Semester
Fall
Date of Graduation
2008
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Type
EdD
College
College of Education and Human Services
Department
Curriculum & Instruction/Literacy Studies
Committee Chair
Steven Rinehart.
Abstract
Teachers and researchers continue to seek ways to build positive attitudes about reading and effective ways to promote robust reading interests. Some schools have implemented the reading software Accelerated Reader (AR) with these goals in mind. The purpose of the present study was to analyze the effects of long-term participation in the activities of AR on reading attitude and reading pursuit. Participants were 206 eleventh-grade students from the mid-Atlantic Region. The Estes Attitude Scale (Estes, 1969) and Title Recognition Test (Pavonetti, Brimmer, and Cipielewski, 2000) served as measures of reading attitude and reading pursuit, respectively. Data analyses indicated no effects for AR participation on these measures, regardless of participation duration. Ten percent of the students also participated in a follow-up conversational interview focusing on reading motivation and interests. Comments from AR students suggested that their reading pursuit during AR activities was linked to the program's extrinsic rewards. The AR students were also more likely to rate their reading ability by their AR grade equivalency scores, as they often referred to their scores when describing themselves as readers.
Recommended Citation
Boucher, Heather E., "Participation in Accelerated Reader programs and reading pursuit in 11th grade" (2008). Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports. 2857.
https://researchrepository.wvu.edu/etd/2857