from the reading in terms of form, content, and style.

The second part of the quiz is practice for the IB exam that the students will take if they are admitted to the IB program. At the beginning of the year, the students were given weekly reading quizzes that consisted of only these practice IB questions. However, Mr. Warner observed that many of the students were not performing well on these quizzes and that the students were not actively participating in class discussions. He suspected that this was the result of the students were not doing the reading. Consequently, he decided to add questions that students would have no trouble answering if they had done the assigned readings. In addition to ensuring that students would actually do the reading, Mr. Warner wanted to give students the opportunity to boost their quiz grades.

In the article "‘If Only They Would Do Their Homework:’ Promoting Self-Regulation in High School English Classes", the authors discuss several methods that teachers can use to promote self-regulation in their students. In order for these methods to be successful, teachers need to establish a routine in the classroom, which can include giving weekly reading quizzes and daily assignments. In fact, the authors assert that “by giving weekly quizzes, students can monitor their self-regulation development”(12) because students are able to see their progress over time. However, in order for quizzes to benefit students, the questions must require students to use higher level thinking skills. In other words, students must be able to think critically about a text, not simply recall facts about it. Therefore, although this article advocates that weekly reading quizzes can be an effective method in monitoring student comprehension and developing critical thinking skills, it stresses the importance of developing appropriate questions.

In his article, “Enhancing Response to Literature: A Matter of Changing Old Habits” Larry Johannessen argues that English teachers who administer reading quizzes mainly do so because of habit. In other words, many English teachers give reading quizzes because their teachers gave them reading quizzes and so on. This also means that they administer quizzes because that is what students, parents, and administrators expect them to do, because that is how they were taught as well. Johannessen firmly advocates that reading quizzes are not necessary in getting students to do the assigned reading. Instead, Johannessen argues that teachers can intrinsically motivate students to read by selecting literature that is meaningful and relevant, utilizing introductory activities, and giving them time to read in class. However, getting teachers to do this is often difficult because it requires them to move out of their educational comfort zones.

**__ Method __**
In order to discern whether administering weekly, multiple choice reading quizzes would be an appropriate motivational tool for my students, I would develop an experiment for one unit, where I would be able to compare student performances in two classes. In one class, I would simply assign the readings and proceed with all of the regular assignments. In the other class, I would give the students weekly reading quizzes. In order to evaluate the effectiveness of the reading quizzes, I would compare the students’ performances on formative and summative assessments in each of the classes. In addition, I will keep track of students’ participation in class discussions and keep detailed notes on what was talked about in the class discussions. I would also give the students in both classes a questionnaire regarding the readings. After the unit was finished, I would compare the performances in each class and draw conclusions from the results.

= ** Annotated Bibliography ** =

1. Johannessen, Larry R. “Enhancing Response to Literature: A Matter of Changing Old Habits.” // The English Journal // 83.7 (1994): 66-70.

In this article, Johannessen argues that habit and tradition are the main reasons many English teachers give their students reading quizzes. Johannessen believes that teachers can fight this habit by providing students with time in-class to read, selecting literature that is meaningful and relatable, engaging students in motivational introductory activities, and teaching them interpretation strategies.

2. Cooper, Jewell E., Suzanne Horn, and David B. Strahan. "‘If Only They Would Do Their Homework:’ Promoting Self-Regulation in High School English Classes." //The High School// // Journal // 88.3 (2005): 10-25.

This article discusses instructional methods that secondary education teachers can use to help their students become self-regulators. The article features a case study in which several English teachers implemented self-regulation interventions into one of their classrooms. Students in the experimental classrooms found themselves more interested in their reading and performed better on quizzes with higher level thinking questions.