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27889_ODYSSEY SPRING 2004** 4/22/14 12:58 PM Page 26 How Can We Motivate Struggling Latino Melissa Herzig, EdD, is the education and research translation Adolescents to Read? manager for Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2) and associate director for the educational neuroscience By Melissa Herzig PhD program at Gallaudet University. She is responsible for developing and leading Motivation: A Missing Key assessments and When I worked as a teacher of deaf students, it was hard enough getting evaluations of resources within VL2 and for teens to read even when they were good readers. My school was a magnet working with schools high school just five minutes from the border of Mexico, where 95 percent around the country, of the students were Latinos. The deaf students’ experiences with languages facilitating two-way may involve using American Sign Language (ASL), a sign language they communication between researchers and may have learned in their home country, English, and Spanish. I wanted to educators. Herzig learn more about the struggling Latino adolescent students’ attitudes received her bachelor’s towards reading, especially those with varied language background degree in biology from experiences, and if their attitudes towards the target language, English, may Gallaudet University and her master’s degree have been part of the reason they reported that they did not like reading. and EdD from the University of California, I could see their frustration. Whenever my students were prompted to read, they San Diego (UCSD). She avoided it. They complained that they were tired or that they wanted to catch up with previously worked at the friends. They depended heavily on me or another teacher to explain what the book said. Salk Institute, San Diego Research has shown that motivation plays an important role in literacy development, State University, and at and motivation leads to differences in achievement within Latino families regardless of UCSD as a scholar socioeconomic status or parents’ educational background (Baker, Afflerbach, & Reinking, researcher; she also 1996; Guthrie & Wigfield, 1997). taught deaf and hearing Surely their frustration with English print was a barrier to motivation, and motivation students at Chula Vista was critical to reading—and reading was critical; it was the key to the rest of their High School in Chula education. I expected my students to read and I had to hold them to that expectation, but Vista, California. Herzig how could I motivate them? How could I induce my students to want to read? I was welcomes questions and anxious to find a way. I began by exploring motivation itself. It was so important. comments about this Without motivation, the students had much less chance of developing literacy. article at Melissa.Herzig @gallaudet.edu. Photos courtesy of Melissa Herzig 26 ODYSSEY 2014 27889_ODYSSEY SPRING 2004** 4/22/14 12:58 PM Page 27 The Definition of Motivation (cid:129)Diverse texts al. (2007). Rather than a closed-ended THE MOVING TARGET OF MOTIVATION (cid:129)Intensive writing survey, I changed the format of this Guthrie and Wigfield (2000) define questionnaire to conduct semi- motivation as “the cluster of personal (cid:129)Assessment (formative and structured interviews by asking each goals, values, and beliefs with regard to summative) of students and programs student for further explanation of his or topics, processes, and outcomes of her answers; I wanted to learn more (cid:129)Extended time for literacy reading that an individual possesses” (p. about the students’ self-concepts, their 404). This is not the same as having an attitudes about themselves as readers, Talking with Students interest, for one can have an interest in and about reading. The third and final Believing that information about reading but choose not to read. Factors set involved open-ended interview motivation lay in the beliefs, experience, such as background experiences, questions in the AMRP. These and backgrounds of my students, I emotions, and purpose are important. questions focus on narrative reading, interviewed four of them—three females Put succinctly, motivation is what informational reading, and general (one ninth and two tenth graders) and makes a person want to read. reading, and are designed to provide one male (a twelfth grader). All four insights into students’ reading students had learned ASL during their KEY ELEMENTS experiences, attitudes, and motivations. elementary years. With the exception of Biancarosa and Snow (2004) focused on I added several questions about issues one mother, none of their families knew motivation and self-directed learning as involving deaf people, such as questions English or sign language; all of the key elements in successful reading focused on closed captions, television, families used Spanish at home. programs designed to improve and texting. I asked my students three sets of adolescents’ reading. They noted that an The AMRP is usually administered as questions. The first set was about their effective reading program would include a paper-and-pencil survey, but I signed background and experiences with the the following elements: each question with each of the four languages they use. The second set was a (cid:129)Direct, explicit comprehension possible answers and asked students to survey of questions with multiple- instruction make a choice. The interviews were choice answers using the Adolescent videotaped and checked for clarification. (cid:129)Effective instructional principles Motivation to Read Profile (AMRP) as embedded in context modified for adolescents by Pitcher et 2014 ODYSSEY 27 27889_ODYSSEY SPRING 2004** 4/22/14 12:58 PM Page 28 The Findings natural interest and enthusiasm—as a good school reader is not desirable ATTITUDES TOWARD THEIR LANGUAGES reading. Reading for my students was socially for these students. Two of my Given the frustrations of so many deaf defined exclusively as an activity that students reported that they viewed the students with understanding how to use occurred in the classroom, and their students who are good school readers as printed language, and knowing that motivation flagged when they arrived at “boring” and “nerdy.” My students Anglo deaf signers tend to include school, where the activity that they rarely discussed the required school negative school experiences with classified as reading occurred. Therefore, readings outside of school. They said languages as a part of their life story as they did not classify themselves as reading, meaning the reading they did bilinguals (Tompkins, 2000), I had readers because “readers” are people who at school, was not interesting and not expected my students to report that they read well at school, and “reading” is a relevant to their lives. devalued English. I was amazed, school-based activity. In addition, being therefore, when my Latino deaf students reported that they value English quite highly—along with Spanish and ASL. What Teachers Can Do Attitudes toward language can influence students’ sense of self, their feelings about their community, and their CHANGING THE DEFINITION AND ATTITUDES willingness to use the language (Meltzer & Hamann, 2004; Cook-Gumperz, By Melissa Herzig 1981; Schumann, 1978). Therefore, the students’ positive attitudes are The findings imply that to change the students’ attitude toward reading and toward noteworthy as they may positively affect themselves as readers, the students need to broaden their definition of reading. They their willingness to read. need to know that being a “good reader” doesn’t mean being good at an activity that is In fact, my findings suggested that restricted to the classroom. these students were not resistant toward This is where the teacher becomes important. We need to recognize the various reading at all. Reflecting the attitudes literacy engagements that the students participate in outside of the classroom. This found in children of immigrants (Valdes, recognition prompts us, as teachers, to broaden our scope, our strategies, and the texts 1996), all of my students acknowledged we assign. In doing this, we can help maintain the students’ motivation and enable that reading and writing in English is a them to fulfill our high expectations. challenge for them and that they get Here are some suggestions: frustrated at times, but none showed disdain either for the language or for (cid:129)Do a reading inventory. Help students be more aware of the reading they do reading it. outside of the classroom. Note how they read for multiple purposes. This helps students view themselves as readers. READING: IT’S A SOCIAL ACTIVITY My findings showed that my students’ (cid:129)Expand the scope of acceptable reading material in the classroom. Include motivation to read seemed to be highly materials from popular culture, lyrics from popular songs, the Internet, and magazines. social. Their motivation grew from (cid:129)Promote the social aspects of reading. Encourage students to read in social purposes and varied depending on environments in which they can share information with friends. For example, select with whom they were reading, what the hot-selling books for teens and discuss these books in a literature circle or book they were reading, and their reason for club. Allow students to work in well-monitored pairs or small groups. reading. Opportunities to share texts with family and friends played a big (cid:129)Keep an eye out for upcoming movies based on books. Assign the book on role. The students also reported which the upcoming movie is based and give students incentives to complete the participation in many out-of-school book before the movie is in theaters. The students can then compare and contrast reading activities. Further, they reported the book and the movie as a classroom activity. enjoying these reading activities. When (cid:129)Identify and discuss vocabulary before assigning reading. In my study, students reading meant watching TV shows with said that vocabulary discussion that occurred before reading text was helpful. closed captions, reading gossip magazines about stars and sharing them with (cid:129)Use narratives or short stories as teaching strategies. Narratives capture the friends, texting with friends, and using students’ attention, enable them to grasp the nuances of vocabulary, and help them the Internet, the students relished it. anticipate and predict what the text will say. However, the students did not classify these activities—for which they held 28 ODYSSEY 2014 27889_ODYSSEY SPRING 2004** 4/22/14 12:58 PM Page 29 By reading comfortable with narratives because they aloud, the use less technical language. However, teachers did with the support of vocabulary review ASL and English not sign word for and background information, the word but read the text in English and students can be encouraged to read INSTRUCTIONAL METHOD INFLUENCES signed it in ASL. When this occurs, the expository academic text. ASL provided MOTIVATION During the interviews, the students concept in print remains the same, but access to content for many students. shared what helped them be motivated ASL grammatical structure replaces Pairing ASL with reading instruction about reading in class, and their answers English grammatical structure. The and using it to ensure access to content showed that they enjoyed reading more students, regardless of their age, enjoyed material enhances the opportunities for at school when they received support a good read-aloud, and reading aloud in students to learn and understand the from teachers. Also, they enjoyed the this manner should not necessarily stop material; for students who are not fluent narrative or visual aspects of what they after elementary school. in reading, it is critical. read. This finding is important as it The reasons for the students’ These findings and the deaf Latino shows that although they are struggling frustrations included use of the English students in this study gave me and other readers, they still show possibilities of vocabulary that they did not understand teachers a key to success in supporting being motivated to read. and lack of narrative connection. These their acquisition of better reading skills. One said motivation was stimulated factors can adversely affect motivation The key is what enables them to perform when the teachers guided students with for struggling readers. Presenting to the best of their ability and to live up their reading assignment by reading background information and vocabulary to our high expectations. It is our aloud in ASL at the beginning of the review to build on their prior knowledge responsibility to accept and use this key. lesson before letting them read the rest. seems to be essential. The students are Meltzer, J., & Hamann, E. T. (2004). Meeting the literacy References development needs of adolescent English language learners Baker, L., Afflerbach, P., & Reinking, D. (Eds.). (1996). through content area learning. Part two: Focus on classroom Developing engaged readers in school and home communities. Mahwah, teaching and learning strategies. Providence, RI: The Education NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc. Alliance at Brown University. Biancarosa, G., & Snow, C. (2004). Reading next: A vision for Pitcher, S. M., Albright, L. K., DeLaney, C. J., Walker, N. T., action and research in middle and high school literacy. New York: Seunarinesingh, K., Mogge, S., et al. (2007, February). Carnegie Corporation of New York and Alliance for Excellent Assessing adolescents’ motivation to read. Journal of Adolescent & Education. Adult Literacy, 50(5), 378-396. Cook-Gumperz, J. (1981). Persuasive talk: The social Schumann, J. H. (1978). The acculturation model of second organization of children’s talk. In J. Green & C. Wallat (Eds.), language acquisition. In R. C. Gingras (Ed.), Second language Ethnography and language in educational settings(p. 25-50). acquisition and foreign language teaching(pp. 27-50). Arlington, Norwood, NJ: Ablex. VA: Center for Applied Linguistics. Gerner de Garcia, B. (1993). Addressing the needs of Hispanic Tompkins, L. M. (2000). Deaf adults’ perspectives on their deaf children. In K. Christensen & G. Delgado (Eds.), bilingualism in American Sign Language and English. Doctoral Multicultural issues in deafness(p. 69-90). White Plains, NY: dissertation, Gallaudet University, Washington, D.C. Longman. Valdes, G. (1996). Con respeto: Bridging the distances between Guthrie, J. T., & Wigfield, A. (Eds.). (1997). Reading culturally diverse families and schools. New York: Teachers College engagement: motivating readers through integrated instruction. Press. Newark, DE: International Reading Association. Resource Guthrie, J. T., & Wigfield, A. (2000). Engagement and motivation in reading. In M. L. Kamil, P. B. Mosenthal, P. D. Gambrell, L. B., Palmer, B. M., Codling, R. M., & Mazoni, S. Pearson, & R. Barr (Eds.), Handbook of reading research(Vol. III, A. (1996). Assessing motivation to read. The Reading Teacher, pp. 403-422). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 49, 518-533. 2014 ODYSSEY 29