Ms. Lane’s 6th grade class at O’Connell Middle School consisted of 25 students who participated in the book clubs, and 18 students who were IRB permissioned. Therefore, qualitative data was only analyzed on the 18 participants, 7 males and 11 females. Ms. Lane’s students were the second group at O’Connell Middle School to participate in book club during their 1st period for 15-20 minutes. They met towards the end of 1st period after Ms. Peterson’s class.
MGMRP assessment. Students in Ms. Lane’s class completed the MGMRP pre- assessment. Students had a mean score of 71 out of a possible 122, which was in the moderate scoring range. An item analysis was completed to identify items of high and low motivation. Table 4.15 depicts the items of high and low motivation.
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Table 4.15
MGMRP Item Analysis for Ms. Lane’s Class
Higher Motivation Survey Items Lower Motivation Survey Items #2 *I have trouble figuring out new words.
This sounds nothing like me.
(Likert) (M = 4.40)
#10 *I would enjoy the book more if there were no assignments. This sounds very much like me.
(Likert) (M = 1.72) #18 I’m a good reader and I enjoy
reading.
(Multiple Choice) (M = 3.12)
#22 I’m very particular about what I read. (Continuum) (M = 1.75)
#4 *I think reading is boring. This sounds nothing like me.
(Likert) (M = 3.86)
#23 We never get to choose the books we read at school.
(Continuum) (M = 2.00) #6 *If a book seems too difficult to read, I
won’t try to read it. This sounds nothing like me.
(Likert) (M = 3.81)
#1 I choose reading over other activities.
This sounds nothing like me.
(Likert) (M = 2.21)
#14 *Others will judge me if I talk about books. This sounds nothing like me.
(Likert) (M = 3.65)
#9 The assignments we do with books help me to think more deeply about them.
This sounds nothing like me.
(Likert) (M = 2.37)
Note. Higher motivation items are arranged from higher to lower mean score. Lower motivation items are arranged from lower to higher mean score.
*Reverse-scored items.
A review of the item analysis from Ms. Lane’s class indicated that students did possess a positive self-concept of themselves as readers and mostly valued reading. Item #2 (I do not have trouble figuring out new words) and item #6 (Even if a book seems too difficult, I’ll still try to read it) allude to student’s increased self-concept of themselves as readers. Additionally, item #14 (Others won’t judge me if I talk about books) suggests that students feel a level of comfort in their abilities to read and discuss books in class.
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Similar to Ms. Peterson’s class, item #9 (The assignments we do with books do not help me to think more deeply about them) and item #10 (I would enjoy the book more if there were no assignments) specify that students have a strong aversion to assignments
associated with reading.
Similar to Ms. Peterson’s class, Ms. Lane’s class also experienced time constraints during the end of the year, including student standardized testing and pre- planned school field trips. Therefore, Ms. Lane also opted out of the third iteration of the book club cycle and did not complete the MGMRP post-assessment. However, similar to Ms. Peterson, the researcher believes that the lack of post-assessment scores from Ms. Lane’s class is in itself data that alludes to time constraints experienced in the classroom throughout the year.
Teacher-initiated enhancements to the instructional model. In order to adapt the instructional model to best suit each teacher’s individual needs, teachers were
encouraged to enhance the lesson to meet their needs. Similar to Ms. Peterson, Ms. Lane also added a component to the book clubs in order to have more products to assess students and provide more grades. Ms. Lane had each student create a series of Google slides to accompany their book review and provide a visual representation of their book and their review. Students presented their Google slides during class.
Inhibiting/Enhancing Factors for Subunits 1 & 2
Inhibiting factor: Time. It was observed that several students finished their books within the first one to two weeks of getting it. While this was an exciting finding, the researcher noticed an increase of disengagement in the book club discussions from
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students who had finished their books early. “I already finished my book, can I read another one?” [Ms. Peterson’s Class_2/1/18_Field Notes]. The following conversation took place between three students in the VBC. The post was initiated by Harry P. with two students responding to the initial post. All names used are pseudonyms created by the students.
Harry P. to Fever Code Feb 15, 2018, 1:05 PM: what page are you guys on? Elsylum L. Feb 20, 2018, 8:45 AM: I finished the book in the first week of getting it.
James R. Feb 22, 2018, 8:16 AM: i finished it too
(Fever Code_2/15/18 - 2/22/18_VBC)
Adaptation: Decreased time from book club cycle 1. Therefore, as an adaptation to the instructional model, the researcher decided to decrease the amount of time students spent in their book clubs from five weeks (cycle 1) to four week (cycle 2). This adaptation was eventually reversed during the middle of cycle 2 from four weeks back to five weeks to accommodate student testing, field trips, etc. See Table 4.12 for a more accurate timeline of when adaptations occurred.
Findings for the Subunit at Shylo Elementary School: Ms. James’ Classroom
Ms. James’ 6th grade class at Shylo Elementary School consisted of 24 students who participated in the book clubs. All 24 students were IRB permissioned, therefore qualitative data was analyzed on all 24 participants, 13 males and 11 females. Although Ms. James held her ELA class later in the afternoon, Shylo Elementary School is a
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kindergarten-through-sixth grade school and Ms. James had the same students for most of the day as their ‘homeroom’ teacher. These students switched classes for math, science, and attended “Specials” daily. Students generally have six periods per class day with about 65 minutes devoted to ELA. However, Ms. James had more flexibility with her schedule considering she kept the same group of students for the majority of the school day.
Inhibiting/Enhancing Factors
Inhibiting/Enhancing factor(s): Collaboration/Choice. As previously
mentioned, students were expected to complete a review of their book at the completion of each book club iteration using a researcher-created Wix website for students to create their book reviews and access the book reviews written by students in the other subunits. Unfortunately, the Wix website was a platform the Lakeland School District did not allow access to as a part of their internet privacy protection policy. Therefore students in Ms. James’ classroom were unable to access or post book reviews using the Wix website.
Adaptation: Creation of the Google Site. To mitigate this problem, the researcher created a second website for students to use using a Google Sites platform
(https://sites.google.com/g.clemson.edu/6thgradebookclub/home). The Google Sites
website linked to a Google form where students could leave a 1-5 rating of their book, a headline or title for their review, a summary of their book, a justification for their review, and a recommendation for their book. Figure 4.16 is a screenshot of the homepage for the 6th Grade Book Club Book Reviews website created on Google Sites. Figure 4.17 is a